Boondocks

Wednesday night was my company work party. The rented out an amusement park called Boondocks, and it was so much fun! They fed us a Texas BBQ dinner with pulled pork, brisket, and BBQ chicken, had people making balloon animals, a magician, bounce houses and bounce slides. The kids had the time of their lives. We stayed until about 10:00, and they were begging to stay still! I was so glad. First up, Emery and I hit up the race cars. Emery love love loved it. 

The girls wanted Elsa and Anna princess wands.

The thing that surprised me the most out of the whole night was that Macie was obsessed with the bounce house, and even more the slides! She was by a long shot the smallest and youngest kid on there (the only one close to her was Emery!) She climbed up the ladder with the big 8 and 9 year old kids and slide down more times than I can even count!

Emery got to go on the boat ride, but Macie isn't tall enough and she was SO sad. She was trying to figure out a way to climb the fence and get in, to run away from me and sneak in, anything. She was so sad. They had unlimited ice cream sandwiches and creamies so I got her one and that was enough to make her happy she couldn't go on the ride. 

Jake and Emery got pretty soaked (exactly why I didn't take her on this ride!). Macie felt left out of the picture so she had to jump in. 

 

We went mini golfing. Emery actually wasn't too bad at it, haha. Although her form was terrible, she got the job done. Macie did more picking up and throwing her ball than anything!

Our plan was to leave after the mini golf, but they were just not ready. So part of the thing that the company gave us was they gave each person a $5 arcade card. So we let Emery and Macie play a bunch of the kid arcade games, including this merry go round. There was also a big playground they played on. 

We had such a fun night! I was so impressed with this party, the best company party I have ever been to. Glad to work for a great company!

Kogan Reunion

I'm finally getting around to posting about the family reunion we went to weeks ago. This is the Kogan/Gardner reunion. My grandma and great grandma's side. This awesome picture is from the Salt Flats. Someday I WILL take our family pictures out here!!

We got out there on the evening of July 2nd. Mostly that night we had dinner, set up our camp, and just caught up with people we hadn't seen in a while. 

The next morning after breakfast and stuff, they had some kids crafts for them to work on. Jake helped the Emery make a boat. I just realized that I never got a picture of it after it was done. I am so bummed because it was cute! She did a good job on it. There was a pool that they raced them in. Emery loved it. 

My mom also helped them make some finger puppets. 

They hit water balloons, and then had a massive water balloon fight afterwards.  

Then they had a hunt for polished rocks and money that had been hidden. The girls really loved it. 

They got a lot of money! Emery and Macie actually got more than everyone, it might help that they are so short and closer to the ground...haha

They got some prizes at the auction. 

Sweet Reese. 

That afternoon we went on a big long 4 wheeling ride. It was about 4 hours! And had the potential to be longer, but some people started to run out of gas...and Macie grabbed the exhaust pipe on our four wheeler and burnt her hand :( I felt so bad! We had no ice or anything to help her. One of my cousins had an ice pack that hadn't melted all the way that helped for a little while, but we had at least an hour before we could be back to camp. Luckily she fell asleep before it melted completely and slept the whole way back. She woke up and was on her way. Didn't bother her at all any more. She had 2 blisters on her fingers, but she never let it slow her down. 

Saturday was the 4th of July. Since I knew we were going to be camping I didn't want to get the kids too fancy of festive clothes to wear, but when I found these dresses, they were perfect! Macie is obsessed with dresses, and it was so hot it kept them cool and festive at the same time. 

Oh those 3 melt me. 

My grandma's sister, my Aunt Colleen, had planned a project for all the kids that day to make a scrapbook page of my great great grandma Jozefa Blatnik Kocjan (Kogan). She came over from Austria. 

My grandma and her 2 sisters. Mattie Jean, Faylene, and Colleen. There brother Duane was there for a little while too but we never got a picture. 

The night of the 4th we went into Ely to watch the fireworks!

Sunday was the day we left. We packed up our camp and got everything loaded up and headed into Lund to go visit my grandpa's grave. There were some weeds growing on it so we weeded it a little. Then we walked around and looked at our ancestors graves. I don't know all of the relations, but the names are all familiar, I have heard and read their histories over the years. There were too many to take pictures of them all. 

Then it was time to head home. Emery and Macie were bummed, they LOVE to camp. And this reunion is one of our very favorites. It is so much fun to see all of the cousins. A lot of them we really only see every other year at this reunion so I am glad we still have it. Until next time!

Bear Lake

We had such a fun weekend for the 24th! A few months my friend Larissa and I were talking about how we wanted go to Bear Lake, so we did something about it! Booked our camp and waited. We have been so excited! 

We headed up on Thursday, set up camp at the South Eden campground. It wasn't crowded at all, it was perfect! Friday morning we went to Rondevous Beach, since it is so sandy and nice we decided we wanted to go there. But it was SO busy. We stayed there for about 3 hours, and then decided to go back to camp to eat lunch.

Harley had fun just playing in the sand. But he also LOVES the water. If you didn't watch him he would just crawl into the lake by himself. Also I love that picture on the left because it is one of the few pictures you can actually see he is finally getting neck! haha! Macie also loved the water! It was so funny. She just jumped right in, she even swam by herself for a little while with no one holding her. That is HUGE for her. I was so proud of her. 

Harley was one happy baby. One of the bummer parts of Rondevous is that there are SO many people and the sand makes the lake look really dirty, when it is actually crystal clear and gorgeous blue. 

Emery and Macie were playing"turtle" and crawling around pretending to be turtles. 

After lunch, and the kids taking naps we headed down the beach at our campground, there was no one down there, so it was perfect!

Bear Lake is gorgeous!

This beach is rocky, rather than sandy, but if you wear shoes you don't even notice. And honestly it is nice to not have sand in all of the kids clothes and diapers, plus the water is actually crystal clear here. The kids enjoyed throwing rocks. 

After a while they all decided that they wanted to get in the water. So Jake ran back to camp to get their suits, meanwhile Macie couldn't wait and just jumped in in her diaper. 

Love these kiddos all so much!

Saturday morning we woke up, had breakfast, cleaned up, and headed to the Minnetonka caves. Jake and I came here once before right after we were married, but it has been 5 years. Plus we were excited to take the kids, and Jamo and Larissa hadn't ever been. It was a lot of fun!

After the hike we went into Garden City to have lunch, and of course some Bear Lake Raspberry shakes! mmmm there is nothing better! Then we hit up the beach again with more swimming and playing. 

We had such a fun weekend! We definitely wanted to make that trip a tradition.