Sandberg Reunion- Friday Night Bonfire and Saturday Playtime

The Rex Sandberg family reunion was two weeks ago at the Sandberg Ranch.  We had a record 92 people attend, although we were still missing about 30 people. This year though there were quite a few cousins who were able to make it who hadn't come for the past few years.

Friday night was the usual hot dog roast and campfire songs. It's fun to see all the cousins' kids playing together like we used to play together as kids.

Saturday morning some people worked on the service project, putting a new porch on the bathhouse, while others did crafts and got the horseshoe tournament started (and some did all three). 

Micah was still trying to figure out the playground equipment and fell off the carousal (is that what those things are called??)

My dad competes in the horseshoe competition.

More cousins kids playing around. We are so lucky to have the Ranch where we have plenty of room to play! A few years ago the heirs (my grandpa's siblings children) almost sold it, but they ended up agreeing to sell it to my Dad and all his siblings, so now its in our family to stay. 

I love how happy they all look. Hanging out and having fun with family, that's what a family reunion is all about.

Llamas in the background.

Room for a baseball game in the background, kids playing on the playground in the front, and right next to that the horseshoe tournament.

I looked up and saw Katrina coming down the hill with all her kids (minus the baby). There goes Bret in the lower right hand corner to help her out. The kids weren't expecting such a steep hill when they said they wanted to go that way on their hike and didn't want to let go of their mom.

Horseshoes, playground, baseball, and a lot of open space.

Tracy Aviary

One Friday in back in May, Tracy Aviary had a free day for families of students and employees of Head Start, and since my Mom works for Head Start we thought it would be a fun outing to take the kids. I've only been there once on a field trip when I was in elementary and all I remember was one little building with birds. I'm guessing my memory is a little hazy and there really was a little more there, but it also looks like they have done a lot of expanding recently. It is almost like a little zoo, but full of birds, of course! We spent an enjoyable two hours there.

The best looking birds

The peacocks have free roam of the place so you will find them hanging out all over.

 More peacock sightings

 It was so cool to see all these pelicans together. They are just such cool large birds.  Actually, I enjoyed seeing all the large birds they had, such as the condors and eagles as well.

Zion- Sunset and Night Pictures

One evening at after a hot day at Zion we rode the tram up the caynon a bit and everyone but Robert and Kevin went for an easy hike/walk back to the museum. Robert and Kevin brought their bikes and stopped at one of the bridges to take sunset and night pictures. Only, I guess I was the only one who knew they were taking night pictures as well, everyone else thought they were just taking sunset pictures. I went to bed when the kids went to bed and the rest of the family started to worry when Robert and Kevin weren't back after it got dark. The purpose of the bikes was so they could stay as long as they wanted without having to worry about catching the last tram back. I think they ended up coming back around 11:00 pm, which was actually earlier than I was expecting, but much later than everyone else thought.

Some of Robert's pictures from the evening. I'm not sure if he means to edit these in some cool way, but here are the normal pictures since it may be a year until he gets around to that.

Zion- Wheat Family Pictures

We took these just behind our campground, it was beautiful, but afterwards we were all sitting around the camp picking stickers off of our shoes because all that yellow grass was full of stickers!

Here's the outtake

Family Pictures

Too bad Cam-man's not looking

Zion- Biking down Zion Canyon

 This is mostly a picture post. The only place you are allowed to ride bikes in Zion is along the road and on one paved trail near the visitor center. One morning the boys all took the shuttle to the top of the canyon and rode their bikes down, stopping along the way to take pictures.

And finally back at the camp.