Black Butte Ranch

Carson thought yesterday's post was totally lame and that I should have blogged about our recent vacation. I promised him that I would blog about it today. So here it goes.

Truth be told, I always approach whole family gatherings with a little bit of anxiety. I believe that every family has a certain amount of dysfunction and ours certainly is no exception. The only problem is that at times our dysfunction tends to ruin the gathering. However, I am happy to report that this time we were a happy family. I don't think there was even a cross word spoken the entire week. And more importantly, there were some great memories created. I want to share just a few highlights.

First, a picture of some of the group that was there

So that is 14 of the 24 that were there. As you can see, lots of little kids and I think there are even a couple of little kids missing.

Next, before we went down we asked Katelyn and Carson what they most wanted to do. Katelyn said she wanted to go on a horse back ride. Usually I'm not a fan of trail rides because the horses are like robots and there is always dust. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Katelyn and I were the only ones in the trail ride so the dust was at a minimum and we got to trot on the horses--making it a little more adventuresome, although my sit bones had forgotten what it was like to trot on a horse.

One night we had a visit from Rocky the Racoon. And one day I got to go golfing with my brothers, dad, hubby, and brother-in-law.

There was a lot of swimming, Carson did a 2 day golf school (boy were his hands blistered by the end), and lots and lots of food!

Two of my brothers took the older kids rock climbing one morning. Katelyn was the champion and climbed all the way to the top. Carson and Caleb got up most of the way, but need to grow a few more inches so they can reach all of the holds. And they all came home exhausted

And a few memories without pictures...Michael and his adventure to Aspen Lake; Skyler got run over by a deer; Travis, Sasquatch and the screen door; games and visiting; the girls' day at the spa; the hike to the top of Black Butte and my amazing sister-in-law for carrying her 2 year old the whole way.

So mom and dad, thank you so much for the trip to Black Butte Ranch. It was amazing.