Pioneer Day AKA Our Last Day of Summer Break!

One thing I have always wanted to do but forget about it every year, is to check out all of the Days of 47 (Pioneer Day) floats at the float preview party. This year I made a point to plan on it finally! Mike had the day off (the day before Pioneer Day), so we met up with my sister. The girls were in heaven with animal balloons, face paint, and beautiful floats.....

Ashton and Joshua were not that impressed with any of that, and their fun with Joshua's sword balloon was very short lived!

 
The girls decided they want to go every year. We just might have to leave the boys behind from now on, though! :)

All the husbands had to work on the 24th, so my sister and I started off the day taking the kids to the park. There was supposed to be all kinds of fun free stuff to do there, but when we got there it turned out you had to buy tickets for pretty much everything that we saw, or at least what our kids wanted to do. So, we scratched that, and let the kids play on the playground for as long as we could handle the heat!

 It was so hot, Joshua did more than get a drink, he soaked his face in it! That kid cracks me up!

 Then we decided that an air conditioned Harmons grocery store would be much more fun! With 5 kids?? What were we thinking?! But we had to get stuff for the BBQ at my parents' house later! Soon, we headed to my parents' where the kids got to cool off in their blowup water slide  and had our BBQ! After that, my dad pulled out the poppers! That was the extent of our fireworks, but the kids didn't seem to mind!

My goofy girl!

Jason had some "more exciting" poppers he had brought from Seattle from the indian reservation we used to always go to there!

Eva and her uncle Mike!

Joshua was getting a little bored until my dad taught him to throw the poppers at people! He loved that!! Not sure his mom did though.....

The reason for no good nighttime fireworks is because our kids had to go to bed before the sun went down to be ready to start school early the next day. I don't understand why they start school the day after a late night firework holiday, but it was sad to miss out on the fun. It still took the kids awhile to fall asleep that night because of all of the firework noise. We probably should have just joined in the fun anyway! But, luckily the kids were so excited for school the next day they didn't mind! Here they are all ready for their first day of 4th and 2nd grade! They both have really sweet, young teachers (Ashton's teacher is in my parents' singles ward where my dad is in the bishopric, so they know her well!), and Brayden and Ashton are both so excited for this new school year!

I really don't mind the kids starting school so early in the summer because of the track they are on. They only go to school for 3 weeks, and then they get 3 more weeks of summer in August going into September, so it's fun to have that to look forward to. Also, my kids are already in the swing of things in the new year of school at that point, so it's not hard to start back up again after that next break. We like it. A lot, actually. It works for us, especially since they both love school so much!

Davidson Family Reunion

I don't know why, but we hadn't had a family reunion with my mom's side of the family for 24 years!!! Sad, I know! Most of us have seen each other here and there, but nothing official, or all of us at the same time. I was excited when I found out we were finally doing one at my aunt Lisa's property in Hansen Idaho. Her and my uncle Willis have a beautiful log-style house with tons of land all around them. It is beautiful out there! The perfect place for a reunion! We had a great turnout too, we were only missing 3 - my stinker brother Trevor, and two of my cousins. We want to do this more often, so hopefully the others will come next time! Get ready for a picture overload!!!

This was hanging up at the reunion, our family chart!

And this picture was right next to it, us cousins way back when (minus Cameron who wasn't born for 2 more years!).....

Here's us now! D.J., Justin, Jared, Cameron, Me, Adrianne, Grandma & Grandpa, Joslin, Jason, and Jolene!

And what we made.....

 The original family.....(they cooperated for the picture worse than the kids I have to say, ha ha!)

Lisa, Mindy, Lynette (mom), Mike, Grandma and Grandpa Davidson

The girls.....

Four generations! I hadn't seen my grandma in 5 years. She has really bad health problems which have come in between me getting to see her. It's really hard and sad for me because we have always been so close. I even lived with her and my grandpa for a short time when I was little for health reasons. I love her so much, and it was such a sweet thing to finally get to see her again. I am so glad she felt well enough to make it!

Maybe it's because of the bond I have always had with my grandma, but there was an instant connection between her and my Brayden as well!

My mommy with her mommy!

Roasting marshmallows the first night.....

Cute Myla really got into it!

Cute Nora!

 The attention was quickly turned to something going on in the shed, the preparing of our dinner for the next day.....

Most of the kids were completely fascinated, while others (like my kids) were completely traumatized! Ashton kept saying, "I think I just threw up in my mouth a little." and, "I want to look away but I just can't!" Brayden, who already is borderline vegetarian, has decided to never eat meat again! Then the adults had a little too much fun with it - sorry for those animal lovers seeing this.....

Then it was karaoke time! My cute cousins Jolene and Joslin sang "Earl" by the Dixie Chicks. Couldn't help but relate the song to what was going on with the pig at the same time!! 

My mom's brother Mike and Sue!

The next morning we started the day checking out the nearby creek!

Ashton kept falling in and soon decided to call it quits. Oh my kids are so outdoorsy! Ha ha!

Then Mike took the kids to ride on a four wheeler for the first time! They loved it!!

Mike took them up a canyon with a beautiful view!

With Mike gone with the kids on the four wheeler, and the other men taking a hike with most of the other kids, some of us girls decided to go 45 minutes into town to do some shopping at Target! I loved having this little cutie as our shopping buddy! She is already at 2 years old a major fashionista!!

 

When we got back to the property, this giant slide was all set up for the kids to enjoy for hours of fun!

My cousin Joslin and her husband Derek planned a cute craft for the kids to do, to paint and decorate pet rocks!

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This is Ashton's first, and possibly last, experience using an outhouse! Brayden attempted it, but as soon as the door shut she had a panic attack and that was the end of that!

My aunt's dog was so sweet with everyone. She would literally make us pet her.

So glad these girls get to hang out all the time now! They are already best friends!

Same with these buddies!

That night my cousin Jolene and her husband Justin were in charge of some games!

They did "Newlywed Game" type games that were hilarious! The first one was for fathers and daughters. Mike won knowing the most about his daughter! So proud!

Then Ashton and I went (no pics) and he had to guess things about me. We lost. I need to teach Ashton some things about me! Ha ha! Then, it was the couples! This group went first. This is the women after asked how many boyfriends they had before getting married. Notice how hard they have to think and the counting of the fingers? My mom had the most with 15. Ha ha!

Then the younger couples - of course the newlyweds, my brother and Aubrey, won!

For dessert, my aunt put whole things of ice cream on several tables and let the kids put whatever they wanted on it, and they each got a spoon to go at it! How often in life will they get to do that?! Yeah, they loved it!

Ashton exclaiming, "This is the best thing that's ever happened to me!!!"

The next day was Sunday, and we ended the reunion with a devotional where we talked about family and our reunion. It was really spiritual and special. We have an amazing family and I'm so glad we got to do this after so many years. Hopefully we'll be able to do this a lot more often!