charles family reunion.

every year since before i was born, my dad's side has gotten together for the annual charles family reunion. this year we headed up a day late, because travis had some kind of graduation for the national guard. i can't keep up with all the army business and i do not even try anymore.

way i stick it to the army: letting my kid play on their antique cannon that is on display and not supposed to be touched. 

remy for the win. 

 after whatever army function it was, we headed home, packed, lunched, and set out on the five hour drive to island park, idaho.

of course we stopped for reed's dairy.

we called grandma reed and she met us there and treated us. she is part owner, after all. 

we enjoyed seeing all the animals. rem is still terrified of goats, sheep, and pigs. 

mucking the stables.

back on the road. remy is such a great traveler! i think because
we've been taking him on road trips since he was six weeks old. 

we made it to the cabin just in time to take a walk and enjoy the sunset. and see a moose with her baby! of course i didn't bring my long lens on the walk and missed the shot. boo.

love of my life. 

we had a bit of a rough night, i think because rem got cold, and he doesn't do well sleeping in a room with anyone else. travis got up with him in the morning and let me sleep, and then he went back to sleep with rem during his nap that morning.

travis likes to burrow. 

while they napped, i sunned on the porch. 

after the boys napped, we headed out on a walk.

the newly married reed and sara, who seem to be pretty happy.
and i loved having another female on a family trip!
(grew up with all brothers and all boy cousins.) 

yep. 

always too cool for school. 

while waiting for the rest of the extended family to come for dinner, we went to see giant fish at big spring's and look for another moose.

impressive form. 

island park is located in what used to be a volcano, so it's extremely lush. 

the rest of the family came over and we lunched, had a fire, and caught up.

caught my grandpa looking around at us all and smiling.
he is finally recovering from his bone marrow transplant.
beat cancer again. :) 

rem roasted his first hot dog.
(we don't eat a lot of processed meats.)
he tried one bite and spit it out.
yes. 

after s'mores, the rest of the family went home and our family had a hula hooping contest, which i thought i had in the bag, because my time was 4:45, but travis beat me by 20 seconds. damn him. here's zane and his ridiculous 17 year old abs. and after the hula hooping, we played the funniest cards against humanity game (just the kids, not the parents, bahahaha that would be great.) seriously it's weird at first playing that game with your younger siblings, and then it's the greatest.  turns out zane and i have the most similar sense of humor for that kind of thing.

the next morning we cleaned the cabin and packed up, and then headed out to the snake river for some water activities.

pretty standard. 

i love seeing zane being so smitten with rem. 

sitting on papa's shoulders. 

 we launched my dad's drift boat, a kayak, two stand up paddle boards, and my dad's other fishing boat which i can't for the life of me remember the name of this late at night, and set out on the three hour float.

rem was nervous at first, hence the binki, (plus he skipped the nap, and i just let him have binki on vacations, don't judge me, i'm a good mom dammit! whatever, i'm his mom and i know best, stop justifying to the internet collette.) anyway, he ended up loving the kayak ride and sang row your boat the entire time. 

we saw a giant moose gorging on river greens. 

the distance between us and moosey. 

he's the happiest little adventurer! 

reed, doing some paddle board yoga. 

my mom is a babe. 

happy place. 

it was a great trip! other than the first night, remy slept great, ate great, and was happy the entire time. if you want your kids to be good car riders/ happy campers, take them on trips often and from the beginning. at least this is my experience with the one child i have.

which brings me to the whole, i feel like i don't get to talk about child raising because i only have one kid and i sometimes feel the whole world of motherhood is thinking, she has no idea.

which is a whole other post. and is probably all in my head and i should stop being so paranoid.

back to topic, great trip, great to get out of slc and spend time with family.

xo.