Family Time

My family was all together for the first time in like 5 years. I mean... besides the 10 minutes last Christmas to take family pictures. We all gathered in Arizona at my sister Jamie's house and ALL stayed there. All 21 of us. It was crazy... but it worked out. Each family got a room and me (being the single one) got the couch. I didn't mind... it was just hard not being a morning person and being woken up every morning by exciting kids. It was cute that all the kids were excited to be playing with their cousins.... yeah, I just wish I were more of a morning person to enjoy that. It was for sure all worth it though. My favorite line the entire trip was when Jamie came down after the kids were all up, knowing I was trying to sleep on the couch told all the kids to go outside and jump on the trampoline until the sun came up. HA! It only lasted 5 minutes... but I appreciated the effort and it still makes me laugh thinking about it.

We all came for Ezra's baby blessing and the Gilbert Temple open house. I'm glad we had an excuse to get us all together. Hopefully I can get us another excuse to get us all together again in June. I was so happy that everyone had such a great time. We really didn't do a lot while we were there, but it didn't matter. It was just nice to spend time with everyone. It was also nice to take a break from the freezing weather and go somewhere warmer. It was 75 degrees most of the time we were there. I even went for a run outside with my sister Lori which was really nice.

The pictures are not super great, but I tried to document as much as I could with my camera phone. So what happened while hanging out in Arizona for a few days with the entire family? Well...

The kids spent a lot of time jumping on the trampoline.

There was a lot of eating.

Especially by Jameson. This cutie loves his food!

We celebrated Billy's birthday.

Kids got ready for bed together.

Dan's family came over on Sunday for singing and dessert, this put over 50 people in the house.

And there was lots of reading to the kids. I loved this.

All in all it was time well spent. I sure do love my family and am so thankful that we had the opportunity to all get together. Big thanks to my parents as well for renting a big fan that could fit everyone that lived in Utah in it so we were all able to go. And of course big thanks to Jamie and Dan for hosting everyone and giving us an excuse to get together. I hope it happens a little more often. Love my parents, siblings, in laws and nieces and nephews.... SO MUCH. So glad I was born into this family. I feel pretty lucky!