This time our reunion was hosted by Tana which meant we all headed to Denver! We picked the boys up from their Chicago trip at the Boise airport and headed to Pocatello to stay a couple of days at Grandma and Grandpa's along the way.
On Friday we headed up to Rexburg to check out where Rick use to go to school...now BYU-Idado for a trip down memory lane.
The kids were excited to drive by his old apartment complex...
...we even got to see the inside of his actual apartment he lived in.
Ashlyn loved our time walking around campus and bought a souvenir sweatshirt. She says BYU-Idaho is where she is going to go to college.
It was fun to walk around the new temple grounds and check out the beautiful view since it sits on a hill over looking town.
Our last stop in town was to Dad's favorite pizza place when he was in college...but it was bought out and is now Pizza Pie Cafe - TASTY!!
On the way back to Pocatello, we stopped at the Idaho Falls temple, where Grandma and Grandpa were married. That afternoon Aunt Shannon's family got to Pocatello and had fun hanging out.
The next morning we all got up and started the trek down to Denver. Aunt Shannon's family stopped with us in Soda Springs, Idaho, to taste the soda water at Hooper Springs.
Blake thought we were pulling his leg, that there was NO possible way that cold carbonated water came out of the ground. He was pleasantly surprised!
We brought different flavoring packets to add to the water thank goodness, because it was pretty gross by itself. Aunt Shannon's kids refilled their cups to take on the drive they liked it so much.
Then we hit the road to get to Denver. The evening we got in we headed straight to Steak n Shake of course... and we may or may not have gone their a few other times while we were there as well.
The next day Rick, Blake and I headed to the Water World, but Ashlyn decided to stay and help out Aunt Tana with getting things ready for the reunion. We had a BLAST and will definitely go back if we are in Denver again in the summer!
That evening everybody had made it to Denver and the fun began! Tana reserved their clubhouse for us to use and it was perfect! The first evening we played Family Feud, visited and had ice cream sundaes.
All the kids had a big sleepover each nigh at Aunt Tana's and the adults all stayed at the Marriott Nathan use to work at.
Monday morning a lot of people went to hang out at the Denver Broncos training camp to watch practice and get autographs - Uncle Devin was in HEAVEN! The rest of us stayed to babysit. The kids had a good time working on some crafts.
That afternoon we headed out to a reservoir to go swimming. We planned on renting paddle boards, paddle boats and kayaks, but the rental place wouldn't let us rent things after 3 o'clock. So we had fun swimming and having a picnic dinner instead.
It was pretty chilly water so it turned into a race to see who could get all the way in and swim out to the buoy....Blake started the swim first, but Aunt Shannon couldn't be out done and chased after him and winning the race...right before the ranger came and yelled at them for being outside the swimming area.
The kids had fun playing in the sand..
...and of course there was a water fight...
...Maddie didn't want any part of it, but Zach was nice enough to make sure she didn't feel left out.
The next day Uncle Marvin met up with us on his way to Alaska!
Tana and Dad hopped on the bike too and we drove up to
St. Mary's Glacier to go hiking.
It was a steep hike, but thankfully not really long and soooo beautiful!
Once we got to the lake we stopped to take pictures...
All the cousins in order. We were missing Mariah at #5 and Mason at #7 spot though since Aunt Tammy's family wasn't able to make it.
The whole group!
Then some of us hike to the base of the glacier, while others stayed with the little kids at the lake.
Then the Harrisons, Thornes, Uncle Marvin and Ryleigh hiked up on the glacier. It was sooo nice and cool up there after the hot hike up. Ryleigh was a trooper hiking up, but we had to do some major convincing to get her to walk out on it to get her picture since it was a little slippery. She was shivering when we took this picture! She was pretty proud that she made it all the way up there when lots of adults didn't get that high.
That evening was the adult only dinner at Patsi's Pizza, Chicago style deep dish pizza. Delicious!
The next morning Aunt Vicki surprised us a flew in the night before! We were shocked and so exited to see her! We went out to breakfast and then toured Hammond's Candy Factory with her before they had to continue on their motorcycle ride to Alaska.
The kids had fun watching all the candy be made...
...and getting the huge lollipop they gave them at the end of the tour.
Then Uncle Marvin told all of the kids to pick something out and meet him at the cash register. He was like Santa Claus passing it all out afterwards.
After the tour Aunt Vicki and Uncle Marvin hit the road and the rest of us headed to downtown Denver for some sightseeing and for a picnic lunch.
We picnicked at a park that had all kind of food trucks and corn hole set up, so the kids tried it out for awhile. We toured the Capitol and then hit the main shopping area.
It was pretty funny walking around downtown with such a big group! We didn't last long since it was sooo hot before heading back to swim at Tana's clubhouse pool. There was LOTS of swimming while we were there!
That night lots of people went to a Colorado Rockie's game.
The rest of us stayed back at Tana's to babysit...and of course got some ice cream!
The next morning it was time to all head home. Aunt Tana's family, Uncle Travis' family hit the road with us and headed to Mt. Rushmore first though.
None of the Harrison's had been to Nebraska before so we decided to go about 20 minutes out of the way to add that state to our list.
Randomly, Ashly saw Chimney Rock (a popular place that the pioneers stopped at along the trail) in the distance...who knew it was in the middle of nowhere Nebraska! We were shocked she recognized it, but she Googled it to prove she was right. So we stopped really quick, only to find out it is on private land and we couldn't get any closer than this.
It was great to take the kids to such a patriotic place! They loved it.
We all did the walking trail around and enjoyed seeing the original sculpture that Borglum created to use as a model of what the mountain was suppose to look like (he died before he finished) and see the video about how they went about carving the famous faces.
And of course we had to stay for the night show.
We were sad that they don't do fireworks anymore though, and they didn't play the anthems of the different branches of the military to recognize veterans anymore either, but had them all come up on stage instead...it wasn't the same.
The next morning Uncle Travis' family hit the road but the rest of us went to explore the
Blackhills Caverns.
The kids had fun exploring.
That afternoon we headed to Custer's Park, beautiful scenery!
We had a picnic lunch at the lake that was in the National Treasure movie and then everybody went swimming. The boys had a hard time not jumping off the rocks, even though the signs said you weren't suppose to.
Then we drove the wild life loop and saw TONS of buffalo!
Along with wild donkeys that weren't shy at all.
It was a beautiful drive. I love that area with all the rocky hills!
Then we grabbed pizza and headed back to the hotel to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. It was a CRAZY long adventure but we sure had a GREAT time! Thanks Tana for hosting such a fun reunion! We can't wait to see where Tammy moves to and where we will all head to for the next McDowell reunion!
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