4th of July in Bear Lake

I LOVE Bear Lake.  It holds such a tender part of my heart.  We don't make it up there as often as I wish but we always head up on  July 4th and for Raspberry days.   We spend several days boating, swimming, playing in the sand and water and of course eating!

I am so horrible at taking photos.  I never want to distract from the fun I  am enjoying and have got to get better at taking photos!!  Jen, Jer and their kids and Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Steve joined us.  We had such an incredible time!  The entire family has gotten into kayaking I think we had 7 (or 9) Kayaks there.  So fun.  Kinni mostly just loved sitting here.  He sat just like this for several hours!

Sweet baby Leah!  Okay, she's not a baby but that is what we have always called her!  Hopefully she can shed the  nickname sooner than Jordan and Mannie did!

Kids on the kayaks!

Does this baby have it made or what???  Seriously he is a rock star around these parts!

I am a little unsure if Jord was MIA!  Neither Kim or myself snapped a photo of her!  She was there.. I promise!  We also rented a trampoline on the water and the kids LOVED it.  There was a giant blob where the kids could be launched into the air and that they were!  What a great time!!  Thanks to my sweet hubby who drives our boat for HOURS every day so everyone can have fun on the water!!  Speaking of water...  The water was the warmest I have ever felt in Bear Lake!  Delightful!!

Grandma Pickett

On July 1 Grandma Pickett left her earthly body and joined my Grandpa Pickett!  I was lucky enough as a child to have 4 Grandparents who all lived within 2 blocks of me.  My Grandpa Pickett had been my only living Grandparent for the last 7 years.  She was an excellent Grandma.  She loved me and my children and cared deeply.  She was a fantastic grandma to me as an adult and as a child.

Grandpa spend countless hours supporting me as a kid.  She shopped with me, drove me places and cleaned with me.  Grandma was a clean freak!  I certainly learned the value of a clean house from her and my mom.  She was a fierce candy maker and on every holiday  make Boston piano recitals and put together some incredible program.  She threw the best family parties ever and I have so many memories from Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving and Halloween.  Every holiday had a tradition and we were loyal to those traditions!

Grandma was intense!  I mean intense!  Everything she did was with passion!  She attended nearly every sporting event I ever participated in.  She did the same for all my siblings and cousins.  Grandma was so candid and funny!  Her direct personality was a blessing!  You always knew where you stood.

My Grandma loved the gospel.  She lived it every day and was proud of her membership in the Church.  She held it sacred.

My  Grandma grew up in Wellsville and I have early memories of attending the "Founders Day" celebration every Labor Day.  To this day we attend that celebration.  Grandma loved Wellsville and so do I.  When she was in the nursing home we would spend a lot of time talking about Wellsvile and it's citizens.  Grandma left a great legacy here.  In my ward alone there are 5 families who are direct descendants of my Grandma.  What a blessing!!!

My sweet Grandma loved me as an adult.  She worried sick about me and the girls and thanked Jeff endlessly when we got married because he could now take care of us.   Grandma was able to attend our wedding in good health which was a huge blessing to me.  I wish she would have been able to attend our sealing but her health wouldn't allow it.  We certainly felt her presence that day!!

I will forever be grateful to Grandma for having such a profound influence in my life.  She has certainly played a large role in my life and not a day goes by that I don't think about her and hear her voice in my head.  I love her, I love the legacy she left of hard work and love.  Thank you Grandma for being you!!

Pickett Family Reunion

On June 29th we had our annual Pickett reunion.  When I was a little girls this reunion lasted for several days.  We would go to Bear Lake, Jackson Hole or some fun destination making memories together.  Now, all of the "grandkids" have growing families of their own and everyone is going in a million different directions.  So, we have one afternoon of fun and catching up.  This year was so special because my Grandma's health was failing and she was literally dying.  Everyone aunt and uncle and every cousin with the exception of my cousin Ross and his wife who are doing an internship in Ghana, Africa and my cousin Kylee whose kids were busy and Ryan who was working made the reunion.  What a tender blessing!!  I love my family.  I feel so blessed and humbled to come from a family where ties are strong and family is a priority!  Jeff took photos which is why we have more than 2 or 3!!

 The kids had a huge water fight.  Kinni joining the fun!

 Jord, Kinni, Summer (I think, my cousin Judd's daughter) and Mannie

 Steve, Craig and Daddio

 Playing a "get to know you" Bingo game

 Aunt Wendy, Aunt Chay, Uncle Blake

 Brooks (Brent's son) and Mae Mae

 Jen's sweet boys.  Sether, Ian and Luke

 The kids eating!

 Water fight f un!

 All of the girl cousins in the Pickett family!  Those are some awesome women!

 Evelyn (Evie) Katie's daughter

 Water guns!!

 Tay and Jonsie (Jonah)

 Tay and Kinni

 Jeff and Jord

 Love both of these babies!  Kinni and Leah

 My sweet fam after the water fight!  Jeff had to join the fun.  

Kinni with an otter pop.  Love him!!

Thanks to my Mom, Aunt Carolyn and Aunt Wendee who all helped organize this.  Thanks to my awesome grandparents who raised such an excellent family of which I am blessed to be a part!!

St George (trip 1)

The girls and I have made several trips to St. George this summer (okay 2)!  The first of our trips Tay was at girls camp so Jord and I decided to take off!  We ended up going with my cousin and her darling boys Cole and Jonah and my niece Gina.

We had such an awesome time!  It was SOOO hot, like 116 hot!  So we stayed inside in the heat of the day.  We hit a movie and relaxed at home.  We also hit the Washington City pool, which is one of our favorites.  We hiked and of course drove through SWIG's!  DELIGHTFUL  We ended our trip with a night time walk through the St. George temple grounds.  I love this temple!

As usual, I didn't take many photos but here is what I have.

 Here are the kids on our hike up the Red Rocks!  Super fun and pretty!

 Gina is an awesome photographer and she took some great photos.

 Here are the kids on the steps of the temple.  DARLING!!!

 Cute Jonah!  Can you just see the fire in his eyes?  Between he and Jordan we were laughing all of the time!  Quiet game.. Pause..  UnPause...  Inside Joke!

We were in St. George during the time of the "super moon" it was beautiful!!

RAGNAR 2013

For the last several years (3 or 4) on a weekend in June we head to Park City to watch the men in our family run the RAGNAR relay race.  It is not quite as simple as "heading to Park City."  We take a severely distorted and much longer route to Park City as we follow our team at the RAGNAR relay.  We love it!!!  There are usually  4 or 5 women and what seems to be about 37 children!!

The girls and I made Jeff a "Good Luck" poster.  Because the team was driving our suburban the girls and I were lucky enough to decorate the car.  It was a blast.

It is hard to see this but I wrote "have a bar and go to bed."  At the time of the race my sweet Grandmother was dying.  On several occasions when my family was talking about exercise or running she would say, "you should all just have a bar (candy bar) and go to bed."  So funny!!  Many nights Grandma did have a bar (O'Aggie) and go to bed.  In fact she kept a stash in her night stand!  LOVE IT!!

The day starts early as each relay team must have 3 volunteers.  This year Kim, Jill and I volunteered at the start line and had a great time!  I must say everyone loved us!  But hey, why wouldn't they:)

After we finished our time at the start line we dropped by Providence to see Shea finish up and hand to slap bracelet to Jeff.  Then we gathered all of the children and headed to Hyrum.  These were the first of many stops.

 JT finishing up in Hyrum.  He ran great!

Reag entertaining Kinni out at Mtn Crest.

Our next stop was in Liberty Utah.  Sweet Mae Mae rode in my car with me and she just couldn't quite make the drive!  How darling is she???  LOVE HER!

We made it to Liberty to watch Adam.  The kids found their own entertainment!

After this stop we headed to the Canyons resort at Park City.  The kids swam and we laughed and laughed and laughed!  So FUN!!

The next day we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  YUM!  The men finished SO fast we actually didn't make it from our hotel to the finish line in time!  I felt really bad.  They ran the race faster than last year and finished like 30th out of 1200 teams.  WOW!  

Here we are at the finish line!

 So proud of JT

 Tay loves her Jeffey!

 Taylor's good friend Brooklyn's dad ran with the team this year.  We love the Billings and they have became great friends of ours!

 The Elden Dattage RAGNAR team for 2013.  AWESOME!

 Here is a photo of all of the Wellsville runners.  The men in the dark shirts were all on the Dattage towing team.  The lighter blue shirts are in our ward and on another team.

Ben Leishman, Brandon Corbett,  Jeff,  Scott & Lori Meeker

Jon Jenkins & Shea

Have I mentioned that we LOVE living in Wellsville??

 At the finish line we soon found out that Shea had become a fitness model.  RAGNAR puts together huge boards of photos and Shea made the cut.  You can't really see but his photo was rather large!  LOVE IT!

Last but not least, ROG!  We met Rog (Roger) at the start line and saw him throughout the race.  It was a laugh every time we saw him!  

After the race we all stayed another night and did the Alpine slides, swam and of course ate some more!

 Jeff had to fly out on Sunday and was found by his good friend doing this at the airport!  I can't blame him!  Job well done and he deserves a reward!  Love this man!!