Lava Family Reunion 2013

Every year McKay's step mom's family has a family reunion at Lava Hot springs.  They camp in a campground there and then spend their days hanging out, eating food, going down the river, and swimming in the pools.  Last year the reunion fell over Adalyn's birthday and we got to celebrate her first birthday with everyone.  Liz's family LOVES Adalyn and spoils her rotten so it is fun to celebrate with them.  This year the reunion was the week right before her birthday.  Unfortunately McKay was/is pretty busy at work so we were not able to take any days off for the reunion, but we did go down one afternoon for swimming and dinner.

Originally I wasn't too excited about the swimming.  I thought both kids would have to be held the whole time in the water because it would be too deep and I am not usually a huge fan of swimming in general.  But when we got there we learned that they had just built a new kids playground section that A. was in warm water B. The playground was under a cover (no sun burns for Jensen) C. Had shallow water that both kids could sit/walk in and play.  Adalyn and Jensen had a blast!  Adalyn loved exploring on her own and going down the slide.  She also loved playing with her cousin Madison who was very helpful in entertaining her.  Jensen loved crawling around and getting sprayed by water.

As a parent it was just one of those fun moments where you can sit back and watch your kids having the time of their lives.  I loved it, even if we never even made it out to the big pools and water slides.

Going down the slide... She would only go down if someone held her hand, but Aunt Jennifer was always willing.

Playing with cousins

After a few hours of swimming, Jensen fell asleep in his stroller so Grandma Liz volunteered to push him back to the camp ground while Adalyn and Madison played for a little longer.

Then we changed and headed to the camp site for dinner.  For dinner we had white bean chicken chili and it was SO good.  Liz's sister's husband is the most amazing cook.  Some days I wish I lived at his house because he does all of the cooking and is REALLY good at it.  Like everything is homemade and done from scratch kind of yummy.  I still remember this delicious clam chowder that he made last year it was SO good and I do not even like clam chowder normally.  This year did not disappoint either and I may have had two big bowls of it.  :)

After dinner and a quick catch up with the family we headed home.  It was a late night, but so worth it.  I still smile when I remember how much fun the kids had in the pool.  We will definitely be trying to fit in another visit to the pool before this summer is over.  Idaho Falls definitely lacks in nice swimming pools so the hour and a half drive is worth it to get the better set up.  Oh summer we hope you stick around for as long as possible!  Definitely has been a little bit easier of a summer not being pregnant like I was the last two summers. Kinda nice!