Hannagan Meadow Part 2: 1st Annual Don Innes Family Reunion

WE had our First Don Innes Family Reunion! It was a great Success. Here is all the family in attendance. The only person missing our handsome little brother who is faithfully serving a mission for the LDS church in Argentina. He comes home in October! Yeah!

Savannah absolutely loved this cowboy hat. We couldn't resist letting her wear it for the pics. We're in the moutains right?

Daddy and Baby Malin taking a much needed nap in the cabin. Baby Malin was up 4 hours every night. He didn't do well away from his own bed this time.

Uncle Ryan having fun with his little Bud, and only Nephew so far.

Baby Malin is telling us something really important....can you tell?

The parents and their goofy smiles....... Pregnant body at 23 weeks.

Aubrey, Malin and Savannah. Love em.

The kids with their Aunt Leisel.

Dad and Mom leading our first family council! Mom did a great JOB on the family history. I really grew more love for my ancestors. What a great heritage we have.Most of the family posing for a fun picture. Missing is Malin(napping iwth Baby Malin) and me, taking the pic.

Our little Family. All the sisters. Rikki on the right is due in October. I'm due in December. All the other sisters aren't pregnant, get it?

Aunts Jill and Leisel did a great job sending the kids on a scavenger hunt throught meadow. They loved the treasure(candy)

Aubrey zonked out as soon as we left. She was EXHAUSTED,

This is the cabin we stayed in.

This is Bill. He's the manager of the Lodge. They call him WildBill because of his role in various movies, including "Postman" with Kevin Costner. He is a TRUE cowboy. He was SO nice too.

Dad and drew, and Ryan were making Baby Malin laugh.

It was a wonderful first Reunion! Thank Mom and Dad for all your hardwork!!

Check out hannagens meadow here if you are looking for a cool get away in Arizona.

http://www.hannaganmeadow.com/

Hannagen Meadow Part1: Camping with our little family.

On July 30th, we packed up all our camping gear, plus more for the following days at Hannagen Meadow Lodge, and left Maricopa at 9 AM. We stopped at Best Buy in chandler to get a Mini DV for our Video Camera. We then made our way to Payson, where we stopped to eat lunch and take a potty break at Mcdonald's. We visited Safeway next to buy food for our campout that night. We though we might camp in Payson for the night, but it was 95 degrees there! So, we kept driving. When we got to Sholow, we thought we might camp there, but it was still 90 degrees! So, we stopped at Walmart to buy more food for our weekend at the lodge. (that's the next post) and took a potty break again. We made it to Greer and it was still hot there.....SO we decided to just drive until it got to at least 70 degrees. Like we thought it might be, it didn't hit 75 degrees until we got to Hannagens Meadow so we finally made it there..........at........6 PM!!!! That's the reason I wrote everything we did, because we turned a 5 hour trip into an 8 hour trip. We could have added one more hour and made it to Utah! Anyways, my point is, when you are driving with kids, plan alot more time just to get there! Anyhoo, Hannagens Meadow is in the White Mountains and it sits at the highest point at 9000+ feet elevation. Hannagens Meadow Lodge has been around since about 1926 and is currently owned by my Uncle Larry Innes. It's SO beautiful. WE planned on attending the 1st Annual Don Innes Family Reunion on Thursday 31st through Saturday 2nd. So we decided to go up a day early on Wednesday and have a vacation with our kids. Let me just say that camping with 3 kids is not a vacation....NO sirree. Here is Malin and Savannah standing next to the tent they just put together. We put another smaller one right next to it, with the doors facing each other, and that's where Savannah and Aubrey slept. Surprisingly, they slept all night! Never got cold at all! Baby Malin and Aubrey where so glad to finally get out of the car. They had fun playing pretend in the forest. Baby Malin loved his little shovel. Aubrey loved her own camping chair. BYU baby filling his tractor with pine needles. Cute.... On the 31st we went fishing in the Black River. IT was breathtaking. Malin didn't have much luck because the water was a little too fast. We found out later that we didn't go down the river far enough where the reserve was. Bummer. It was still a beautiful drive though. Savannah found a lizard doing pushups on the bridge. She isn't very happy in this picture because we told her she had to get back in the car.....what little kid wants to get in a car when you are in the mountains?

Dad and the girls next to the Black River

Aubrey, Mommy and Savannah reading books and coloring while daddy fished. Baby Malin is asleep in the car not too far from us. We also got a kickout out of hide and seek. The girls hid and daddy found them. Savannah hid by the river and made bird sounds to distract daddy. It was pretty funny. We camped by an LDS family from Mesa. They had six kids ages, 19, 18, 17, 16, 14 and 13. WO! Crazy! and only one girl! They were very nice. They gave the kids some glow sticks too. We packed up about 1pm and then took a drive to Alpine to eat lunch. While we there we spotted 20 elk in the middle of a pasture right smack dab in the middle of Alpine! Malin wanted to go Elk hunting.......right there. After eating we made our way back to Hannagens Meadow Lodge to meet the family and start the family Reunion! See next post for full details and pictures!

Happy 16th Birthday Aunt Julianne!

Aunt Juliianne turned 16 on July 28th 2008! We just want to express how much we love and adore Julianne. She is smart, polite, humble, very positive, helpful, very grateful, kind to everyone and very unselfish. That is Julianne. Thanks for helping us so much Julianne and always being willing to babysit when we go to the temple, date night, etc. We love you SO MUCH!!!!

Personalities....

Little Miss Aubrey wanted me to take a picture of her all ready for church.....she is definately a cutie. She's wearing the new headband I made her at Sisters Retreat. Aubrey is a smarty pants. She is always telling me the new things she's learned........she amazes me! I caught the kids sitting together eating their popsicle. They know they can't eat on the carpet so when I tell them to go in the kitchen with it, they always sit right on the edge of the tile and the carpet. That's our kids for ya. Popsicles are a food group in our home. I just had to stop buying them so they would eat something else! This picture explains alot about our kids. Malin's little mischevious face describes his ability to tease his sisters and make them scream. and when he's in trouble, he gives us this face and then laughs......we try to hold our laughter in. Helikes to make this face because he knows we'll laugh. He loves to dance and he's really goo at it! He makes this smile when he dances. Mischevious is our Malin in a nutshell. Aubrey's face explains her innocence. She is so cute and doesn't know it. She always has something profound to say. Notice how she's so close to her sister? She LOVES her sister. When she learns some thing, she says " Mommy look, I'm doing it like Savannah!" I am told often by her Sunbeam teacher that she is always telling the girls in her class to be reverent. She makes parenting easy. Savannah's face......oh where do I start. She looks innocent, but she knows how to pull mommies strings. She is definately the oldest child and she has all the symptoms. She knows how to persuade her sister when she wants something and she always wants to take charge when she and Aubrey play house, store, barbies, or school. She is definately a big helper and wants to help all the time. FOR ExAMPLE, a couple Sundays ago, Savannah said she wanted to do the dishes. Ok, I thought, I'll let her try. Wow, was I surprised. She unloaded the whole dishwasher and then rinsed and loaded all the dirty dishes WHILE we were eating dinner. We tole her she could come eat, but she said, " no, I need to finish these dishes and then I'll come eat." What? Is this how it is? Hopefully she'll never get tired of doing the dishes! So, I love my kids and this picture is perfect for this stage in their lives.

Baby Malin starts Nursery

Our little boy is rapidly becoming the cutest kid on the block. He is pure boy. He recently started Nursery and is doing great! I can't believe how much I love that kid. He is so cute. I love to snuggle with him, even in the middle of the night(ugh) and I especially love when he says "mama" over and over again as he falls asleep in my arms. When you have your first child, you worry that you won't be able to love the 2nd, 3rd, etc as much as the first. But, I'm here to tell you that each child is SO special. I love em all SOOO MUCH.

Pioneer Day in Thatcher July 19th,08

*Warning, this is a long post with no pictures* Read if you have the time. After the reception we drove to Thatcher that night. It was nice and cool there and we dreaded the day when we had to leave and go back to the hot valley. The next day was Saturday and we planned on going to the annual Pioneer Day Celebration. It was great!!! IT started with a parade and that's when the fun came. It started raining.......nonstop. But that didn't stop anyone. The parade stil continued and people smiled through the pooring rain, waving at people watching the parade. There was several floats depicting the new temple that will be coming to the Gila Valley very soon. After the parade, we made our way to the EAC footbal field for BBQ beef dinner, games for the kids, a wonderful presentation, and awesome fireworks. Ofcourse, the rain did not stop, but that didn't stop us from camping out in the football field and eating a YUMMY BBQ beef meal complete with beans, coleslaw, homemade rolls and apple and ice cream. My Dad was Master planner of the BBQ meal and he said, regardless of the rain, they still served 1400 people! Great job Dad! Sister Jillian had been practicing with a group of youth for a wonderful pioneer show complete with costumes, singing and dancing. They did it all in the rain and it was very well done and very sweet. Jillian stoled the show when she and her dance partner where the only ones that did a crazy lift comple with her going through his legs and being thrown in the air! They also recognized two modern day pioneers with a slide show and music and live DJ. Yes, all in th rain. The DJ was prepared for rain and he had everything covered so the show could go on. Immediately following the show, we were READY to get out of the rain. BUT, off went the lights and up went the fireworks. Smart move to get people to stay for the fireworks...WE couldn't see anything even if we wanted to leave! I'm so glad we stayed...that was the best part. The DJ played very patriotical songs while the fireworks went off nonstop and I have to admit, I started singing along and even cried a little. Especially on the song, God Bless the USA. And the cutest part was Aubrey yelling through the rain, " Mom, I can feel it in my heart." Just think of these words " If tomorrow all the things were gone, I'd worked for all my life, and I had to start again, with just my children and my wife. I'd thank my lucky stars to be living here today....cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away. " At that point, rain was the last thing on my mind and I thoroughly enjoyed being with my husband and kids watching fireworks in the POURING RAIN. All we could do was laugh and smile and kiss our kids. MEMORIES! I love my family. They are so good to me. They make me so happy. So, you can guess why we don't have any pictures?! WE attended church on Sunday and enjoyed leftover BBQ beef and homemade rolls for Dinner. Mom insisted we leave the girls to visit Grandma's house for the weekend. They were so excited!!! It was so funny as we were leaving. Savannah kept saying ," Mom, are you leaving yet? I need to go play!" Needless to say, they had a great time and G&G spoiled them! They went to the library, ate lunch with Grandpa Doctor at the hospital, went swimming at Konopnicki cousins house, played slip and slide, got their hair done beautifully every morning by Aunt Jillian and even got used cheerleading outfits from Aunt Leisel and Jillian. That's what happens when you're aunts are in spiritline:) They even taught them a Thatcher Eagle cheer. They also enjoyed Mcdonald's, playing the Wii, and Grandma gave them some chores too. Good! They're good little workers. Grandma said they fell into bed everynight. They played hard. Malin and I picked them up Thursday night the 24th, in Globe. We were so happy to be back together as a family. I got SO much done at home that week. WOW, it's amazing how much I can do with only one kid at my feet. I forgot! Baby Malin was my little side kick as I organized my whole filing cabinet, sanded and refinished an old console table that I have been wanting to do for a whole year(It's been sitting in our garage), deep cleaned the garage, organized my pantry complete with labels, cleaned and sanitized the whole house in 5 hours(that never happens with three kids), and ofcourse took lots of naps and watched movies. I missed my girls, but oh it was a good feeling to get caught up on some much needed projects. I even went on a date with my Husband.

Brooke and Amron's Wedding July 18th, 08

My first cousin, Brooke Richardson, got married for eternity in the Mesa Arizona Temple on July 18th, 08 at 9:00 AM. What a beautiful couple they are!! It was a SCORCHING day and we were indeed grateful for the A/C in the Temple:) Aren't they so beautiful??!!!

Savannah, Aubrey and Malin had a great time staying cool outside the temple while waiting for us. Aren't they cute? Poo Baby Malin, that's not gel in his hair, it's sweat.....But he's happy so we're not complaining.

The Beautiful Mesa Arizona Temple behind him.

After the wedding we ate as a family with Drew and Rikki, Mom and Dad and girls at Mills Mall and did some shopping also. Then we got to see 3D and 4D sonograms put to music if Drew and Rikki's baby boy who is due in October. IT was SOOOO sweet. I made me forget all bad days and terrible headaches I have been having with this baby and remember there is a beautiful result to this thing called Pregnancy......We love you Drew and Rikki and can't wait to see little Brock Thomas. After that we went to Cabela's since we were so close. The kids enjoyed looking at all the stuffed animals and fish tank. But they loved this swing in the front lobby, of all things:) Baby Malin put on a show with his dance moves in the lobby while we waited for Grandpa and Dad who were shopping.....usually it's the guys waiting for the girls, but not when you're at CABELA's.:)

The reception was SOOOOOOOOOOOBeautiful. Aunt Lori has quite the eye for decorating. The theme was Summer Fun. It was so cute!!!Here is Mom and Dad Innes. Dad's eating...... Here's the centerpiece. Yes, there is real sand and a real fish in the bowl. The food was.......delicious..... Aubrey made a friend with a little boy named Jacob. I'm not quite sure who he is related to. but Aubrey would not leave his side. Who knows, maybe they'll meet again in 20 years....

Cousins Rachel, Emily, Callie and Sister Leisel and Aunt Martha. Rachel and Leisel were in charge of the Sweet Shoppe table. Martha was the Master planner of it all. It was a HIT! If you look closely, you'll see all different kinds of candy that are color coordinated with the wedding colors. You were to take a bag that said on it "Sweets! Thank you for your sweetness! Love, Brooke and Amron" What a great idea!!

The cake was so pretty! And the little cakes were SO yummy.

The Richardson Family. Uncle Nelson is my Mom's Brother. He is the ONLY boy of 10 kids. Yes, 9 girls and 1 BOY. He is a pretty speial guy. We love this family so much. My younger brother Drew was his best man when they were married....he was 2years old. CUTE!

Aunt Lori owns a vinyl letterin gbusiness. http://www.signherevinyl.com/ She put this vinyl on the ground in the middle of the dance floor. On the front doors of the church, she also had a similar logo. Too cute!!!! The beautiful couple.

Brooke pinning the corsage on her dad.

a fun entryway display..... Aubrey biffed it on the asphalt in front of Cabela's and had cute little line down the front of her face. She cried awhile but forgot about it soon after.

Savannah had a great time with her Konopinicki cousins. Especially cousin Mitchell who she danced with nonstop. She loved the Sweet shoppe too......ofcourse.

Malin and Sarah...7 years and almost 3 & kids later.....and they're still in love.

Daddy bonds with his kids July 11, 08

I am just posting this so I won't forget to write about it. Eventually I will have Malin write about their trip camping and include some pictures too. Come back soon to see if it's done! Sarah

Too Amazing not to post....

Ryan sent this picture to me recently, so I need to share. When Ryan, my brother, was a part of BYU Vocal Point, the group was asked to be the entertainment at The First Presidency Christmas Party. After the night was over, they got a picture with the prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. This was Christmas 2007. My brother is the short one standing on Hinkcley's right side. What a POWERFUL picture.

This past weekend was one to remember.....

This past weekend was our annual Lewis Sisters Retreat. It was so uplifting! I learn so much from these girls! I wish I had a picture when we are all dressed up with no where to go,but, we had so much fun relaxing, who has time for getting ready when you're relaxing? We had a rough time getting there as my car overheated and we had to abandon it on the side of the road and call a tow truck.........but, we found out today that all is well with the engine, it just needs a new fan and new oil. oh what a relief! 2 and a half hours later and good laughs about memories of two pregos(Colleen and I) standing on the side of the freeway checking under the hood and directing traffic, we finally made it to our destination! Dayna was in charge this year and found a wonderful house that rents out nightly. It was SO nice and cozy and came with a pool, big screen TV, in the ground trampoline, etc. We all went to the temple and I was able to attend the endowment for my cousin for who is getting married next week. It was so uplifting.

Some other fun things we did were bow making.(can you see all the bos we made?)

Swimming...Having Julianne's yummy Chinese DinnerOn her Authentic CHINAAnd having scripture Study, White Elephant Gifts, watching a great Movie called "Dan in REAL Life." It is highly recommended. Only one bad part. THanks for the memories girls.

NOW FOR THE HILARIOUS PART.......Malin took all three kids camping while I was gone.

That post will be coming soon.