What a week!

I have had an incredible week! I left on Monday for three family reunions. The first was my grandparents and their children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren. We went horseback riding through the mountains the first day. The second day we went four-wheeling through the mountains. It was so gorgeous. The mountains are amazing. We are staying at a lodge in the mountains. The river is right by the lodge. We have a swimming pool that is fed by a stream. The water isn't too cold. :) We have a volleyball court and wheeping willows in the front yard. It's just beautiful. The second night there we had a campfire, roasted smores, told stories and wrote songs together. The next night Caitie and I decided to sleep outside. It wasn't too cold. The stars were the prettiest I've ever seen. I think we saw ten shooting stars.

Something I've really come to appreciate is how amazing my family is. We had an 80th birthday party for my Grandpa one night. Every family came up with their own tribute to him. We talked about memories and lessons they have learned from Grandpa. One of the coolest stories I've ever heard about him was when my Aunt Denice was moving from her Orem apartment and Uncle Scott had the U-haul out on the yard in front. This old lady came up to Grandpa and yelled, "You old oaf! Didn't you teach your children manners? Get this U-haul off my property or I'll call the police!" My Uncle Scott didn't like her talking to Grandpa like that so he began trying to reason with her. She again threatened to call the police and Uncle Scott gave her permission to do so. She went inside and started dialing the cops. What she didn't realize though, was that Grandpa was in the same room and had unplugged the phone so she couldn't make any calls. She couldn't figure out why the phone wouldn't work. She ended up going to a neighbors house and calling. The police told her to cool down and not worry about it. Oh man! Such an awesome story.

My Grandpa went to BYU and played basketball and football for them. He was the Sophomore class president. He was in the marines. He went on a mission to France-which is where he met my Grandma. President Benson was interviewing Grandma and called her to the France mission. She was too young to go... but he called her anyway. Such a miracle. The Gardner family is a family of miracles, I've decided. We are so blessed.

Tonight we begin the Stokes family reunion. That is the reunion with my Grandma and her siblings/their children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren/great-great-grandchildren. This one is pretty huge! We'll probably have a family history night. We'll play with our second,third, and fourth cousins.

Monday and Tuesday we will have a reunion with just my immediate family. That's the one I get really excited about. I really do have an amazing family. We're going wave-running at bear lake. We'll have a campfire at night. We'll sing songs, play games, tell jokes, play with children and, as is tradition at any family reunion, have a ton of food. :)