July 4th

We spent a wonderful 4th of July weekend with my mom’s side of the family down at my parents’ ranch.  All 22 of us were able to make it this year and it was so great to have everyone together!

It was a pretty typical family gathering for us--- lots of food, games and fun.  Here are a few highlights.

We introduced a new game called Ladderball.  We usually pitch washers, but this game sufficed until we found a good spot to dig the washer holes.

I don’t have many pictures of other things we did, but I have a lot of pictures of everyone playing Ladderball because I could take them while reclining in one of the zero-gravity chairs.  If you haven’t tried one of these, you are really missing out.  They will change your life.

There aren’t any restaurants near the ranch, so we all took turns being in charge of meals.  We had BBQ, burgers & brats, and a fish fry complete with homemade hushpuppies and fried okra.

We also had a lot of other summer goodies, like watermelon, homemade ice cream, and some fun treats that Remy made.

When it wasn’t pouring down rain, we took the boat out to do some tubing and catch some rays (we needed the sun… Kolby is practically glowing in the picture below, and I’m not any better).

One highlight of the day at the lake: Russell asking Kolby to put sunscreen on his back and then proceeding to sit on his lap.  It make Kolby pretty uncomfortable, yet he obliged so who knows.

Like last year, we played a few games of family whiffle ball.  Also like last year, Brad and Russell were team captains and I was chosen last.  What is it with brothers and their need to pester?

We got a ping-pong table for the screened porch and put it to good use.

We played hours and hours of a group ping-pong game called One Bounce where when it was your turn, you had to let the ball roll off the table and bounce one time and then hit it back on the table for the next person’s turn.   With a lot of people in a really small space, we joked around about how one of the adults (most likely Mom or Uncle Wayne) were sure to accidentally bust through one of the screens.  But it was Brad who lost control and braced himself by sitting one of the many coolers that lined the wall.

Unfortunately, it was the one that was styrofoam.

Like any real vacation, naps abounded.

And finally, we just relaxed and soaked in the fact that we were in the country and away from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. 

Some family pictures:

*Sidenote:  Russell appears in 7 pictures in this post.  Who noticed that he has a full-grown mustache?  No one?  Exactly.  It is blonde and it is totally disgusting.  I’m campaigning to get him to shave it but I’m not having any luck.  Now he’s in London for the rest of the summer.  Good luck picking up chicks with that thing, bro.

Flickr

My computer and I had a disagreement about its willingness to upload the rest of the photo slideshows from our vacation.  After many failed attempts, I looked into other options.

Meet my friend Flickr.  You can follow the link to view more pictures from our trip.  When you click on a set, you can then click on the Slideshow button in the upper right corner of the screen to view all the pictures in a much larger size.

Back to regular non-vacation-related blogging soon!

Day 6 (part 2): Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell

*Sorry this is out of order, I forgot about these pictures.*

After spending the morning at Antelope Canyon we went to a scenic outlook called Horseshoe Bend, which is where the Colorado River makes a bend that looks like a horseshoe (aptly named, right?). I wish I had a wider lens, but I think you get the picture of what it looked like. It was really pretty and definitely worth the short hike.

 

Next we went to Lake Powell, which is a stunningly beautiful lake pictured below (I found this photo online).

But, we didn’t take the time to see any of the gorgeous lake. Instead, we pulled off at a tiny beach where no one else was and we ended up inventing the best game of all time and the next thing we knew, 3 hours had passed and it was sundown. We may have missed some beautiful sights, but these may have been the best 3 hours of the trip.

The targets. We placed these rocks on a rock ledge that was just barely underwater.

The game pieces. We all stood several feet from the water’s edge behind a line we drew on the beach, and we all threw our rocks one at a time at the targets. Whoever got a rock closest to the black rock got 2 points, whoever got a rock closest to the white rock got 1 point, and it was negative 1 point for any of your rocks that fell off the edge.

The scoring system. The individual rocks on top matched our respective rock colors, and the pile blow was the point system: small rocks represented 1 point, large rocks represented 10. 

This game was awesome, even if it doesn’t sound that awesome. You’ll just have to trust me :)

Day 7: Grand Canyon

We spent our last day at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Apparently 90% of visitors go to the south rim, but we didn’t want to travel that far from where we started. It was huge (obviously), and we hiked 2 miles down into the canyon and then back up, but that didn’t get us much closer to the bottom. By that time I was pretty sick of hiking and I’d be happy to go my whole life without ever hearing the word “switchback” ever again. Hiking down was a good way to get a sense of the magnitude, then we spent the rest of the day driving around the rim to various lookouts and playing some cards at the lodge. The Grand Canyon was my least favorite place that we went, simply because I thought the other places were even better, but it was beautiful and was a great way to end a great trip!

Day 6: Antelope Canyon

This place was nuts! It is a slot canyon and the entrance (first picture below) is just a crack in the ground and you climb a ladder down into the canyon. The rest of these pictures are from inside the canyon, which was all sandstone and was really narrow at parts. It was so beautiful and very different from anything else we’d seen. Professional photographers could have a heyday in there, but I did the best I could in the tight quarters.