First Ever Danny Tippetts Family Reunion

One of the highlights of our summer was the Tippetts Family Reunion.  This was our first official Danny Tippetts Family Reunion.  It was a lot of fun to be together for an extended period of time.  We all met in Malad to get our Grandma and Grandpa Bowen fix and to celebrate the Fourth of July with Marv and Dianne before we went to Bear Lake for the remainder of the week.

While in Malad we had our Cousin's Birthday Party.  All Pirates were invited to come and celebrate their birthday.  It has been hard to celebrate all the kids birthdays the bigger and busier the family has gotten.    By having a birthday party at our reunion the cousins were able to do a gift exchange, sing happy birthday to one another and eat birthday cake together.  We also played party games and went on a treasure hunt.  This was a fun birthday everyone will remember.  Thanks for planning it Tricia!

Pirate Tanner and Annabella

Pirates at the Pirate Party

Carson, Reese and Kylie  reading clues to find the treasure.

Austin helping Grace, Mira and Pia look for the treasure.

Spin the bottle to see who opens their birthday gift next.

Tanner got Danny a set of cars he was pretty excited about.

A birthday cake and candle for everyone:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COUSINS!

Besides the birthday bash we enjoyed the Malad City Parade and Firework show.  We were able to stuff our faces at the 4th of July Pancake Feed and celebrate our heritage at the Welsh Festival.  As if that wasn't enough to kick off the reunion, we also put on our own family talent show in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.  With limited beds the boys bunked under the stars in the Bowen's backyard and the girls set up a tent behind the Pett's home.  Given a few more nights of that I am sure we would have had a few pranks to document, but each night we all fell into bed quite tired from the days activities.

Once we got to Bear Lake we didn't slow down much.  As activities director, I made sure there was something for everyone to do anytime they wanted it (and sometimes when they didn't):

Our hike to the rope swing at Bloomington Lake turned into quite an adventure.  Rather than swimming in a refreshing lake, we got to play in the snow!

We couldn't even make it to the Lake.  The road was closed about a mile away from the trail head.

Jason and Keri

Of course their were crafts to do:

Family Quilt Squares

Bug Necklaces

Friendship Bracelets

We took everyone geo-caching and traveled ALL over the valley following different navigators:

 We also did a little golfing, gaming, puzzling, four-wheeling, marshmellow roasting and BBQ"ing": 

Puzzles and Games

Marshmallow Roast

Eric and Keri ready to ride.

Quite the adventure.

A BBQ Chicken Sandwich and Four-wheeling...Heaven.

And you can't forget about just hanging at the lake:

Shalyce and Reese

Frisbee anyone?  Jason?

Tricia and Bella

Grandma and Mira in the shade

Some tunes and some sun...Heaven.

All week the food was great (thanks, Shalyce) and the company even better.  I'd say the reunion was a huge success.  Look at the smiles on these faces:

We definitely made some priceless memories.