Family Galore

This is what our driveway looked like all week. Mike's sister Alison, her husband Ron, and their kids Talia and Malachi came out from Connecticut to visit the family and spurred on gatherings almost every day. They stayed at a time share in Park City most of the week but the other 4 nights they stayed with us, so we have been the hot spot.

I loved getting to know Alison better. She taught me so much in the short time she was here!

Top 3 things:
1. How to roast brussel sprouts. YUM.
2. How to express and keep my boundaries (she is a psychologist and did lots of "therapizing", as Rebecca would say).
3. How to use coconut oil in the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. (She prefers to use all natural organic ingredients for cooking, cleaning, and eating. She knows so much about herbs, oils, etc. I need her to write me a book cuz I can't keep it all in my head!)

Here are some of us at the first family BBQ last Saturday.

Talia and Malachi loved attacking the uncles (Paul)

Good thing we have a million miles of grass. It provided plenty of wiggle room for 39 people!

We had FHE at a park in Provo Canyon. It was very cool to sing songs and have a spiritual thought together.

Gotta love the s'mores! Sticky, gooey goodness.

Daddy taught the girls how to throw rocks into Provo River.

Mike inducted Talia and Malachi into our nightly dance club to his 80's music. It was hilarious to see them all getting boogie with it.


This was the family gathering before the fireworks... and also for Malachi's 8th birthday. Alison made the most to-die-for chocolate cake known to man. Who cares that it fell into a million pieces... all the better for dividing, actually.

Another example of the kids attacking the Uncles...

And another. Talia and Malachi really love their Uncle Mikey. He is crazy with them, which probably reminds them of their mom, because Alison is known and loved for her quirkiness. In fact, they have quite similar personalities... which makes them really fun to hang out with.

Not pictured are:
Family gathering #1 (swimming in Park City hotel pool)
Family gathering #4 (Sister's Night in Park City, where we talked girl talk, ate ourselves silly, painted our toe nails, gave foot massages, did clay masks, made chocolate chip cookies, and played games till 2 in the morning!)
Family gathering #5 (picnic at Thanksgiving Point)
Family gathering #7 (Sunday evening farewell to the travelers)
Family gathering #8 & 9 (parade and picnic--last post)

Now the question is, what do we do with all our free time? I suppose we could do some deep cleaning, catch up on sleep, and maybe Skype with everyone because we're still not sick of them?