Home for the Holidays

The Hyland's all assembled together this July in St. George, Utah for a week of "Home for the Holidays" Even though this is a super long post I actually didn't take pictures of about half of the activities that we did. We celebrated a different holiday or two every day. Our first day was filled with "Birthday" fun. We had a pizza dinner and cake and ice cream. We also played some "minute to win it" party games put together by Amy and Jacob.

David, Erica, Stacy, and Jacob stacking nuts.

Kayson knocking over water bottles. After this picture my camera died so I didn't get anymore "Birthday" pictures. The kids also decorated pillowcases which is a reunion tradition.



The next day we celebrated Valentine's and Easter. We actually started the morning off with family pictures. Erica took all the pictures and did a great job. (I didn't take any)


Two nephews are on missions, but they made it to the reunion in cardboard form! They even wore their family reunion shirts!
The Hyland siblings

The original Hyland family

Making a rainbow. My girls are the clouds!

Back view

Craft time! We made Valentine boxes which were put in the valentine room so everyone could write valentines or put treats in each other's boxes all week. Luke and my niece, Emily loved the valentine room and spent lots of time in there writing notes for each other and themselves. We also made gratitude journals.

After crafting we had an Easter egg hunt. Brad helps Luke find an egg up high.

Checking out their loot

In the afternoon we went swimming in the two pools, then we had a dinner made by Brad and I.

That night we had an EGG-cellent talent show. This is Kambree being part of a crazy skit that the Day's did.

Nelson shared his musical talent. Annie did some gymnastics, Kambree hula hooped, and Macey played the piano. Luke just watched :)

Wendy and Stacy did a fun musical number!

Every night a different family was in charge of a bedtime story and turn down treat, before we had family prayer and scriptures.

Bryan shared the parable of the cross for our bedtime story to end our Easter day.

The next day we celebrated Halloween! The men headed out early for a Spooktacular golf tournament. Stacy planned crafts for the kids. They made some scary orange Jack o' lanterns and decorated trick or treat bags for later that night. After scripture and family prayer we a participated in a big Monster Mash Wipeout. We split into teams and did an obstacle course all around the yard.

One of the teams finishing in the the last obstacle of having every member in the hot tub.

After some free time in the afternoon and an awesome Halloween dinner by Amy and Jacob, we all dressed up for a costume parade. Our family dressed up as Grandpa Hyland.

Some of us even took a nap just like grandpa.

The missionaries needed costumes too!

Bryan and Erica and family dressed as Maverick players and Prudy and Dennis were Maverick fans. We all walked down the driveway to the road and waved at all the passing cars-crazy family!

That night we went for a spooky night swim and had s'mores by the pool.

Merry Christmas!! Audrey had some Christmas crafts for us. The kids made snow globes and we all made ornaments. Then we headed outside for a Christmas miniature golf course. All the holes were really fun and creative.

That afternoon the women went Christmas shopping while everyone else had some free time. We had a yummy Christmas dinner of brisket and potatoes made by Audrey and Chris. After dinner the kids played Reindeer games that Erica had organized. The kids played Bingo and when they won they got to put on reindeer antlers and nose.

We had a special visitor (David) come help us celebrate Christmas. Everyone got a turn to sit on Santa's lap and get a cute stocking. We also did a white elephant gift exchange.

To end the night we watched a Christmas movie outside on the patio. The kids used tickets that they earned all week for participating and being kind to each other, to purchase concessions like popcorn, candy, and soda. Brad and I were in charge of the bedtime story and we had everyone sing The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Our last day we celebrated the 4th of July. In the morning the kids decorated beautiful scrapbooks put together by Grandma. After lunch we headed out for some sight seeing.

Our first stop was Brigham Young's winter home. Here some of us are waiting on the beautiful porch.

My kids all love their cousins.

Learning a little history

Our next stop was the St. George tabernacle.

Nelson is standing beside a brick that has been engraved or signed by the man who cut it. The man's name was Nelson. (if you enlarge the picture you can see it)

Our last stop was the St. George temple. Earlier that morning Brad, Wendy, and I went to do a session. I loved the historic feel of this temple.

That night Bryan and Erica made hamburges and hotdogs for dinner. Then we played some lawn games. It was Karly's 14th birthday, so we celebrated with her.

Once it got dark we had an Independence Day Spectacular with family glow stick routines. They were one of my favorite parts of the week. Everyone's routine was so fun to watch!

We had a great week celebrating the holidays. My sister in law, Wendy was in charge and she did a wonderful job organizing everything. I wish I had more pictures of all the fun things we did. My sister in laws and mother in law all had the cutest crafts and turn down treats. I'm so thankful to have married into such an awesome family! I can't wait for summer '13!