Family Pictures

Jake flew back to Utah two days before we were to drive home.  We spent one last day with his family then headed back to Park City to pack up.  Of course we had to fit family pictures into these moments when we were all together.

 

 

 

  

The pose we liked the least is the only one Andelyne was calm in and Seth was happy in.

 

All the rest were more like this.

 

 

 

The Paul Family.  For taking this picture on a timer with no one making faces behind the camera for the little kids I think it turned out okay.

And you can't go wrong with silly faces.

 

BYU

My computer got a virus at the beginning of October.  I still haven't had it fixed, but was able to pull some pictures off.  I'll have a few summer posts then have to skip some because I still don't have access to all my summer picture.  I will pick up in the fall and try to catch up to current pictures.

 

At the end of July when we were out in Utah for the summer we went to visit BYU.  I felt it was my duty to show the boys where they'd be going to school some day :)  We walked around and as we did so I realized that it is not the same campus I left in 2003.  My freshman home, DT, is gone.  That was kind of sad because some of my best BYU memories are from freshman year.  There are new buildings and the old ones have had face lifts.  When I talk to my younger friends about certain buildings I sometimes get funny looks because the buildings I'm talking about no longer exist.  Am I getting old?!?!?  Anyway, we had a great time walking around, getting a jamba juice, and eating in the cougar eat.  What I enjoyed most about our visit was watching Tade.  He had a little sense of pride as we walked around.  This place that he's heard so much about or watched play football on TV was real and he was there in Cougar country.  I loved that he was loving it.

 

The Y is in the background, but it's hard to see in these pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olympic Park

Where we stayed in Park City was less than five minutes from the Utah Olympic Park.  This is where all the ski jumping, luge, bobsled and skeleton evens were held.  I have seen it from the road a million times over the years, but never actually gone up there.  We thought it would be the perfect thing to do on the day of the London opening ceremonies.  When we got there ski jump practice was going on.  It was amazing to watch and the kids were enthralled.  Andelyne seriously couldn't take her eyes off of the jumpers.  When made it even cooler for the kids was that the people jumping landed in a pool.  After watching this for a while and because it started to rain we headed inside to the museum.  There were all sorts of pictures and memorabilia from the 2002 Winter Olympics.  I loved it because having been in Utah and attended some of the events it meant more.  Plus I remembered seeing most of it.

These are the official ski jumps.  We didn't get very close to them, but I have much closer pictures that will be in a future post.

The practice ski jumps.  There are those who do practice on the dry big ones in the previous picture, but we just saw these water ones.

That's the bobsled and luge run in the background.

Inside the museum.

The bobsled

2002 mascots

These were used in the opening ceremonies.

Had to get a picture with the USA hockey stuff for Jake.

Curling, one of the events Jake and I went to back in 2002.  Not too exciting, but we were on the front row and made it one TV for a second.

Ski jump vs. downhill skis.

Watch Out!

This is what I remember.  Salt Lake City looked AMAZING for those two weeks!!

I even got to tell the kids that Jake and I held a real torch at the hockey game we went to.  Pretty fun.

Paul Family Reunion

Every three years for as long as I've been alive my family has had a large extended family reunion.  They started in Park City then as we grew larger that moved to Bear Lake.  The memories I have of these reunions are amazing.  For a week my dads side of the family would all get together.  We stayed in condos, water and jet skied, had planned games and craft activities each day and just hung out.  This is something I looked forward to every three years.  Three years ago was the last one we had.  It was in Midway Utah without grandma.  With he gone and the money finally running low it was time to end the tradition.  This year was the third year again.  We couldn't go cold turkey so we just had a two day reunion without lodging being provided.  It was still a great weekend.  I just love my family.  We are over 150 strong and I feel so comfortable with everyone.  For this year's reunion we started with Thursday evening climbing at Momentum.  It's an indoor climbing gym in SLC partially owned by my uncle.  This is a great connection when we're all in town because we get to climb for free.  Friday, day two, was spent on the water at Jordanelle.  We couldn't cut the water fun out of the reunion so we planned a day of boating and skiing.  It was a seriously beautiful day.  Day three was split in two.  During the day we had a pavilion rented in Alpine.  We ate, chatted and played.  My amazing cousin Jenny had activities for the kids.  They loved every minute of the day.  That evening we all met at a clubhouse and pool in Suncrest above Draper.  The kids had a blast in the heated pool with a lazy river and water slide while the parents sat around and chatted.

It was so sad as the evening came to a close.  With the families getting bigger and bigger it's harder to get everyone together.  I am so used to seeing everyone every three years, but knowing that is coming so a close makes me sad.  I want my kids to have what I had with all those amazing memories.

At the end of the weekend I asked Seth if he had fun with all of our family.  He looked at me kind of strangely.  I said that yes they were ALL family not just random people we got together.  The look on his face was priceless.  He was so excited that he had such a huge awesome family with so many cousins, second cousins, once removed cousins, aunts and uncles.  There are a million of us and he got to meet them all.

Day One: Momentum

Tade got to the top a million times.  I was so proud of him.  I went to the top twice and my arms and legs were shaking like crazy.  Looks like someone needs to start working out.

Brielle and Tade showed us all up.

This was the first year these two were able to do the big wall.  They did such a great job.

Andelyne just wandered and played on the small wall and played with her cousins.  I loved having Annalise and Simone there so entertain Andelyne.  It was such a big help.

Yeah, this wall was no challenge to the big kids.

Day Two: Jordanelle State Park

The sky was so blue and the clouds were so white.  It was a beautiful day on the water.

Off the water, but still wet, activities.

I didn't take many pictures on the water.  I got none on the speed boat, but here are a few from the pontoon boat.

Tade felt so cool driving.

This little girl HATED the life jackets and on top of that she wouldn't sit still.  It was not a fun ride.

The life jacket rode up into her face.  Probably the reason she hated it.

The best part of the day were the jet skis.  I was out on them for a long time and loved every minute of it.

Day Three: Alpine Park

Once again my wonderful niece playing with Andelyne.  I miss them.

Water balloon time!

Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere!

This is Andelyne with Andelyne.  We named Andelyne after my awesome cousin.

Day Three: Suncrest

The kids loved this pool.  Seth pretty much lived on that water slide.

The Andelynes again.  My Andelyne loves looking at the pictures.  She points back and forth to her and my cousin saying, "Andelyne, Andelyne."

This is Tade's favorite cousin of mine with his little girl.  Benton is a musician.  He toured with David Archuletta and we were able to take Tade with us to the show when it was in Baltimore.  He has a Benton Paul tshirt and everything.  He is pretty much a celebrity to Tade.  Whenever Benton would be around us Tade would get quiet, smile, and say, "look mom it's Benton."

Thank you Paul family for another memorable reunion.  I know it didn't last nearly long enough, but it was so good seeing everyone.  Debbie, I know you will probably never see this, but you are amazing.  You pulled all of this off!