dahl family pride

As I mentioned in a previous post - the Utah trip was for a Dahl Family reunion (a tradition that takes place every two years)  We gather in Utah for two days of fun and reconnecting with family.

Grammy Baker is a Dahl and she has two brothers...Jack and Larry and 2 sisters... Marie and Carol (we missed them at this years reunion)  The reunion consist of the 5 siblings and all their children.

Here is a shot of Grammy and some of our crew.  We missed having Gail, Bryce, Ann and families there.  However they did have some of their BYU/Utah kids there so all the families were represented.

Out of Grammy's siblings I think she is still in the lead with number of grandchildren - 44 grand kids, 22 boys and 22 girls.  

Here is everyone from the reunion, minus a few folks that had to leave before we got to pictures.

It was fun to be together and reestablish relationships with family we hadn't seen in a while. One of my favorite parts of this reunion was the time spent learning about some of the Dahl family history - although not blood related I am grateful to have married into a great family with an amazing pioneer heritage.

We are already looking forward to the 2011 reunion that will be held in Raymond, Alberta, Canada.  Raymond is where Derek's grandparents raised Grammy and her siblings.  Derek has been there often but the kids and I have never been so we are looking forward to going and spending time with all the aunts, uncles and cousins.

a river runs through it

One of the outings we had planned while in Utah was a rafting trip down the Provo River.  We met up with Darryl, Lisa and kids (minus Madison - we missed you Maddie) one cold morning to start the adventure. Yes, it was a cold morning, even in August.  The temp was in the low 60's as we drove to the river and I think we were all a little nervous thinking about the temperature mixed with snow run off water.  In an effort to avoid a bunch of complaining we made a rule - once in the raft you could complain about the cold twice - that was it.  In the end the rule didn't matter because we all had so much fun.

We used High Country Rafting and they were great.  We used guides on our trip because of the number of kids we had and none of us had any idea what the river would be like.  We were divided into two rafts so I can only share my thoughts on our guide - we loved him and he made the trip a ton of fun.

Before the trip was over everyone in our boat (including our guide) braved the ice cold water and jumped out of the raft for a quick little dip.  I don't know if my toes/feet have ever hurt as bad as they did coming out of that water - I can't begin to express how cold it was.  Cold aside - it was still a fun adventure.

Megan and Nate were in the other raft.  Nate had been jumping in and out of his raft a few times but Megan wasn't going for it.  Besides, with the exception of Nate and Jason, her raft was staying dry.  After the trip she told us that she saw Emily and Luke (in our raft) jump in but still held out for fear of the cold.  THEN she saw Derek and I both go in, heads under, and she knew we would never let her live it down if she was the only hold out in the family - gotta love peer pressure in situations like this.  We all ended up braving the cold just to say we did it.

After the rafting trip we crossed to the other side of the river and headed down the train tracks.

(I'm not sure what is up with all the posed walking but were going with it)

The best part of the adventure and the part I wish I had on video was us walking down the track at the end of the day having been told a train would be coming by but it never came.  Towards the end of our walk while still on the track we heard the loud whistle of the train (that finally decided to come) and screaming and panic ensued.  We all scattered off the track but nearly everyone fled to the side of the track that had like 12 - 28 inches of space as opposed to the other side of the track that had more room and a fence with a hole that led into a park - we clearly are not the smartest group.

After a few seconds of panic, everyone was safe on the side of the track with more room.  The one problem...there was some stinky dog piles on the safe side and unfortunately we weren't all able to escape its evil grasp (or smell)  We had however avoided being pummeled by a train so it seems to be an ok trade off.

Had you been there it was all quite funny especially as we stood on the side of the track waiting for the train to come barreling down on us only to see the Heber Creeper come chug, chug, chugging by us at a not so fast speed - we probably could have stayed on the track and outrun the thing.

But back to the original story (see you even forgot there was an original story)  After the rafting we crossed the river and took off down the tracks to find the jumping rock.

The water around this rock is deeper so you can cannonball in without fear of hitting bottom. Derek, Darryl, Jared, Jason and Nathan braved the cold water and made a few jumps off the rock.  

The rest of us kept busy along the shore - playing by the tracks (my mom will love that), playing in the water and battling the occasional wasp.

This is an outing that we would do again in a heartbeat - it was fun to be together as a family enjoying the beauty of God's creations.  It really was beautiful!

stan is the man

I'm not sure who Stan is but his little hole in the wall burger joint is a family favorite.

image via flickr

Usually after our traditional BYU bowling trip we head over to Stan's for a bite to eat. Derek ate here often as a student and then as a young married couple we ate here as often as finances would allow (which if I remember right was not as often as we would have liked)  Our kids now love it as much as we do and I'm sure it will become a favorite place to eat when they are at BYU.

We kept burgers, etc. to a minimum and loaded up on the really healthy stuff - fries, fry sauce and shakes.

The fries are amazing - click on the picture to enlarge and you'll be able to see all the seasoned goodness.  

The fry sauce is an always welcomed trip treat.  I'm still at a lose to figure out why all of America hasn't embraced fry sauce.  Why must we go to Utah to enjoy the pale orange tastiness?  Occasionally it is available at a local Target and others say make your own but it's just not the same.  What is wrong with the fast food world?  We want fry sauce, we want fry sauce!  Join with me in bringing fry sauce to the masses.

late night family fun

The reason for our trip to Utah was for the Dahl Family Reunion.  The reunion was on Friday and Saturday in Provo.  We had a great time with our extended family and appreciate all the work that went into pulling off a successful reunion.

On Friday the reunion festivities ended around 9ish with a stop to the Creamery on 9th for some late night yumminess.  After ice cream we headed back to my parents house in Orem for a quick clean up before heading off to Sparks in Provo to see Cubworld perform.

We had about 25 family members at the concert to support our nephew Nick who is the guitar player in the band 

it was a fun night out with family, although it was a bit late for us older folks (we didn't get out of the club until midnight)

The music was great - the first hour was acoustic and the second hour was the whole band.  You can check out Cubworld's music here.  We are hoping that they make it to California sometime soon so we can invite some friends to hear their music.

oquirrh mountain temple

While in Utah we decided to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House.  This was my first Temple Open House.  I served as a volunteer at the Newport Beach Temple introducing the tour and showing a movie to visitors but on our families scheduled day to tour the temple I was home with the flu.

The Oquirrh Mountain Temple was beautiful and I loved having the opportunity to go through it with my family.

photo by Emily

bad blogger

I have been trying to download pictures since  yesterday and Blogger is being difficult - why oh why must Blogger act up like this?

Lucky for you each day Blogger doesn't let me download is another day that you can refrain from being bored by our family trip photos - you must be living right.

a family trip tradition

My mind doesn't compute in order therefor the next few posts of our family vacation will be out of order.

As is tradition for our family when traveling to Utah, we always go to BYU to bowl.  It is cheap, allows you to escape the horrible heat (Summer) or frigid cold (Winter) and we all have a fun time.

The last few times we have gone we started taking a bowling shoe family portrait (photo below from our trip in December)  We thought we were being so creative with the number 6 on the ball since there are 6 of us in our family but we soon realized most of our "bowling shoe family portraits" will all look the same.  Oh well, we still do it anyway.

But hey, look at this - the ball from this Summer's traditional bowling trip says 12, we have a different portrait - Yippee!

We happened to run into the Webber's (who live by us) and some of the Udall's (that used to live by us) in the BYU bookstore so we challenged them to a game of bowling.  Everyone was up for the challenge except Wendy and Beth, something about not eating all day and needing food. Do they not know that truly dedicated bowlers sacrifice their nourishment needs for the game? I happen to think they were just scared - the food was just an excuse. 

We played on 3 lanes, adding up each families score so that one family would be crowned the ultimate winner.  Since this is my blog I feel justified in saying the Bakers swept the floor with the Webber/Udalls.  If you talk to any of the Webbers or Udalls and they tell you different just know it is because they are bitter poor sports.  It was a Baker victory all they way.

To protect the innocent (and the bad bowling scores) names have been changed.  Most of us went with the Harry theme although there were constant name changes on one of the lanes - each time someone would finish bowling they would look up to check their score on the screen and find there name changed yet again.

It was another fun trip to the bowling alley, made better because we got to be with good friends.  Thanks Webbers and Udalls for hanging out with us!

rest stop

We are finally home after a fun-filled week in Utah and a 12 hour drive home.  

Last night we hit a rest stop on the way home and we were all taken with how beautiful the sky was so our quick little potty break turned into an impromptu photo shoot.

for my friend wendy

NO LAUGHING!

Thanks for hanging out with us today. It wouldn't be a trip to the BYU Bookstore without you guys there.

uvu, byu and fry sauce whoo!

On the 2nd day of our trip, Saturday, we of coursed played in the snow most of the day but then headed over to Utah Valley University to watch Derek's nephew Davis play basketball. Davis (#25) plays for Southern Utah and they were playing UVU.  My whole family went (us, Grandma, Grandpa, my little bro. Garin, my sister Lauren and her hubby Brett.  Once we got there we met up with Derek's older sister Dena and her son Liam.

We also met up with Santa who seems to be a basketball fan - who knew?  Thanks Santa for coming over and talking to the kids - you saved us a trip to the mall.
While the b-ball game was going on so was the BYU bowl game (I also believe a Laker game was on - sports overload for Derek - all his favorite teams)  After the basketball game we headed over to Iceberg for food and Derek got to watch the end of the game.  The black and white of the picture is being used to help you feel Derek's mood about the game - dark and dismal.
While he suffered through the last bit of the game the rest of us happily devoured fries and onion rings dipped in that glorious Utah creation - fry sauce!  If we ever make a pros/cons list about Utah because of a move fry sauce will be on the pros side.
We also ordered Iceberg shakes which are gigantic.  These pictures don't even show you how big they are.  This one pictured below is a small.
Megan and I shared it and we still only made it to the top of the small sized cup (they have to double cup them because the shake comes so far out the top)  I think we were both ready to throw up - we were so full.  These shakes are a nice treat but I'll take my mini Golden Spoon any day.

The little late night snack was enjoyed by all - including Luke.

He enjoyed it so much he had to get every last bit of the goodness in him.  Yes, I realize this picture is super blurry but I had to post it.  Oh, the joy of being a kid - you can lick food of yourself and no one thinks twice about it.  I dare one of you adults to go and try that.

the things one can learn

We love our apple peeler but we were always under the assumption that it was for peeling and cutting apples - hence the name apple peeler.  

On our trip Grandma showed us that this magical tool is not just for apples but you can use it to peel potatoes too.  Do you hear the angels singing?  We love potatoes but none of us is fond of the peeling, especially when you have to peel a ton of potatoes (I think Megan could sustain life by just eating mash potatoes - she is addicted).  Now with our new found knowledge we can eat away because the nasty job of peeling has just gotten a whole lot easier.  Thanks Grandma!

let the christmas vacation posts begin

Here it goes - what used to be boring vacation slides in the good ol' days has turned into boring vacation posts on blogs - feel free to skim through the post stopping only when you feel a great desire to actually know what we're doing.

We were supposed to begin the long drive to Utah on Wed., December 17th but because of weather the Cajon Pass was closed as was I15 between Baker and the Nevada line.  We kept our eye on the weather and waited for the roads to open up and finally got on the road around 1pm on Thursday.  The plan was to stop halfway but we the weather was good and we had the energy to push through (amazing for us old people, huh?)  We finally pulled into Orem around 1am.

The kids wasted no time the next morning - they were up and out the door ready to experience snow.  The girls and Nate have been to the snow before but Nate remembers nothing and the girls don't remember much either.  

We pulled together some stylish snow outfits using snow clothes that my mom had picked up at various stores and from my little brothers closet (Derek and I took turns wearing my 14 yr old brothers camo pants - and if you are wondering....yes, we looked good in them!)  Megan wins for most stylish get-up.  She was looking pretty dang sweet in some way too short snow overalls and at beanie Derek brought back from Chile when he came home from his mission.

Snow balls fights started soon after we got outside.  I was spared because of the camera (at least for this first round of snow fun)

My brother Garin built this fun ramp in their backyard using an old swing set that was at the house when they bought it.  The kids were all game to try it until they got up to the top and then some nerves kicked in - not to worry though, after the first trip down they were sold and continued to sled own the ramp. 

Nate's first trip down (I know you're checking Derek out in those camo pants)...
Do you not love the shot below of him?!?!  Click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see his cute little face.
Emily's turn...
A spectacular finish to her ride.
Megan's first trip and I'm thinking she's having second thoughts...
Look at that Chilean beanie fly.
Like I said...she wins for most stylish outfit.  Look at it!  You know you are all jealous of it.
The first day out Luke was too nervous to do the ramp (He eventually got brave and then went on it a ton)  He was happy to spend his first day ever in the snow making snowballs and eating them.
How cute is he?  Seriously, his eyelashes, little tongue and cute cheeks that are starting to get cold.
Derek had to show off his sledding skills too.  Not sure what the face is about.  Maybe it's not the sled ride but the fact that he is a 6'4" grown man wearing a 14 yr old boys pants - that could be painful.

Of course there was some snow angel action going on too.

At the end of every snow adventure this was the scene...lots and lots of cold wet clothes dripping all over my moms dining room but also lots of happy chapped faces.