Dunford Family Reunion: Part 1 (Provo)

The time finally arrived for triennial Dunford family reunion. This year was planned by Adam and Wendi, who did a phenomenal job, and it was held at Bear Lake in Utah. We purchased our tickets so we could enjoy a day or two on each side of the reunion doing other fun Utah things.

We brought Henry's car seat onto the plane to help him take a nap. It was a pain to carry, but I think it did help.

After surviving the 4+ hour flight with the kids, we arrived safely in Salt Lake, picked up our rental car, and then drove to Sandy to visit with Caleb and Shannyn.

Here we are with Clark, Caleb, Shannyn, and Georgia, and up in the tree are Jane, Robbie, and Henry. The park where we hung out in Sandy was beautiful.

Clark was so sweet with the boys--I can tell he is a good big brother.

And the girls--Jane, Clara, and Georgia.

We then headed to Bryan and Emily's totally awesome renovated house in Provo. It is such a great mix of the original 1950s structure and contemporary elements. So great. They were so kind to host us after having had company already.

 After a good sleep, we headed to Bulldog Blvd to see the Freedom Festival Hot Air Balloon Launch. It was so fun! I love hot air balloons, even though I don't really want to ride in one like I used to. Henry loved Bryan and kept calling him "Gampa." It was pretty hilarious.

 Getting ready to take off! I think the kids enjoyed the Krispy Kreme doughnuts from Heather more than the balloons.

Mom and Dad, who continue to age handsomely.

Of course Clara wanted to see the non-talking mascot, Smokey the Bear. He was kind of weird.


 Mom and Dad came down from their mission in SLC for the day, and we went to Kneaders for breakfast after the balloon launch. It was really special having them there. This was one of the rare experiences I've had holding Henry asleep (he'd awakened super early that morning) since he was a baby. Sweet memory.

 We went over to Heather's house later and saw Ben and his boys. He got to come to the reunion with William and their new baby, Samuel--it was so great to see them. Robbie had a lot of fun playing with William, especially at Bryan's house with his awesome Nerf gun arsenal.

Looks like Robbie could use some smiling instruction from Will.


 Heather took out the Legos and the kids went to town. Michael then took Clara and Robbie to the Provo Rec Center and its amazing water park while I went on a couple of errands with Heather and enjoyed catching up with her.

 And Hyrum dropped by that evening to say hello--woohoo!