Brad Hyland Family: September 2011

My Brother, Tim and his wife Corrine.

After spending an unbelievably long time trying to get this post written and ready I pushed a wrong button and deleted this picture from where it was supposed to go. I couldn't get it back to where I wanted, but didn't want to leave it out, so now it gets the top spot!

By the way, most of these pictures were taken by my sister, Alana. Thanks Alana!

Our next stop on our western adventure was Island Park, ID. FYI Island Park has America's longest main street. I think it is about 25 miles long, of course in that 25 miles there are only a handful of stores and gas stations. Island Park is up in the mountains and was really beautiful with great weather.

My sister, Rebecca was in charge of our Nelson reunion this year. We all gathered at the beginning of August for five days of "Nelson's Rock!" Each day had a theme that went with the letters of ROCK!. Each of the kids had folders with activities that helped them learn more about our family and the theme of the day. The older kids really got into it especially since Rebecca offered prizes for completed lists and projects.

Monday evening started with Nelson's are RIGHTEOUS.

Here are Grandpa and Gage waiting for the fun to begin!

Brad and Michelle (with Brad's arm) getting things cleaned up after dinner.

We had a Hawaiian Haystack dinner provided by Michelle and Brad. Then we all gathered to participate in my nephew, Sully's, baby blessing.

Sully waiting for his blessing!

All the uncles and grandpa with Sully after the blessing. How awesome to have everyone together for such a special occasion.

Waiting for the next activity.

For family night each family had to make their own family flag or banner. Here is the Sperry's.

Here is the L. Nelson's.

Here's ours. The girls made sure it had lots of glitter glue!

The Stubb's

The T. Nelson's

The Moss's

The Kutanzi's

Richard's

Grandma and Grandpa's

After making family banners we had family night treats. Each family brought or made their families favorite FHE treat. Talk about sugar overload!!! There were cinnamon buns, red vines, Swedish fish and puffed wheat squares just to name a few. It was also my niece, Alia's, birthday, so we had birthday cake too.

The next day Nelson's were ONE OF A KIND ORIGINALS.

The day started with painting rocks and playing with cousins and toys.

Look at all those blond headed boys!

The girls and the older boys really got into making some fun rock people.

After lunch it was time for some marshmallow fun. I saw a fun idea on the Internet to make marshmallow shooters with balloons and paper cups. They were simple to make and worked really well.

After a really good dinner of taco's made by Richard it was picture time.

Richard

Where Tim and Corrine's pictures was suppose to go :)

Rebecca and Glenn

Michelle and Brad

Mom and Dad

Larry and Sarah

Heather and Wynn

Karalee and Brad

Alana and Jarrett

The Nelson kids

The Whole family

The Grandkids

Every reunion my mom makes the kids PJ's

The next day Nelson's are COMPETITIVE

We got up early and headed to Yellowstone

Waiting for Old Faithful

We spent the day in the park enjoying the sights. Old Faithful wasn't too faithful and seemed to take a long time to erupt. We really like seeing the gyser pools with all the steam and cool colors. The sulfur smell wasn't great, but not too bad either. We all headed home and enjoyed dinner made by Alana and Jarrett.

That night Tim and Corrine hosted "Minute to Win it"

On Thursday Nelson's are KOOKY BUT KIND

The next morning the men took off golfing and the kids decorated pillowcases. We also had another adventure. The people who took care of the subdivision we were at had scheduled some work to be done on the plumbing that provided water to the cabin. They told us the night before that the water was going to be turned off at 8:30am and they weren't sure when it would be back on. Really? we had 41 people in the cabin! We decided to make the best of things and prepared. Most of the women took showers the night before and the rest showered early that morning. The men were up early and got ready before leaving to golf. We filled all the big pots and water pitchers with water as well as the bathtubs. We used the bathtub water to flush toilets.

After crafting, golfing, and lunch, we decided to leave the cabin for awhile since there was no water. Someone found directions at the cabin to a lake that was supposed to have a rope swing and good fishing. We all headed out at various times to go to the lake. The lake was actually in Montana and was beautiful!! The water was a clear turquois color. The older kids and some of the adults swung on the huge rope swing, some went out on the rafts, and others hung out on the shore. I wish we had headed out earlier and spent the entire day there, it was so beautiful.

We all headed home and Larry and Sarah made a delicious dinner of smoked turkey. Luckily the water got turned back on late that afternoon. It did get turned off the next day for a few hours, but it all ended up being workable. After dinner we had a buddy night. Earlier in the day were drew names to pair up as buddies. You had to learn three things about your buddy. How old are they? Where were they born? and What is something they like to do? We introduced our buddies to everyone.

Heather and Grandpa were buddies.

Wynn and Landon were buddies

Tim and Macey were buddies. It was fun to see everyone pair up and learn more about each other. Great idea Rebecca!

Our last day Nelson's are ! STRONG EMOTION

Cute Cousins!

Playing on the swings.

The women found a little time to craft

The boys found lots of time for pool

That afternoon some of us went to float the river. It took a little time to find out where we were going and get everything set. The part of the river we were on was pretty slow and we had to paddle most of the time to keep moving. It was pretty long (2hrs) but it did make some fun memories.

Brad and I made dinner on the last night so we could make Kambree's favorite dinner. Our last reunion day was Kambree's 9th birthday! Happy Birthday Kambree! I forgot to put her birthday pictures on here. We did a little decorating, she had presents, her favorite dinner (baked potatoes), and of course a cake. She ordered a candy land cake.

After dinner we had a pinata. I found instructions for a fun icecream cone pinata on the internet. I think it turned out really fun.