Rider and Day Reunions 2019

We had so much fun with family reunions this summer!  We got to play, spend time with family, laugh, and enjoy good food, games and conversation.  It was great!

Day Family Reunion 2019

We went to Granite Springs Lodge in South Dakota and stayed with the whole Day family for 5 nights.  None of us had been there before so we weren't sure what to expect but it ended up being great!  The lodge was really nice and our family was lucky enough to have 2 bedrooms and our own bathroom!  Back behind the lodge was a really nice lake and they had paddle boards, canoes, and kayaks we could use.  The lake also had some cliffs and steep drop offs and we all had a great time jumping off the cliffs multiple times.  Me and Phil (Jon's brother) were the first ones brave enough to do it, so that's my claim to fame I guess :)  After that, the trend was set and pretty much everyone (who got in the water) jumped off after that!  Colton and Katie even got brave enough to do it and Zach really wanted to, but I was too afraid that he would try to flip off or something and land on his head so I wouldn't let him.  He wasn't too happy with me over that.  Colton also really enjoyed the "wild-life" and had fun catching frogs and toads and fish all week.  

One afternoon, most of us went into town and visiting a place called the World's Only Corn Palace.  It was not all that exciting but kinda interesting to see the murals on the walls made out of corn. 

It was so much fun getting to try new things and actually enjoy myself as an individual, as well as a mom!  Definitely a refreshing vacation!

Rider Family Reunion 2019

The Rider Reunion was in Idaho over a weekend at the end of July.  We weren't able to take off lots of extra time to be out there very long so we just had to make it a quick week of driving out to Utah/Idaho- visiting family for a few days- the driving back and being back for work the next Monday.  It was a little quicker than I prefer and we were all pretty tired by the end of the week, but we all managed to have a great time!  For the reunion portion, we spent one day at Lava Hot Springs and had fun swimming and going down slides there.  We had a nice dinner up at the Clifton pavilion and played some games and had a home evening.  Afterwards we played some volleyball.  We also managed to get a family picture, which we haven't had in years, so that was great! I really enjoyed watching my kids play with all of the cousins this year.  They don't get to see their Rider cousins very often so they don't know them as well.  I was please that they all seemed to jump right into playing with each other though and seemed to form to cousin friendship in just the 2 short days we were together!  Rider and Katie had fun climbing trees and playing together and the boys (Colton, Zach, Rider, Jake, Tanner, Austin, JJ, Pierce, Tyler, Danny)- all spent a lot of time outside catching grasshoppers.  Katie also enjoyed carrying Abby around and getting to know her cousin Autumn, who is her same age!  It was great to see everyone and catch up!

Rest Stop!  Almost there!

We made it to Utah- little hike at the rest area!