Flashback to September 2011

Simcox Family Reunion

at Winter Park in the

Beautiful Rocky's of Colorado.

Over the Labor day weekend

 the Simcox clan

gathered together for a

super action packed 

mountain experience.

This is in place of our usual

Lake Powell trips.

Lake Powell has been a part of 

my life for as long as I can remember.

I have to admit I was a little bummed

 that we are taking a Lake Powell break

 but after this awesome trip I was sold.

So let's begin....

At the time of this trip we only had one car.

So my Mom graciously offered to drive

me and the boys to Colorado.

We made it to Winter Park just after dark.

My Mom dropped us off then headed down to

Denver to stay with her friend Jan.

But before she was off we had to get in

 a few snapshots with all the grand kids.

...........................

The next morning the kids were up bright and early.

I tried to sleep in as long as I could . 

Actually, that should say- as long as my kids would let me. 

 It was nice to have cousins to entertain each other.

Annsley getting goofy.

Crew fell in love with the bouncy horse right away.

Later that day we played outside, rode the 4 wheeler,
 took naps and I took the boys on a fun little nature walk.
We went to feed the horses, throw rocks in the pond,
then made our way over to my Uncle John's cabin
 to visit and play with cousins.

Tye brought this hammock back from Brazil.

 The boys found some re-bar to play with at the
 entrance of our property.
My Dad is building an entrance sign.

Throwing rocks in the pond.

 My Uncle John's horses.

 Crew getting a better look.

This horse's tongue is so funny!

 The boys loved finding this tree every time we walked
down to Uncle Johns for meals.

Hey! This looks like the giving tree!

Crew tells me this tree has a donut for a mouth
and he breaks out laughing every time he sees it.
Crew also calls the pine trees- pineapple trees
and wants to know where all the pineapples are.
Crew was hilarious the entire trip with all his cute
thoughts and and funny sayings.

That evening we piled up in the old ford pickup
{my first car by the way}
and headed to Uncle John's for dinner.
It started to rain right when it was time to go.
All our meals are taking place outside.
But it did not stop us from having a great time and
it didn't hang around for too long either.

The beautiful rainbow after the storm.

 Once dinner was over the kids went 4 wheeling and the
younger ones took rides in the trailer.

 Landen ready to ride!

Soon it was dark and we were all frozen.
It was time to get back to our cabin
because  Grandpa & Grandma finally arrived!!!

Grandpa and Cody

Grandpa and  Annsley

Next time I need to get Grandma Simcox out from behind the
camera so she can get in all these cute pics with the kids.

I love this shot of Crew and Annsley before bedtime.

...................

The big adventure for us today is boating
on the beautiful, but o' so freezing Grand Lake.

My Dad brought his boat with him so we
could take the boys out on the lake.
Trevor, Shari and their kids also came with.

My kids have not had much experience on boats
and I was very excited to get them out there.

On the drive out to Grand Lake Crew fell asleep.
We all know how much fun Crew is after that happens!

Life is rough when you are almost 3. 

At least everyone else is all smiles!

 Cody and Tiffany

Grandma Simcox, Landen, Thaxton

 Annsley and Grandma

Landen, what a babe!

After cruisin' for a bit we stopped so some of
the more adventurous ones could jump in the water.

Thaxton was all kinds of excited to get in.
He obviously does not know that this beautiful,
very deceiving lake is absolutely freezing!
Even in the middle of summer.

All us meanies; knowing full well what was about
to happen, cheered this little guy on.
We could not wait to see his breathtaking
reaction to the cold, cold water.

How freakin' mean is that???

Don't worry, we didn't just toss him in
like my Dad would do to us.

We let Thaxton ease his way in and
sweet Aunt Tiffany was right there with him.

All smiles!

 Cody and Landen were not as brave but still having fun.

Tiffany busted out the wake board.
She is one tough chick!

Trevor was up next.

Cody and Thaxton watching Trevor wake board.

 Look who is still grumpy! Oh, Crewbie.

I love how Landen's head is barely poking
 out the top of his life jacket.

Everyone was getting really hungry
so we found a nice spot on the lake to
chill and break out some lunch!

Tammy and Tiffany

 Tiffany, Landen and Thaxton

 Cody, Tiffany and Crew

Before we knew it, it was time to go.

Landen took a nice long nap on the boat ride back to shore.

So did sweet little Annsley.

On the way home from the lake we stopped
off at the grocery store. That is where G-ma Simcox
got these adorable pictures of Tiff and Crew.

How stinkin' cute!!!

...................

After dinner Grandma always  has a yummy
 dessert she makes with all the grandsons.

Tonight...... cute little personal pies!!!

So much fun!
Thanks Grandma.

After Grandma's pies, Grandpa had all the boys

line up for another surprise.

Everyone got a little metal soccer ball filled

with candies.

..................

Everyday we would all meet at my Uncle John's

place for meals. We all took turns with meals.

This day I was scheduled to help out with lunch.

Before we got started we took a few pics.

This is a group shot with my step-mom Tammy,

step-sisters Tiffany and Amanda, and

my aunt Toma. (one of my Dad's older sisters)

I love this sweet little pic of Crew, Landen and Thaxton.

 Amanda and I bringing the food down.

 Tiffany showing off her food carrying skills.

 Vanessa, Amanda, Me, Uncle John, and Tiff.
We make such a great lunch crew!

Keeping the little boys happy while they wait for lunch.

Before the big lunch rush I took some pictures of 

the little things going on around me. 

 My uncle John was always keeping the fire going
along with the help of Cody.
 Cody loved that my Uncle John asked
 him to help take care of the fire.
He took his little job very seriously and worked at it.

The little boys loved hitting the ball.

 Cody monitoring the fire.

All this dog did was sleep; right in the middle of

all the action. 

Boys being boys!

................

Between lunch and dinner a group of us

drove on over to widow maker.

We brought the guns with us for some target shooting.

Shooting the guns is always fun to me.

Reminds me of being a kid and shooting with my Dad.

I was excited for the boys to get some shooting

lessons with Grandpa Simcox.

Grandma and Landen

 Gma and Gpa with Landen

Cody and Grandpa

Landen and Grandpa

Trevor

My Uncle Brad

Landen getting tired.

Watch out! It's Roberta...and she's got a gun!

Grandpa & Landen

Grandma, Cody and Uncle Brad

Cody, my little collector,
saved all the shot gun shells.
Bagged them up and brought
them home. Ugh!

Me and Tye

Dad and Tiffany

Landen....he's so hot right now!

One of my favorite's views.

Dad and me.

Grandpa and  Landen

My awesome Dad!

This was my favorite gun to shoot.

Crew fell asleep on the drive to the hill.
We moved him inside my Dad's truck.
Not thinking he would stay asleep after
the transition and all the loud gun shots.
I was amazed that he slept for over 2
hours! Guess he was worn out???

..............................

Once again...time to eat!

Landen loves the ladies!

After our last supper,
(we leave tomorrow)
Tammy and Tiffany whipped up
a devilish batch of muddy buddies.

And we sat around the
campfire telling funny stories.

Tiffany, Dad, and Thaxton

 Dad and Tye

 Trevor and Shari

Tiffany, Thaxton, and Tammy

Tye and Roberta

Thaxton and Trevan

The Simcox Fam!!!

When I went back inside to get ready for bed
I saw that the boys had already fallen asleep!

Sleeping children....priceless!!!!

......................

Our last and final day at the cavin.
Crew says cavin instead of cabin.
So cute it has stuck!

I got us all packed up and ready to go.


We played, we wrestled,
we had breakfast for the last time.
We took turns riding the horses.
We laughed, had fun and
we said all our goodbye's.

After all was said and done.
This trip was awesome!

I had so much fun with my boys
and the time I spent with all my family.
I love you with all my heart.

School's out! School's out!

Teachers let the monkeys out!

Now what???

Little Sahara

Last week Matt's supervisor at work invited 

him to the sand dunes down by Jericho, Utah.

 Matt has a new dirt bike; so now the guys

always want him to go ride with them.

I was very excited for him

 but also really wanting to go myself.

Not to ride but to go camping 

and get out of town for a few days.

Over dinner I brought it up to Matt

that we should all go, as a family.

He said, YES!!!

I was thrilled and got to work right away

making all the arrangements necessary to go.

I took care of everything so all Matt had to do was

prep his bike for the trip, and drive us down to Jericho.

I was so excited to go that I did not even care

that I knew none of these people we were camping with.

Matt only knew the one guy and met his wife once.

We figured if things were not going well, 

we would just go do our own thing.

So anyway, we left Friday afternoon.

Checked the kids out a bit early from school

and hit the road.

The drive down took just over an hour. 

Freakin rocked!!!!

Utah is so amazing that way.

You can go a short distance in any direction

and be in a totally different environment.

We just drove straight down Redwood  Road

along the backside of Utah lake. 

The drive was fun, quick, and the kids

 didn't even have a chance to get bored.

We checked in at the fee area.

Signed the visitor's log.

And found our campsite.

We were greeted by Ben, his wife Jo, and 2 boys.

 Zane, his wife Jen and their 3 kids.

Tyson, his wife Carrie, and 2 kids.

David, and some other kids that came along.

We had 4 dogs to add to it all.

Ben is the guy Matt knows from work.

It was the nicest, most welcoming bunch.

I knew right away I was going to be fine.

The boys were of and digging in the sand 

before we could put the car in park!

The other couples even commented on

how much our kids liked to just dig in the dirt.

Totally entertaining themselves for hours.

Guess that is what you do when you don't have

cool toys like 4-wheelers or motorcycles??

Every kid there had some sort of vehicle of their own.

Even 3 yr. old Mason had an awesome set of  power wheels.

Crew & Mason chillin' in the pow, pow, power wheels!

The other families also each had their own

camper or trailer, or motor-home.

We just camped in our tent.

I totally loved it though.

Camping is one of my favorite things

we did as a family growing up.

So many fun memories with the tent.

After camp was set up Matt was already taking

the boys on rides with the 4-wheelers.

When the guys would go for rides 

I would hang with the boys. 

This pond was one of our first little hikes.
The boys wanted to stay here and throw rocks all night.

Our first night there was very windy.

We had to keep our sunglasses on just to keep

the sand out of our eyes.

Matt even adjusted all his goggles to fit the boys.

Once it was time to get ready for bed
the boys seemed to perk right up and get super goofy.
Their favorite part was playing with the flash lights.
Shadow puppets, telling scary stories, even dancing.

Everyone slept pretty good; except Matt and I.
It was so windy all during the night.
Felt like someone was outside our tent
 holding onto the poles and shaking it like crazy!

I was feeling so bad for Matt since he never
 even went to bed the day before.

The next morning the wind had died down and
the weather was turning out beautiful!

I played lots of baseball with the boys.

Went through a gallon of bubbles.

Took many walks, even went garbage collecting.

Rides on 4-wheelers and motorcycles.

Lots of playing and digging in the soft sand.

Matt took us over to sand mountain

so me and the boys could see how cool it is, 

play, and watch people ride up the dunes.

 Was trying to take a family pic but Crew
was choosing not to be in it.

 Cody digging a big hole.
OF COURSE!!!

 Ladnen was pretending to be a dead body
we found in the sand.

 Cody with his head buried in the sand.

Matt teasing Landen.

 The boys wanted me to try out the hole in the sand.

 Crew taking his turn.

 Crew wanted us to try and pull him out. lol

 More of those dead bodies we keep finding.

and Cody just can't keep his head up!

And a  crazy thing that happened....

Roxy (a chocolate lab) had half her ear

ripped off by the other dog, Sunny.

It was a crazy bloody mess but we manged

to fix her up good with some paper towels

and electrical tape. :)

Matt went looking for the missing chunk of ear

and found it lying in the dirt. So gross!

 Poor Roxy :(

Matt and I being cheesy.

Our second night here was great.
No wind but did get chilly.

Sunday was our last day at the dunes.
The guys took one last good ride.
I packed up our little camp while they
were gone. Then we headed back home.

I believe we all had an awesome time.
I know for sure I did!

Definitely can't wait to visit here again!!!

In parting, here are some fun shots
we took at an old Sinclair station we
passed on our way home.