***long post alert***
Oh, how I love these people!!!! And for 4.5 glorious days I got to laugh and cry and hike and curl and play games and talk and eat yummy food with them! This summer was the adults (plus sweet baby Tess :)-only reunion. We had everyone except Emily, serving away in South Korea. First item of business: delicious (goat cheese) pizza at an Italian pizzeria downtown, followed by Gourmandise pastries for dessert on Monday evening. 
Tuesday morning began with an early hike to Ensign peak. We could easily see mom and dad's building as we enjoyed the gorgeous view and sang "High on a Mountain Top"
Had to watch out for landslides on the way down ;)
We ate a fabulous rooftop breakfast, (thanks to mom, dad, and sous-chefs!), got cleaned up and headed to the Mount Timpanogos Temple for a session together. (Only got a picture of the people riding in John and Laura's amazing van). It's a humbling and heart-ready-to-burst-with-love thing to look down two rows of great people like that and know you are a part of such an eternal team.
Mom wanted us all to check out the African animal life they will be surrounded by this year at the Bean museum at BYU, so we couldn't resist a few action shots :)
And then we headed to the MTC for the family devotional. All 8 of us siblings spoke for "2 minutes" :) on some principle from our missions, then I sang "O Divine Redeemer" and Mom and Dad each spoke for a few minutes. Pretty nerve-wracking to speak and sing there, but it was an evening I will never forget. Hearing each of them talk about his/her mission and knowing the wonderful service they continue to give in their lives filled me with so much love and gratitude. For God and his plan of happiness sending us here in families to lift and love each other. For his restored gospel that teaches us how to live in families and make the most of that divine association through "faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work and wholesome recreational activities." For the chance to have been a missionary in France and, for the rest of my life, try to share this plan of happiness with everyone I know. For wonderful, imperfect parents who love us and love God and try their best to live according to what he teaches. For 8 incredible, imperfect siblings who teach me so much by their example. And for our Redeemer who does have mercy and power to heal our hearts and to bring us safely home.
The Frenchies:
We all slept well that night!!
Wednesday morning we played a few tournament games...
Meet teams 1, 2 and 3!
They all had a clue to find a parking spot in the building to start from so they wouldn't be able to follow each other to the first spot.
Their first clue took them to Memory Grove Park where they had to share 20-30 second memories on different topics
Darrell:http://youtu.be/laRkZFwllNg
Christa:http://youtu.be/243XA9NMj-c
Team 2(Mom, Matt, Conlon, Aup):
Spencer:http://youtu.be/EESQORwrvcM
Rachel:http://youtu.be/NBj-58pnchM
Joy????
In the event that a team couldn't figure out a clue, we prepared lifeline challenges that had to be completed in order to receive extra hints. Here is team 3's first lifeline video they did to get to Memory Grove Park:
After sharing their own memories, the teams raced to the Family History library to find a record on an ancestor.
A dance video at the symphony splash pad at Gateway was the next challenge.
Team 1:http://youtu.be/i2I64FHTLvI
Team 2:http://youtu.be/gdGIAkl2oHs
Team 3:http://youtu.be/hHCoc-KlyFo
The following clue proved to be the trickiest, taking them to a tour of V's Chocolates and getting a sweet sample at Taffy Town.
Team 3 needed one more lifeline here, so we got this gem:
Mark's team had to hold him back from temptation!! http://youtu.be/3Ro4nSslK40
Tummies full, they were off to the U to sing the BYU fight song!
Team 1:http://youtu.be/HfQkT1W2uEw
Team 2:http://youtu.be/qccd21SfDxE
Team 3:http://youtu.be/Ozl49DVixAQ
The Gilgal Sculpture Garden amazed me when I found it as I looked for fun Race stops, and it didn't disappoint as a surprise for the contestants. They had to make a living replica of one of the sculptures and find several hymns and scripture verses on the stones.
The last challenge was paddle boating at Liberty Park. Unfortunately, they only had two boats running which frustrated the first team. Dad pouted...
Darrell took out his anger on some poor, unsuspecting geese....http://youtu.be/75RTiNgQtIU
Aup even broke into song....
And the Game Masters brought up the tail end of the paddle boat fun
Although Mark and Darrell got the wet bum award :)
Kevin, AKA "MC Curls" turned most of our clues into raps that were the highlight of the Race.
We all enjoyed a well-deserved, relaxing dinner and backrub at Blue Lemon to celebrate.
Thursday was Pioneer Day! We had the best view of the parade EVER. On the third floor of a building on South Temple that Dad set up. Unfortunately, we were all so dead from the 2 days before that we all kept straggling in and Mom and Dad didn't see very much of the parade.
Check out the Happy dancing! http://youtu.be/J9vlvf8vMHI
Friday, we seperated into a park city group and a hiking group. I thoroughly enjoyed the gorgeous hike up to Dog Lake.
http://youtu.be/a0J45P3Yjrk
And a few hugs!
Covered in dust, we grabbed a bite at Cafe Rio, showered and headed to Ruth's Diner for another bite :).
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