pics from spring haven 2018

here are a few...very few pictures from spring haven this year!

spring haven 2016

this was our sixteenth year at spring haven for my mom's family reunion. gosh i've loved this tradition. cherished it. sadly, our family is out growing it. i'm so glad brooklyn will have memories of it at least. another sad thing is that i barely took any pictures this year. although i did get some pretty special ones.

i love my grandparents and i'm so grateful for their desire for our family to do things like this so that we can create bonds and memories together,

the little ones got to bathe in the master bath tub one morning and they loved it! a big jetted tub? who wouldn't?!

spring haven is harder with a newborn and i'm grateful for willing hands to attend to and entertain my older girls. they loved spending time with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

it was just like every other year: lots of eating, late late late nights, and just flat out loving being together. it's always sad when it's over, but we always say, "the 24th celebration in cokeville is just around the corner." and thank goodness! it's so hard to say goodbye to so many loved ones after such a great time spent together.


so until the 24th weekend...


past spring haven posts: here, here, here, and here and here.

spring haven 2015.

spring haven was as good as always. you can't tell by how many pictures i took though. gosh. i hardly took any, and i'm kicking myself! however, james took video of the whole lip sync contest we had saturday night and i have thoroughly enjoyed watching those over and over again.

this year was tricky with the rooming situation as the room my parents' are assigned to also houses their married kids and grandkids. that's a lot of bodies in one room. so, james, brooklyn, and chandler tried tent-ing it the first night only to get soaked by the sprinklers. darn it. so it ended up 6 adults and 4 kids in one room. we were cozy.

keni and cutler loved being in the same room though. waking each other up in the middle of the night and all.

kayla and dev took one for the team and represented our family in the lip sync contest. bless them. i gladly provided my mixed tape from my sophomore year of high school and they put together a heckuva performance.

the adults sang 'farmer tan' as per everyone's favorite request but swore they're never doing it again. that can't be true. we won't let it be. farmer tan for life.

this was the last time for a looong time that our family will be all together at a reunion as dev and kenz move to arizona next month. so this picture was a must.

we also killed two birds with one stone and celebrated kayla and baby boy saturday afternoon. we mostly just like to hear the advice everyone gives and then eat the root beer floats, but kayla did score some good loot. we can't wait for baby rydalch to make his debut!

i love spring haven because of the food, the company, and the beautiful place we get to spend a whole weekend with our loved ones at (not in that order... necessarily). it's so nice to be able to visit with cousins, aunts, grandparents, and everyone else in between. it's a relaxing weekend with really not that much sleep. brooklyn is hooked and bawled when we got home sunday evening. in her prayers that night she prayed that if she made her bed good enough and cleaned her room that she'd be able to go back to spring haven. that's how we all feel brookie. darn it. 

and we're especially trying to soak up as much time with these two as we can. we sure are going to miss them and arizona feels like a world away. we can't help but be excited for you too.

p.s. i can't remember who, but whoever got the good pictures of the 'six of us' i would LOVE a copy. please and thank you!

spring haven 2014

we just spent our weekend at spring haven. one of my favorite weekends of the year. no cell service, no electronics, no sleeping, and just lots of family, food, and visiting. the other thing i like about spring haven is that there really aren't clocks anywhere, so the concept of time almost doesn't exist. and maybe that makes it go by more quickly. i don't know. either way, it's always a good time.

these three loved playing together. every morning they were excited that they got to play together again all day long. they were troopers too. they went to bed late and got up when they usually do. they definitely let their mamas know when it was time for naps during the day.

saturday, the traditions were the same. most of the women/girls worked out after a big sourdough pancake breakfast and then we all did family history. the guys went golfing or shooting guns and then everyone met back at the house for dinner and the talent show.

luckily, brooklyn performed her talents without any hesitation. i was really thinking she wouldn't do it because she acted pretty shy with several people all weekend. but she surprised me and got up there and 'read' her story (the napping house) and sang her song (i know heavenly father loves me). james and i were so proud of her.

the rest of the talent show was entertaining as usual. this picture is of addie knowing and singing all of the words the reynolds family sang. it was too cute!

the talent show wouldn't have been complete without 'farmer tan' by all the adult 'kids'. it's my favorite and always will be!

sunday, we had our usual family church/testimony meeting and then family pictures afterwards.

^^^it's been FOREVER since all 6 of us were at the same family event.^^^

and we had to get one of all of the girls with child.

^^^girl-sept. boy-aug. girl-june. boy-june.^^^

after pictures, everyone hustled to the kitchen to get sunday dinner ready. it takes an army to feed an army.

dinner was delicious. everyone spread out throughout the house to take naps, visit, and enjoy the beautiful views outside. it was so nice! however, during our nice relaxing time, we watched a swan fight. i've never seen anything like it. not fun to watch. i'm not sure i'll ever look at swans the same again. crazy!

the baby swans sure were cute though.

we don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep up this tradition, so we're definitely hanging on to every second we have there. spring haven has been such a great getaway for our big family. we all look forward to it and it's always exciting to bring a new member of the family. we might end up resorting to tents and campers just so we can keep the tradition alive.

(past spring haven posts: here, here, here, here, and here)


and we can hardly believe it, but we've made it to 36 weeks! exciting exciting!

h a p p y  t u e s d a y 

and 

baby month to us!

spring haven 2013

spring haven started out just like it always does, everyone showing up at different times, friday night. luckily for us, when we got there, dinner was ready. yum. food is one of the biggest parts of spring haven. everything revolves around the food. no joke.

there were lots of hugs, hellos, and some goodbyes. so sad to see you for two seconds britt and mike! good luck in oregon!

the eating continued long into the night until everyone finally went to bed.

saturday also started like a regular spring haven saturday. some people working out, a big sourdough pancake breakfast, and then lots of lounging around outside. brooklyn loved throwing rocks in the pond and could have done it all day. she loved finding big ones and "tiny baby" ones to throw as far as she could into the pond.

this tuckered her right out. uncle steve serenaded her right into a nap. james too.

while she slept, it was family history time. not only did we upgrade to bigger binders this year, but we added more than 20 pages worth and tabs to organize it all. my aunt chemene organizes it all and does such a great job. we all appreciate her so dang much.

after all the three little great-granddaughters had taken their naps, it was pool time.

look at these three in their polka dots.

baby liv loved every second. she splashed from the second she got in until the second she got out of that little plastic pool. brooklyn had a melt down in the middle of it and got out early. little stinker.

the men went golfing and the women prepared dinner. my aunt holly and aunt kayelani were in charge and it was a beautiful colorful meal. look at all these bright yummy salads. they were topped off with sloppy joes and neiman marcus bars. heaven.

the famous talent show got put on hold during the nba playoffs. it drew quite a crowd.

the talent show didn't disappoint. 

heart melting moment. brooklyn's first performance. grandma diane helped her sing i am a child of god. she wasn't scared one bit to do it. i was a proud mama.

grandpa doesn't do this often. it was truly a treat to hear him sing. 

farmer tan by the adults. my fave. it never gets old.

after church on sunday was a gazillion family pictures. james' cowboy suit included. it was hot and sunny but i think everyone got some really good shots. can't wait to see the big family picture.

then, more dinner prep. 

eating.

and naps.

like a lot of others, we had to cut out early and head home sunday evening. so sad to have to leave early. so much to be missed out on just leaving a half a day early. 

until next time spring haven.