Gathering of the Moores

One of the main reasons that Brig and I went down to UT during the month of July was the annual week-long Moore Family (& Friend) Reunion "camping style."

I love this reunion.

There is always something cool going on, whether it be going to the dam, hiking to Rosie's mine, playing volleyball, midnight croquet, doing crafts, eating amazing food, chatting around the campfire, etc. etc. etc.

It was a lot of fun to have Brig there this year, especially cause I thought it was going to be me alone again. (Well... I guess I would have had Andy.)

Speaking of Andy, this was the first time most of the family got to "officially" meet Andy. Lets just say if you didn't know who he belonged to, you would think he was everyone's child. I think he got passed to someone new every 5 minutes. Poor guy was reaching for me every time he saw me at the end of the week. :)

We did the one hike we always do with the kiddos... Rosie's Mine. It's actually quite the hike to undertake with so many of the nephews and nieces in tow. There are multiple little river crossings, slippery & muddy slopes, potential of snakes, and of course the mine itself.

Those of us that went in to the mine this year went all the way to the back. It was pretty cool. Even Andy came... he's starting young in his caving/mine experiences.

I think the best part of walking in the mine is Uncle Jason telling everyone the ghost story of Rosie's mine. All of the kids were asking the "other" adults if it was true when they got out. hehe...

Then there was the lake visit. Brig was gone on a bike ride with two of his brothers so I spent most of my time ashore with this cute little guy.

But I did manage to get in the water to save a ball that was floating away.

And these two swam from one side of the dam to the other... and back. They are champions.

Almost every night after dinner everyone gathered for a game of volleyball.

One night we even had a line of spectators going.

Another evening event was the nightly entertainment. We had Aunt Terry's amazing Blue Grass Band.

This other guy... who was really good, but his name is escaping me right now.

And I even led some sing-a-longs one night.

At the camp site we stayed at this year there was a really cool amphitheater that we used for these nightly get-togethers.

I didn't get any pictures of the camp fire gatherings, but I did manage to snap this picture of a gathering around a spider.

It had a bunch of babies on its back so everyone was inspecting it.

One of the popular crafts we had going this year was the hair wraps. Here's a picture of Shan doing one on Laura.

We even had some friends show up one night for the festivities!

The Kjars came too... but I didn't get a picture of them! :(

I'm also kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of Andy with both set of grandparents while we were down there. Stupid.

But I did manage to get some REALLY adorable photos of him alone.

Hanging out while we packed up the tent Saturday morning.

Chillin' in his diaper in the tent.

And my all time favorite of the entire trip... Andy learned how to drink out of a straw.

My all time favorite picture of Brig was this one.

It just makes me chuckle for some reason. He looks like a dead body up there.