Family Reunion in Duck Creek, UT

My parents have 8 children, and 37 grand children...and counting. We try to get together at least once a year.  This year, we stayed in a 10 bedroom, 10 bathroom private lodge in Duck Creek, Utah.  

The backyard was not fenced... and connected to this amazing meadow.... surrounded by ATV trails

Within walking distance was this beautiful river and lake where the kids fished, and fished, and fished.

His 1st catch...

 Probably the highlight for all the kids were all the things to catch BESIDES fish... there were TONS of snakes....at least 20 caught per day....

 and HORNED TOADS.  They were EVERYWHERE!  Pure heaven for my reptile obsessed beast #2

We went on tons of amazing hikes...

 Thunderstorm approaching on Bryce canyon....

 picnic in the bushes to escape the rain...

 Trying to get a family shot. HA!

 Bryce canyon...

Exploring caves...

Look at the faces of beast 2 and 3 as they experience their first desert summer storm.  Priceless.  Thunder, lightning, hail, and torrential rain.  We HAD to go out and play in it.

It was an AMAZINGLY fun and memorable 4 days...until the drive HOME.

So the day before we left, our air conditioning in our van decided to stop working.  Not only would it not blow COLD air, it blew BURNING HOT air, instead...and we could not make it stop. So, we got to drive 13 hours through the hottest parts of the desert.  111 degrees.

with HOT air blowing on us. 

It was SO hot, the kids decided to pray for a summer storm to come and cool off the heat. In the mean time,

we tried hard to keep cool...with iced water soaked baby wipes.... and spraying each other with  a spray bottle full of iced water....

And just to add to our ghetto-ness, we took our naked baby into Walmart, and bought ourselves the materials we needed to make our own PORTABLE air conditioning unit....

 WE BUILT THAT.  YES, YES we did.

As ghetto as it was, it was the difference between life and death.  The fan blew on the ice through a hole cut through the top of the chest, and then blew cold air through vents cut on each side.

The cool thing is, that about an hour after the kids prayed, a summer storm showed up with a rain cloud dumping rain...NO WHERE but the road itself.... the kids thought that was pretty cool. It went from 111 degrees to 94 degrees....making the rest of the drive bearable.  You can see the storm cloud dumping on the road...