Family Reunion

This summer we went to Junction, Utah (again) for a different family reunion. Last year it was a Smith family reunion at the Court House, and this year we went to celebrate Grandma Petronaci's 80th birthday (her birthday's in December, but just ignore that fact :o) It was a quick 3/4 day trip, but it was fun. Mostly the Kerby's kept to themselves, but it'd been a while since we were all together. There were lots of people there that I didn't know, and that's because they were Grandma's nieces and nephews or something like that. But, the family got to catch up with Aunt Leslie, since it's been a while, and Uncle Brent stopped by for a little bit too.

Junction is a tiny tiny town. Josh looked it up, and I think the population as of January was 172 people or something like that. So, there isn't a whole lot to do there except visit. Unless, of course, you come with Clayton... my sweetheart wasn't exactly the life of the party, but he did bring the party. We brought the ATV and gave all the kids rides around the streets, and let the big kids ride around with their significant others. But, I think more than the ATV, my family liked Rock Band. I think we played that every night we were there, and Kim, of all people, whose bed time is 8:00 pm stayed up until 1:00 am playing. Best part of it was that Dana was the most intense about it, and she owns it. Although she doesn't play it at all when she's at home. I think that's changed by now.

Let's see. What else did we do? Oh, Aunt Leslie brought "kid friendly" fireworks (poppers and sparklers) and it wasn't just the kids that enjoyed those. We also played some not-so-volleyey volley ball. I don't understand people who are good at that sport, it hurts! We took a day trip to some Native American hieroglyphics. Oh, and we ate some s'mores and toasted marsh mellows :o) That pretty much sums up that trip.

Right after Junction though, the Kerby family/grouping/whatever (minus Clayton) went to Yellowstone. I'd been before, but I was under 2 years old, so I REALLY don't remember. Now I've got a trip I can remember (with help from this blog and some pictures ;o). I'm not super in the mood to be typing things out, however, so it's going to be a super quick review of what we did in Yellowstone.

We camped in West Yellowstone in 3 camp sites. Mom and Dad shared a site with Joy and the girls, Kim and Ben's family got their own site, which left Dana and Josh to share a site with me. I thought I was lucky to get away from Mom and Dad's site because they both snore. Not the case, however, one night I was woken up because the guy camping behind us was snoring as loud as a bear. Or maybe he was snoring louder than a bear, because one night there really was a bear at the camp and I slept right through that!

We went to Yellowstone park 2 days in a row. The first day we went and saw the geysers. Those are pretty cool. I know everyone always thinks of "Old Faithful" when they think of geysers, and I will absolutely admit that that one's a good one. But "Grand Geyser" was amazing. It was 4 geysers that go off at the same time. They shoot super high and there's four of them. Oh, that day we saw buffalo, elk, and an eagle. After leaving the park we did some shopping in West Yellowstone.

The next day we went to look at the mud pots. I thought those were pretty cool. They make the coolest sound, and they're a little unpredictable. I only mean that sometimes they would be gurgling slowly, then the next second, you're dodging so you don't get hit by the spatter. I'm not the only one that thinks they're cool either. Once people got to the mud, it's not like any of them were in a hurry to get away from them. It's a tad bit mesmerizing. We also went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We got some good family pictures there. I also went to take a picture with a chipmunk and Dad told me if it bit me I would have to get shot. (He meant that I would have to get shots, but what he actually said was much more entertaining.) That day we mostly drove around and admired the scenery from our car. The lake, the forests, other small geysers. Animal sightings for the day again included buffalo, eagles, and elk, but we also saw a bear! Luckily not up close, seeing as we didn't know that one of the places where we went to that day there had been a bear attack the day earlier. Then it was a late dinner in West Yellowstone and back to camp.

Oh, speaking of camp, there was fun stuff to do there too. One of the nights I went miniature golfing with the boys. There was also a swimming pool. There are pros and cons to an indoor swimming pool. Some of the pros include getting away from bugs and that you can swim even in a storm. The biggest con I can think of is that it's stuffy in there.

Ew, also speaking of camp, there were the worst mosquitoes there. These things were HUGE and immune to everything. We worse bug spray, but they bit us anyway. We bought the special candles, but they still came around at dinner time. They were mean, nasty, and ruthless. We all walked away with so many nasty, red, itchy marks, it's not even funny. For that reason, we actually tried to stay out of camp as much as possible.

When we were done with Yellowstone, it was back to Utah to stay at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's. Clayton joined us up there so he could say good bye to the family before they left, and to enjoy some great s'mores. But after s'mores, it was time to head off. We hugged Joy and the girls good bye, and same with Kim and the boys (except Aaron was being a pill and I had to pay him a quarter for a hug and kiss good bye). We took Josh and Dana with us so they could go visit Josh's grandma in the morning before Mom and Dad came to pick them up. So we had a little extra time to visit them, but not much. The next morning Dana and Josh went to Murray, and Mom and Dad stopped by to see our place, and then they were headed back to California.

Good ole family. Gotta love 'em.