Reuniting...

..and it feels so good.

Our next major adventure over the summer took us west for a little reuniting.  The first stop was in Colorado to our favorite mountain escape--"Jack's house".  It's the perfect place for us to relax and for the kids to explore, 

 

 

climb,

 

swing,

 

eat,

(I made these is a sad attempt to try and make up for the birthday blunders up to Br a month after his actual birthday)

build,

 

and spend quality time with Aunt Wilma, Uncle Jack, and second cousins Matthew and Kelly.

From Colorado we hopped in the car and headed on a scenic drive into Utah.  

Our first stop was in Provo where we saw some dinosaurs, said "hi" to a friend, and where Br and where a very polite "sir" made Br and I realize we weren't college aged any more.

 

From there we headed to Aunt A's house (one of E's favorite places in UT) where we had a very pleasant reunion with a cousin of mine that I haven't seen in YEARS.

(no, Br doesn't wear glasses now)

Mr. E became instant BFFs with my cousin R's Mr. P as all the kids bonded over cousin B's huge bin of Legos and plethora of Nerf guns.

 From Aunt A's we headed to Great Aunt A's (my mom's aunt on her dad's side) and had a fabulous rooftop barbeque near temple square with a handful of her kids, grandkids and even a great grandkid or two.  I, unfortunately, forgot to take any pictures, but we had a really nice night reconnecting with some of my first cousins (once removed) that I used to see on a semi-regular basis but had since lost track of them.  It was fun to watch our kids make immediate friends with their kids.  I think no matter how distantly related, you can still feel that sense of family that connects you.  

After dinner, we headed to Park City for the actual reason for being in Utah...

...to reunite with these people...

(Great Uncle Tom, Aunt Sharon, Grandma "Gigi" Nancy, Aunt Barbara, and Aunt Ginny)

... and their posterity 

(I'm not even going to begin to pretend like I remember everybody's name)

We hadn't had a reunion of Hart family members since I was in elementary school.  I know reunions typically get a bad wrap, but it was actually kind of fun. My kid's favorite distant relative was their second cousin once removed Annabelle.

 And because they wanted to hang out with her most of the time, and by default made me feel like I had a babysitter at the larger family events, she became my favorite second cousin (She won the #1 position because of that and the fact that all the second cousins were all a good 20-30+ years younger than me).  

My g-ma had 100% representation from her family 

 

which meant we had quality time with my:

 aunt, uncles, and mom,

my cousin,

My siblings and siblings-in-law,

(Sorry BH...I couldn't find a pic of you to include in the collage, but I know you were there)

and ALL of my g-ma's great-grandkids.

In my opinion, the highlights of Park City were eating creamies while watching the kids all swim together, being completely and utterly impressed by my 80-year-old grandma diving to get the ball during an extended family game of something similar to sand volleyball (apparently jazzercize really does wonders),

(Miss A felt like it was just a day at the beach)

watching Aunt Rebecca keep the twins smiling with her little "makin' the pizza" routine,  (I really wish I had recorded it.  You'll just have to trust me on how adorable it was.) 

sliding,

 and coasting.

Although there were a lot of smiles,

and love, 

I'll keep it real but admitting that we did have moments that went from this 

to this.

(the meltdown was much worse than it looks in the pic, but nothing a little lunch and nap didn't make better).

But after all it is expected that things will occasionally get a little crazy when you get this many people together.

I should note that the reunion ended with a beautiful full double rainbow.

(the picture doesn't do it justice)

Our reunion trip ended with a not so scenic (although Br would disagree), yet quicker drive back to CO where Aunt Wilma and Uncle Jack were amazing enough to let Br and I take a nap in attempts to recoup from our trip within a trip.  The next morning we headed to the airport and eventually (I say eventually because we had the added adventure of flying Spirit airlines) made it home.

Overall it was, at least in my opinion, an enjoyable trip.  Reuniting with my mom's side of the family makes me want to organize a reunion for the Hobbs side.  Anyone in?