Farley Family Reunion

If you grew up in or around Utah, you might think the above title is a joke.  There used to be a 1-man show written and performed by James Arrington poking fun at stereotypical small town, Mormon family reunions.  He randomly chose the name 'Farley' which just so happens to be my maiden name!

Even though 3 out of 4 of my immediate siblings (not counting step and half siblings) live in Utah with the 4th visiting from California fairly often, we actually hardly ever do reunions in the sense of setting aside a few days to be with just each other.  This year was a first and we chose to do it at Bear Lake which is 2 1/2 hours away from Salt Lake.  We rented a large cabin up on the hill overlooking the lake that fit all of us.  Not everyone had beds, but the kids didn't seem to mind sleeping on the couches, futons, floor and even the deck overlooking the lake.

It was a new cabin with all the amenities so we weren't roughing it in any way.  My kind of cabin!

Sunrise on the lake

Mom and Misty

Emmy was at Oakcrest this same week and Zach had to work a full week so they both missed out on 2 days of fun.  My brother Quinn and Heather weren't able to come up until Saturday (we left Sunday) so it was a pretty light crew until everyone got there.  In total by the time everyone was there, we had 13 cousins, 8 siblings and spouses and my sweet mom, the one who started it all.  

We made daily trips into town to get shakes, mostly raspberry but other kinds, too.  Some days we had more than one shake.  It's amazing I didn't gain 10 pounds.  I don't know how Bear Lake became the shake capital of Utah (something to do with Raspberry Days, I guess) but we happily and wholeheartedly bought into it.  One night we stood outside ordering shakes with a full on dust storm raging around us but it was worth it because we decided that Jake's had the best shakes in town.

Excitedly waiting for his shake!

Erin and Brett brought their boat and generously spent a lot of time and gas money giving rides to all the many cousins and adults who wanted turns.  I had a turn riding on the tube but was so nervous about being flipped that I didn't last very long.  I am no risk taker these days!  Too much at stake if I break a neck or even a wrist again.  Simon and Emmy both rode it and surprisingly Simon was braver than I was.  He kept giving the thumbs up sign to Brett meaning he wanted to go faster and faster.  I think he liked being in control of the speed.  He never got flipped so I'm not sure how he would have felt if that had happened.

Jumping off the boat in the middle of the lake was really all I wanted to do.  The water there is such a beautiful color and nice temperature this time of year.  Simon again surprised me at his bravery in jumping off the boat.

Simon and Sofie

Quinn soaking up some rays after his turbulent ride on the tube with his son, Jake.  He was fearless - trying to be the fun dad, very unlike me with Emmy.  She accused me of being no fun at all!

Erin's youngest Kate fell asleep on the ride so Grandma pretended to be sleeping, too.

Quinn and Heather

Brett, my brother-in-law, the man with the boat who made all the fun possible!

Older cousins always seemed to get to sit in the front.

Connor never even got in the water by choice, rather he took on the role of photographer and videographer of everyone else, of course.  Connor captured this random dance party on the boat at an early morning sunrise boatride.  All I have to say is Mike Mayfield can move it!

Erin's daughter Maddie (below) just barely got back from working in a leprosy colony in India for 2 weeks, where she also learned how to be quite the henna tattoo artist.  Emmy was all over that...

Simon (5), Sofia (7 - Quinn's daughter), Elle (5 - Misty's daughter) and Kate (3 - Erin's daughter).  All of the Farley siblings are represented in this shot by one of their own, and each are actually the youngest child of their family.  It also mirrors the order of our family - boy, girl, girl, girl.

Elle, Sofia and Simon greeting us from the loft above the family area where most of the kids slept at night.

My sweet little bedfellow for 2 nights before Zach came.  After that, he was kicked out into a sleeping bag on the floor.  I can't resist taking pictures of him sleeping because it's the only time he holds still.

You can't really see it but there is a phone hidden in that mane of hair.  She had just gotten home from a week long camp and was immediately whisked away to Bear Lake so she had lots of catching up to do with a certain cute boy named Jeffrey Wood...

Connor and Christian did some male cousin bonding this trip despite the 5 year age difference.  There are only a handful of boy cousins on my side as opposed to lots of little boy cousins in Zach's family.  These two were pretty funny and cracked me up trying to eat the oversized decorative apples.  

On the third night, Connor was taking out his contacts and accidentally ripped one of them.  He had forgotten to bring a back-up pair and had lost his glasses on our last vacation.  So he sadly resigned himself to just sit in the cabin the last 1 1/2 days half blind.  His vision is almost as bad as mine, and I wouldn't be able to function with vision in only one eye either.  Zach, who had just arrived the night before, decided to drive home (2 1/2 hours each way) to get him another pair of contacts.  We all begged him not to go because he had only just arrived, and we were leaving the next morning, so he was giving up most of his time to relax but he wanted Connor to enjoy himself.  Plus, it's a well known fact that Zach doesn't mind driving beautiful canyons in his cars, so I don't think it was much of a downer for him.  

We attempted a no electronics rule, but iPads and iPhones still made their way into the kids hands.  I had every intention of this reunion being just like the family in "Dan in Real Life" where there were no cell phones or iPads in sight, but honestly it just doesn't work for my kids.  They are happier and more manageable when they have them to fall back on when nothing else is going on.  Plus it gives me time to visit with my mom and siblings which I don't get to do very often.

Simon and Elle doing their thing on mom's iPads 

Mom brought some of her Eric Dowdle puzzles and Misty even bought a puzzle in town of Bear Lake, which we completed more than once.  It was fun actually finding the different business shown in the puzzle artwork when we went to town for shakes.

The teenagers wanted to go to a dance hall for a youth dance they saw advertised in town.  After finding it and checking it out ourselves, we left Maddie, Ali, Connor, Emmy and Christian there for a couple of hours and they had a great time.  Not a huge turnout but Emmy saw friends from her school which made it fun for her.

At night we usually watched movies, painted nails, played cards, did puzzles or played party games.  It was a good thing Zach wasn't there yet when we did the party games because he is not a game guy.  One game was the "Who What Where" game I learned in Alaska which was a HUGE hit with everyone.  It's a mixture of charades, clue and the telephone game.  I did a few minute-to-win-it games with the kids like getting the Oreo from your forehead to your mouth without using hands.  

One afternoon we drove a short distance to St. James, Idaho to hike through the Minnetonka Cave.  It is a lot like Timpanogos cave, only without the massive hike up the mountainside.  You pretty much drive right up to the entrance.  The hike actually takes place inside the cave and is still pretty challenging since there are LOTS of stairs inside the cave, 888 to be exact.  

Zach and Emmy hadn't arrived yet so it was just me and my boys!

You can't see it here, but my mom is sporting a PONYTAIL.  We did it for fun, but she actually liked it and wore in the rest of the day.  Way to be fun, mom!

The Mayfield Clan

The Blake family minus Spencer who is on his mission in Russia

Inside the cave...

Brett and his baby girl

Mike and his baby girl

We stopped for treats at a very cute gift shop/antique store in St. James, ID.

Brett works for Beach Body, the company that does work-out videos such as P90X, Insanity and Turbo Jam.  He was the only one getting any exercise this vacation although I had great intentions because again - I was planning on it being like "Dan in Real Life" where the family did an aerobics workout on the beach.  I went as far as packing running gear but I never could pull myself out of bed before the day got going.  Here he and my niece Sydney are doing their morning yoga routine.

I hope this is the beginning of many, many family reunions.  I see Zach's family all the time but this was such a rare occasion that I had a little depression when I had to come back home.  Here's hoping for next year!