On
August 12 we hit the road for Las Vegas. My parents had rented out a nice house
and we were the first to arrive after them. Soon all my siblings, their spouses and my nephews
Dean and Reid were there. We swam in the pool, had a nice FHE and did “seminars.”
“Seminars” are when different people (at this reunion it was my parents and
each of my siblings) speak on a topic of interest to them for 45 minutes. I
spoke on Book of Mormon intertextuality and Janet did a hands-on lesson of how
to make Cheese balls. Guess which was the bigger hit? We seminars every night
and it was a highlight of the week.
Tuesday
was a super day! My parents rented a boat and we spent several hours on Lake
Mead. It was amazing. The water was really warm, and because the boat could
seat 10 (and there were 18 of us) there were constant opportunities to be on
the water, and when we weren’t, it was time to eat and relax. I had the best
time tubing I’ve had in years, maybe ever. Did crazy tube hopping with my
brothers and enjoyed riding with each of my kids. On the first ride of the day,
Katrina and I were leaning too far forward and the tube sank –I had to hold
Katrina up to keep her above the water. But she wasn’t too scarred and we all
had an awesome time.My parents aren't "water people" and they were great sports to go tubing with their grandkids (Katrina and I went down about 3 minutes after this picture was taken).
Wednesday
was more low-key – a little hike in Red Rocks and a trip to the park. We all
enjoyed swimming in the pool and socializing. Thursday was another great day …
we went to a magic show and a magic store. I enjoyed watching all the magic. I
love magic! While I didn’t think the Mac King show was quite as clean as it had
been billed, he was a great magician. I volunteered Lani and I to participate in a trick...while our version wasn't recorded, another version of it is online and you can check it out and be mystified!
A
surprise highlight was finding scorpions (Jeffrey took everyone on a scorpion hunt.
It was awesome!)
On
Friday we packed out and made the drive home. We had been gone for 20 days and
all in all the trip was really good. I think it’s great for us to get away, and always good to be back.
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