Phipps Family Reunion, Part 3

And the FOURTH! This is David's favorite holiday. (Besides Christmas of course.) I love this tradition of the entire family coming up to the valley. They do such a great job at Liberty Days!

Our trailer was ready and we piled on the kiddos for the morning parade.

Someone in the back is a little grumpy.

Pretty pretty girl.

Kennedy with Gram's flag that has all the grandkids' feet and hands.

Got some candy and feeling much better.

Here's the rockets we made out of toilet paper holders.

Sweet Ellie was taking this whole ordeal very seriously.

Turns out, dressing up a little boy can be so much fun.

And then came Hazel's moment of glory. She's done the chicken catch before and was always very shy and nervous about it. Well now that we HAVE chickens at home, she's a lot more confident about her chicken catching abilities. In fact, that morning, she was practicing how to jump onto the ground, catching a pretend chicken under her chest. She said, "I'm going to catch one this year."

And she did!

It was the proudest day for David and I. David was watching from the other side of the rink where he had dropped her off, but we both yelled out "That's my girl!" I almost cried. At first she named her new chicken, "Polly" but later changed it to "Caramel." This beauty is now part of our chicken family and after a while she started laying light pink eggs!

Later in the day, we saw these young women from Africa braiding hair with beads. Hazel has ALWAYS wanted to do that, so we let her. She did just catch a chicken.

While we waited, Ellie was checking herself out in this mirror.

Charlotte got her face painted with a fire cracker.

Charlotte with her beautiful grandma.

Ta da! She was so happy with the results.

David did the fish catch with both of our older girls. The first year we did this, we accidentally left the fish in our car (it was bad). The second year, we accidentally left the fish in Kevin and Vicki's basement sink (also, very bad.) So this year we them away. Wise decision.

And he smiled for the camera. So in love.

We were lucky enough to get all of the cousins on the caterpillar ride at the same time.

Little Lottie loves these babies.

 Edison fell asleep on Papa Kevin during the fireworks.

We kept Hazel's chicken in Kevin and Vicki's basement until the box was too disgusting. So we finally let it roam in their backyard for some fresh air and brought it into the box at night.

On Thursday morning, Kevin and Vicki had rented a boat for all of us to go out on Pineview lake with wave runners! Such a fun idea, only the weather didn't quite cooperate.

Turns out, it was the COLDEST day of the month! It had been so sunny and warm all week and then it rained on Thursday and was freezing, especially at the lake.

But we had a boat and we were going to enjoy it!

Asleep.

So once we started heading out to the middle of the lake, I thought we were all crazy to be out there, especially with babies. I had Edison bundled up in his carseat at my feet and had just barely laid a towel over him when Kevin hit a huge wave and SOAKED Gram, who was holding Eli. And when I say soaked, I mean a huge tidal wave came up over the front of the boat and drenched her. She had a very good attitude about it all and they covered her in blankets since both she and the baby were wet. I had to take a picture of her hair.

The kids were brave enough to get into the tube for a ride while David and Chris went out on the wave runners. Chris was dropping off Sam, who was terrified of the water, and he missed the boat and fell in. He was screaming bloody murder, so I jumped in and held onto him while we made our way to the boat. He kept saying, "Sharks! Sharks!" Poor boy. So I decided since I was already wet and freezing, why not have some fun on a wave runner? I took Kennedy out and we had a blast. Good memories.

Since my cover-up was wet from jumping in after Same, I squeezed into Hazel's sweatshirt that she didn't want to wear. Look at me in 4T!

That afternoon, once we were all warm and dry, we had a Princess party for Isabelle.

And Ellie woke up from her nap, like this.

On Friday, we headed out to a Bee's game in SLC!

On the way there, we saw this crazy lady dancing on the sidewalk and I had to take a picture.

First baseball game with Dad.

Saturday morning walk.

And then it was time to clean up, pack up, and head home.

Such a wonderful reunion!