Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Brown Family Reunion 2013! Zion Ponderosa Ranch

On the road again...
This peace and tranquility lasted only about 1 hour. Well, I should give the girls more credit, they did well on the long drive, but they worked together coloring for about 10 minutes, then they didn't want to touch each other. Audrey just zoned out on a movie. Her binky and earphones kept her occupied just till we got outside of Vegas, then she just needed to get out. We made it to St George, went to Jimmy Jon's Sandwich restaurant, and I suggested going to get a custard and Ryan had another idea. 


One of the places Ryan wanted to take the girls to was "Iceberg" in St George for Shakes. These were the mini sizes!




The first glimpse of the beautiful mountains ahead!

















Audrey and baby Cole Smith. She loved him, a little too much.

The sunset on the first night, gorgeous!

On Saturday I asked Heidi if I could put braids in her hair so it was out of her face. Then Kate needed her hair done so I asked if she wanted me to braid it for her. Heidi quickly took over and did the braids herself. One had to be redone tighter, but Heidi is quite the hair stylist. She taught herself to braid from a princess book that had hair  on it.



At breakfast I noticed Kate, Thomas and Heidi sitting on a ledge together, so I asked Sophie Rich to take my phone and take some pictures of them together. These are what she brilliantly captured:





The one thing all the kids begged to do before we even got to the Zion Ponderosa Ranch was the ZIP LINE! So they waited and waited, then finally got to ride it after lunch on Saturday.

This was Heidi. I didn't capture many pictures this time, but I know the girls had a lot of fun, even if the gear was heavy to carry all the way back to the barn.
Audrey was a little bored sitting around waiting for the girls to be done with the zip line.

Wendy and I were talking to Heather Schults Giorgiana and she told us that a few woman were going to do a hike with no kids or husbands. I'm there! So while Ryan did the rest of the activities with the kids, I ran and changed into exercise cloths to meet up with whoever would be going. There ended up being more than a few that wanted to join in...
All the ladies, 10 of us Startup Cousins, crammed in a 5 passenger car to drive to the beginning of "Observation Point" hike.



These ladies are crazy. I was shaking just being so close to the edge, let alone climb close to it and look over. No thanks. 



OK, so I took a chance and decided to crawl my way toward the edge and sat at a safe distance to enjoy the view with my cousins. I lasted about 2 minutes, then had to crawl back to safety behind a rock I could cling to to reassure myself that I wouldn't slip.






 On the porch of the "Rich Family Cabin" hung a British flag for Elder Chandler Rich serving in the Leeds England Mission. We missed Chandler, but know he is where the Lord needs him.

The Drive Home! Gorgeous!