Utah Trip 2017: Cascade Springs

Wednesday was our last camping day, so in the morning we had a simple breakfast and packed everything up.

Before heading back to Provo we took a lovely hike at Cascade Springs. I loved it. Such a beautiful hike.

Look how clear that water is. Pretty incredible!

After this we took the scenic route back to Provo with a lunch stop at a park.

Utah Trip 2017: More Camping

More pictures from Day 1: unpacking, chatting, smores.

The first morning a lot of little girls got their hair fixed in French braids (including Heidi--thanks, Mindy!). We had breakfast burritos by Amy's family with some help from others.

We all had matching reunion shirts (Mindy made the design), so we got family pictures again with those. Here are all the grandchildren who were there:

Then we went on a nature hike. There was a trail near the camp, and we stopped to see some old cabins that are being restored there.

Ann Marie enjoyed hiking with Aunt Mindy (picture stolen from Tiffany's blog).

We got back and had lunch (grilled cheese sandwiches) and then there was playing/trying to stay cool/chatting/various other activities. I managed to get a nap in a hammock at some point.

Having lots of cousins is a pretty special blessing.

Lots of people had fun trying out the slack line. Heidi and Kevin gave it a try and actually did pretty well.

At some point during dinner a couple people checked the weather on their phones and we realized we were going to be hit by a thunderstorm in less than fifteen minutes. All of a sudden everyone was hard at work getting all the food, cooking equipment, chairs, and anything else put away, and it was pretty amazing how fast it all got done. Then as the wind picked up and it started to rain we got in our cars to wait it out. I'm not really sure what we did. Just got bored and watched rain, I guess. Our car had been parked next to the trees, but Ryan moved it out into the open, and it was a good thing because a lot of branches fell into the road where we had been parked.

Tiffany took this picture of the rainbow after the storm, and if you want to see what our rental looks like, it's the tan ten-passenger van in this picture.

After the rain we had fun making giant bubbles!

Things were for the most part fine after the storm. Thanks to everyone working together to get everything put away, all the small stuff was in the cars. I know Tiffany's family's tent leaked and their bed got wet, so there was some shuffling to get them some dry sleeping bags, but I think everyone else's tents stayed dry inside.

Utah Trip 2017: Camping Day 1 (aka The Time when Depression was Comforting)

The 19th was the first of our three-day camping trip at Wasatch Mountain State Park. So we were packing for camping, and by the way, it's kind of weird to pack for a trip when you're already on a trip.

We got to the big group campsite in the afternoon and spent some time setting up tents and getting things out of cars. Ann gave us an airbed for Ryan and I to put our sleeping bags on, which was awesome. Ann pulled out her Dutch Blitz cards and some other card games emerged, which kept the cousins occupied for a lot of the time. Paul and Becky brought hammocks, which were also fun for the cousins (and the adults were occasionally able to snag some time to relax in one).

At some point I got a bad headache. I tried taking a nap in our tent, which worked okay but didn't do anything for the headache. Neither did the Tylenol I got from James.

While dinner was cooking Ann Marie fell and scraped her leg behind her knee. It wasn't really bleeding, but it was big and stung a lot, plus she was tired, so there was a lot of crying. Mindy was super prepared and pulled out her first aid kit with everything in it and we were able to find a bandaid that was big enough and some children's pain reliever. But she kept crying until Eliza remembered that she had something even more effective and offered Ann Marie a cupcake. She cheered right up after that. :)

We were all assigned one meal during the camping trip, and Eliza and Ann made some wonderful dutch oven food the first night. We had turkey breasts, potatoes and carrots, salad, and various leftovers from the party (which we continued to eat throughout the camping trip). We also finished off the cupcakes.

As the evening progressed my headache got worse, and in addition I started feeling super depressed for no good reason. I don't think I suffer from clinical depression, but it does pop up sometimes, especially in stressful situations or if hormones are off, or for no good reason, because of course depression makes sense like that. :/ I was feeling really insecure about weird things and feeling sad about nothing, which was so odd because I love being with Ryan's family and we were having such a nice time.

Anyway, we went to bed and finally I started crying because I couldn't understand why I was feeling this way, and I didn't want to feel this way when we were having a family reunion with people I love to see. And out of the blue I had the impression from the Holy Ghost that I should try this thought on: "This is exactly how it's supposed to be."

Obviously that didn't make sense at first. How is feeling depressed "exactly how it's supposed to be?" But I decided to ask for clarification, and that's how this story gets the paradoxical title, "The Time when Depression was Comforting."

The answer was, "This is exactly how it's supposed to be, because you always get depression when you're pregnant." (I had suspected for a few days that I might be pregnant, but I hadn't had a chance to take a test and it was still a little early to tell, so I hadn't been thinking about it much.) And in an odd way this was comforting to me. After having a miscarriage last March at 6 weeks pregnant, I was worried about the possibility of having another one, or about having a pregnancy with other problems--and with the previous pregnancy I never experienced any of my normal symptoms. So getting depressed like I always do at the beginning of my pregnancies was kind of a sign or reassurance that this time things would be okay. I also thought about how all the unpleasant early pregnancy symptoms had been held at bay long enough for me to take care of my mom and help a lot with the 50th anniversary party with no problems, so that had worked out just the way it was supposed to as well. Sometimes the Holy Ghost comforts us in strange and unexpected ways.

By the end of the camping trip, food aversions had also decided to show up and I was really tired (both also normal early pregnancy symptoms for me). So if I seemed "off" on the camping trip that's why. And maybe someday we can have a family gathering where people can see the normal me. I feel like whenever we get together I've either just given birth or I'm pregnant or I'm stressed about big things or my kids are crazy or I'm crazy.

But other than that we did have a great time, and I'll tell you all about it in another blog post!

Utah Trip 2017: 50th anniversary party

Sunday the 18th was the 50th anniversary party for James and Ann. All of their children and most grandchildren were there, plus many of James and Ann's siblings and other friends and extended family came. We spent Sunday morning helping Becky prepare food for the party that evening. We went to Sacrament meeting at Becky's ward and then the whole Tanner family had pictures. We got some great ones! The photographer was Ryan's cousin Carli of Developed Memories Photography.

This is almost all the cousins, from oldest to youngest. I'm not sure if Ann Marie felt threatened by having a cousin younger than her (Adam) or if she just wanted to assert her authority as the slightly bigger kid, but she wasn't very interested in playing with him and she had a tendency to send condescending glares in his direction (her loss, because he's a cutie). Jared and Kristi were geniuses because they kept handing him fruit snacks to get him to stay there for the pictures.

Once the photos were done there was lots more food prep, set-up, and flower arranging to be done!

Yes, Becky put the cilantro on her teeth on purpose . . . 

Mindy and Eliza planned, designed, and made this cake based on Ann and James' original wedding cake! Isn't it amazing?

Climbing the cherry tree was also a favorite pastime.

Another picture of the cake. Eliza decorated the cupcakes with Russian tips. Those things are so nifty!

We had a taco salad/Mexican theme plus fruit. I think it's funny that people always ask us if we're going to go to Cafe Rio when we go to Utah because we don't really eat out when we travel. But this time we pretty much had Cafe Rio except homemade and better.

James and Ann cutting the cake together.

Pictures borrowed/stolen from Tiffany's blog:

Three cousins born within three months of each other.

Mindy and Eliza with their masterpiece

I just love being a part of this wonderful family.