Thanksgiving Hinton Family Reunion

We had the best weekend in St. George with my family. This is a long post because the weekend was full of activities and we took lots of pictures! We've gotta get it all in the yearbook, though, so bear with me!

Because Dad (a.k.a Grandpa Hinton) broke his hip in April, he was laid up this summer. So we postponed the reunion that we had planned in July at Bear Lake for next year, and had this year's reunion at Thanksgiving time. A sister, brother and my parents all live in St. George. So we all camped out at various houses and condos to save money and had designated meeting places for our activities.

Turkey Day
Thanksgiving Day was cold and rainy. It rained ALL day long. We had reservations at The Switchback Lodge Restaurant in Springdale, UT (Zions Nat'l Park) for Thanksgiving Dinner. Our plan was to hike around and enjoy the scenery that day, but we ended up indoors, protected from the rain. We ate at a big buffet that ended up being a little disapointing. Good, but too many people there and not enough buffet lines. The highlight of the day was shaking an apostle's hand! Elder Jeffery R. Holland was there with his family. He touched Sadie's cheek and told her Happy Thanksgiving. She asked her dad who it was. He said, "Oh, just an apostle of Jesus Christ." Oh. He looks a little different in his BYU sweatshirt and jeans :)

Luckily, the rain let up just long enough for us to congregate behind the restaurant and take some family photos. Jen did such a great job with these! Do I have a big family, or what? This includes all seven siblings, their spouses and children and Grandma and Grandpa. Only one nephew is not in this picture because he's serving a mission in The Dominican Republic right now. I think there are 46 of us.



Couldn't get the boys to smile after all these pictures. But it's still a pretty shot with the scenery.

Snow Canyon Sand Dunes
The next day, the weather was more cooperative, thank goodness. Just a little windy.
{kids+endless sand= hours of fun!}

Uncle Kerry brought some flags for a game of football, which made the afternoon even more exciting. It was entertaining just sitting and watching this game, with kids and adults playing together. Here's a great shot of my neice, Krista intercepting the ball! If you click on the picture to make it big, you can see the football in her hands. Way to go Krista!

Here are the "96ers" leaping into another great year! We had 5 babies born in the year 1996. Landon, Hailey, Kaylee, Sam and Jason. They always have a blast together.

Dinner #2

That night we had our own turkey/prime rib (courtesy of Moe) dinner at my parents' condo clubhouse. We all agreed it was even better than the $27/plate dinner we had the day before! The Patriarch and Matriarch of the family.

The Gift Exchange

A Beautiful Saturday
Saturday, the weather was beautiful! About 65 degrees and sunny. We spent most of the day at a new park in Bloomington Hills, just soaking in the sun, talking and recreating. We played sand volleyball, ultimate frisbee, tennis, and the younger kids played at the playground and rode scooters around the sidewalks. This was the BEST park for a group the size of ours. I wish I had pictures from this day!

Jeremy's Birthday--time to go home!

And the last day, Sunday, was Jeremy's birthday. I wrote about it in the previous blog. Now, it's back to life and getting ready for Christmas!