Derek comes from an amazing family. Geneva has 4 brothers. They have remained close despite (at times) living on 3 and maybe even 4 continents. This reunion blows me away. There are lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and spouses. We get along, laugh, play games, and just enjoy time together. I am so glad I married into the Fehlberg clan.
The reunion was in La Sal Utah. La Sal is about 1/2 hour from Moab in the southeast corner of the state. It was quite a long drive from SLC, and the last 2 1/2 hours home felt extra long since our A/C went out on the van. But I digress...
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We rented the Redd family ranch. They used to rent out their multiple houses for lots of groups, but they don't do it any more. Luckily, Geneva has a very persuasive brother that talked them into letting us use the space. It worked out quite well. There were beds for most of the adults, and the kids slept on floors or in tents. I should have taken more pictures of the house, but if you catch a glimpse behind me, the 1960s in all their glory!
Maren and I helped make and serve up food on the last night. |
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| We stopped at Dead Horse Point on the way into La Sal. It was AMAZING. Apparently when you see the Grand Canyon in most movies, you are actually seeing Dead Horse Point. It is exquisite! |
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| And it is super hot. Wow. |
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| LOOK! A giant amazing and beautiful canyon! |
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| And the car looks disgusting. |
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| At the ranch Ben managed to explore almost everywhere! And yes, he is wearing a singlet. Derek's wrestling instinct comes from the Fehlberg line, so I figured if he wanted to wear one in public, this would be a crowd that would sympathize. |
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| We also had a hula hooping contest. |
My favorite game (to watch...I didn't actually play) was the Human Hungry Hungry Hippos. I didn't get any pictures of this. But it was so hilarious and fun.
(A video for future reference.Although we used balloons instead of balls and put them in one end of the gym so they stayed contained. ) Since there were Nortons playing, this game did end up devolving into a heated competition with many accusations of cheating. It was amazing.
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| So much fun we wore ourselves out! |
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| Anne Marie had some car trouble. I was sure to document her woes. Probably karma for this is what made our A/C bite the dust on the way home. |
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| The boys became obsessed with catching bugs. Gross. They caught and released hundreds of them before the bug catcher got a hole in it. |
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| Fehlbergs love playing games. Interestingly, Sarah whooped up on everyone. In basically every game she tried she won (against adults!). She has been doing chess club this year, and I guess it paid off! She knows how to strategize and play a good game. |
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| "Don't worry mom, I'll just climb over this fence." |
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| Smores with Reeses. |
Day 2 was the foray into Arches National Park. Now if we had thought this through a little bit, we would have probably changed the schedule around a bit so that we weren't hiking at noon. In the heat. But, we made it, and we built some character on the way.
Here was my thinking: The kids walk 3 miles on the treadmill all the time. This will be no problem. Let's just sunscreen up, take some water, and get this done!
What I should have been thinking: 3 miles on the treadmill is nothing like 3 miles 8000 feet higher than we are used to. In temperatures 30 degrees hotter than we are used to. And walking on rock and sand. With no shade. We need lots of water, a backpack full of food, hats and maybe even umbrellas for everyone. Or maybe we should choose a different hike since we are getting to the park mid-day.
But, since I didn't think like I should have, we just powered up that mountain to the Delicate Arch with lots of breaks, some sobbing (Sarah, then Ben, then Libby, then Sarah, then Libby, etc...)
I was actually pretty proud of my hip and my heart. We did just fine. According to my Fitbit, the highest my heart rate got was still only 127 bpm and the average was 101 bpm. Not bad at all.
I also got Sarah and even Libby to play a game for about 1/2 the way down, so it was much more tolerable than it would have been.
This will be a day that we will never forget!
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| Ben resting on the trail. |
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| Ben trying to pretend he is a lizard (okay, just dying for some shade). |
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| Sarah didn't walk out to the arch. She was over it. |
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| Geneva and brothers in age order: Geneva, Wayne, Rondo, Reed, Paul |
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| With Spouses: Brion, Geneva, Wayne, Merlene, Rondo, Mary, Reed, Carma, Paul, Karen |
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| The whole group (minus one or two, but basically everyone). |
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| The talent show on the last night was super fun. Libby did gymnastics, and I was proud to see her showing what she had learned! I felt like maybe I got my money's worth? Sarah also said the gorilla poem again. We have certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of that! |
We finished the weekend with sacrament meeting at the La Sal branch. It is so great to soak up the Spirit in a meeting like that. We got back to my parents' house, hot, sweaty and buggy. Just in time for dinner.
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