Family Reunion - Around the campfire

Of course when my family is together we have to sing.
Sing, sing, sing, we like to sing, we like to sing a song, sing, sing, sing.
We had a talent show Thursday night and my dad topped it off by singing and yodeling for us. I always love listening to my dad yodel.

My dad yodeling for us

Every night was a singing night around the campfire obviously because it is my family. My brothers can yodel and play guitar as well so there isn't a shortage. It is so fun listening to them.
I get to hear my dad sing/yodel occasionally but it isn't always the songs I remember so it was SUPER fun to have him sing every song we requested. There were ones that my older siblings new and I didn't. In fact my sister Heather hit me once because I wasn't singing along. It is funny how different the oldest 4 and the youngest 3 grew up. She was amazed when I said I didn't know the song. To her it was a classic. My favorite song that I got to hear was Way Up North To Alaska. I haven't heard that song in SO long. I had completely forgotten about it until it was requested. It was funny listening to my mom request songs that NONE of us had ever heard. They must have been songs my dad sang when they were dating and first married. It was SO AWESOME hearing all the songs though.
Like I said, no shortage of singers in this group. My favorite song that Chad sings is in Spanish and I can't even think of the tune or "words" to the song. (Chad/Katrina help me out here) It is fun and fast and so catchy.

Chad serenading us

At the end of the night, Matthew was so so tired from all the fun and lack of sleep that he had been getting/not getting. This was a common occurrence when Matthew sat down around the campfire at the end of the day. In fact one night I was holding Allison putting her to sleep and Matthew came and sat in the car next to me and I watched him fall asleep within about 10 seconds of sitting down. I could NOT believe he just sat down and fell asleep IMMEDIATELY. I could understand sitting down, people singing and the warm fire putting you to sleep eventually but not within seconds. It was quite amusing.

One tire little boy

Family Reunion - Fishing

One of the days we went down the canyon to the bottom and went fishing at lake that is stocked. I realized two things while going on this adventure.
1) I don't like fishing with children
2) I don't like camping with children
Both those things I thought I liked or the idea of it was always good. Of course I always went to Girls Camps growing up and loved them and to camping at family reunions but I just had to be the kid then. Now I am suppose to be the one taking care of the children and it is a WHOLE different story.
I decided that I have always liked the IDEA of fishing. "Yeah, of course I like to fish." But after doing it for the hour, I was SO done. I don't know if it was because of having to care for little ones or that I realized that it is a patient activity and I don't have any of those. I use all those up having the children:) I like a constant activity. The sitting there waiting isn't conducive to my enjoyment nor is it for little children. They don't understand that you leave it out there. So we would cast it out and then they would reel it in and cast it out and reel it in. I never ending cycle. The other thing is I was so terrified that the hook would get stuck on the little kids because they didn't take the caution they needed to so once they reeled it in, I would be so worried. It caught on me and my clothes numerous times but luckily me and not them.
So again the two things I realized after coming back from our fishing trip is that I don't actually like fishing, just the IDEA of it, and I am not as big of a fan of camping now but the idea sounds really fun.

Matthew waiting for a fish to bite.

The only fish that was ever caught in our group was by the pro himself, Spence. He had the fishing vest on and everything. He must not have been worrying about kids to be able to catch his own fish:) He let the other adults take care of the kids:) haha just kidding. Like always he was always doing things to make others have fun so I am sure he was helping I was just on one end of our long group and he was on the other.
When I (not Matthew) I had had enough fun fishing, Matthew and I took our poles up to Kris and Heather's truck and put it away and then we went and found Spencer. As we were walking down he had a fish. He really needed to get it back in the water (it is catch and release) but Matthew of course wanted to see it. Spencer would put it back in the water while holding it and then bring it out again so that we could get pictures. Matthew was so happy to touch the fish and he was scared of it at all. Finally, Spencer felt so bad for the fish that he put it back in the water. It wasn't moving. He tried to help it get its strength up but it wasn't working. He just put it in the water anyways. Joni and I saw the fish out there, belly up. I didn't really want the kids to see that we killed this fish and Joni and I were kind of making eye contact trying to figure out what we should do and then the next thing we knew was that we could not find that floating fish anywhere. He must have gotten his second life and was able to swim away. At least that is what I keep telling myself.

Matthew and the fish

Family Reunion - Playing with Grandpa

Matthew hadn't seen Grandpa McNiven for about 3 years. The last time he saw him was when we were up in Montana in 2007 and Matthew was 15 months old. Matthew didn't have any knowledge of who Grandpa McNiven was. He knew Grandma McNiven since she came to visit us a few months ago and also we talk to Grandma McNiven a lot on the phone.
While at the reunion, Chris was sitting around the fire and Matthew came over and Chris asked, "Matthew, do you want to sit by me?" Matthew replied, "No, I want to sit next to Grandpa." Chris said it was weird hearing Matthew call someone else Grandpa because he has only ever heard Matthew call his dad Grandpa. Chris forgot that Matthew had another Grandpa.
One day while sitting and talking I noticed that Matthew was playing with Daniel which wasn't unusual but there on the ground was sitting Grandpa playing dinosaurs and 4-wheelers with Matthew and Daniel. I was amazed to see such a sight. Other then working with wagons and with horses I have never see my dad interact with the kids. ESPECIALLY sitting in the dirt and playing with them. I had to take a picture of this momentous occasion. It was so out of character for my dad but I know Matthew absolutely loved it and still talks about Grandpa McNiven playing dinosaurs with him. I doesn't realize how very special that was.

Grandpa playing dinosaurs with Matthew and Daniel

Grandpa very intent on what Matthew was talking about. I am sure Matthew was telling Grandpa how his is suppose to play dinosaurs correctly.

Family Reunion - DIRTY kids

Normally when you go camping, it is usually on a lot of grass. We camped on loose sandy dirt. Our kids got SO dirty. We would try to rinse them off to eat and such but I am sure these kids ate so much dirt in the four days we were there.

Baby Allison



Allison was so clingy while we were there and I am sure it is because of all the new faces around but I heard mommy A LOT. Sometimes more then I wanted to hear.

Dirt and all, she is still my precious baby Allison.

A few from the campfire site.

Matthew and Daniel playing in the dirt with the 4 wheeler and dinosaurs.



Matthew loves finding swords and gun sticks. Needless to say, he found NUMEROUS.

One of the many guns.

Dirt and all, I love this boy.

I was so funny watching the kids just play in the dirt. By the last day I think all of us parents had given up trying to keep anything clean. We just let them go for it. This is Mike and Wendy's youngest playing in the dirt.

Adorable baby Vanessa

My dirty baby Allison


Needless to say by the end we were all SO ready to find a shower and running water. When we got out of the canyon (after the reunion) we found a gas station and scrubbed our hands, face, arms, and elbows to feel like we were somewhat clean.

Family Reunion - Hiking

We went on a hike and were able to get 22 or the 35 to come. Kris Smith was our guide and he said it was for big kids only, so unfortunately some of the smaller ones and some parents had to stay back. Kris took us quite a ways and we did hear some complaining but it was fun overall.
This was a great place to take a picture.

The hiking crew

Beautiful American Fork Canyon Mountains


The hiking kids

The hiking group taking a break on some logs

Kris gave us a little geology lesson when we got to the end destination and broke up a rock and told us about it. It was quite fascinating.

Our hiking group at our destination...before heading the WHOLE way back.

My boy and I

McNiven Family Reunion 2010

We have talked for a few years now about maybe someday thinking about trying to possibly get a family reunion together. That was back in 2007.
Spencer decided that is was time we stopped talking about it and actually did one. He was going to get this party started:) He took the initiative this spring to call all 6 other siblings and parents and find out a date this summer that would work for everybody to make it. After making numerous calls to everybody we nailed down July 7-10th. Once he got the dates nailed down, he and Joni took the rest of it from their. We were able to help out here and there with coming up with a few ideas but Spence and Joni did EVERYTHING and provided everything. All of us, except my family, had tents that they either borrowed from local relatives or brought with them. We didn't have the room in our car to carry everything so Spence and Joni provided a tent trailer for us. Everybody that showed up traveled from afar. We were able to get 35 out of 36 (21 of them being ALL of the grandchildren) to make it to the family reunion in Utah.
Spence and Joni traveled from Las Vegas, NV
Others came from:
Tuscan, AZ
Huntley, MT
Bryan, TX
Mechanicsburg, PA
Turnersville, NJ
On Wednesday morning, we met at Mt. Timpanogos Temple and then took family pictures. After pictures we drove up American Fork Canyon and found our campsite and set up camp. Since not everybody/all equipment came up at the same time it was funny watching up put up everything because we would put something up and then when something else came we would move the first thing. We ended up moving canopies 5 times along with picnic benches. We were just laughing at ourselves. But once all the equipment made it up and we had everything moved just how we wanted it, it turned out fabulous and worked the whole time we were there.
While we were getting things set up, I handed Allison off to Grandma. It was so nice to have Grandma there to also be so willing to take Allison off my hands when needed. At the beginning Allison would cry for about a minute after passing her off but then she was just fine. She even almost gave me a smile in this picture.

Grandma McNiven and Allison (22 months)



Once the camera is out, I can't just take one picture.

Chris and I

I just love my little boy. I think he is very cute and he really is a very sweet boy.
Grandpa loved giving out jolly ranchers to the grandkids and Matthew picked a blue one so his teeth have a blue tint to them.

My favorite little boy and I.
He is definitely my buddy.


Poor little boy is used to mommy always taking pictures. He is a trooper about it though.

Matthew - age 4

Matthew and Allison never got their naps while we drove the three days to Utah, and they stayed up later then they normally do so they were already sleep deprived before we even got to the campsite. Luckily, because they were so sleep deprived, I was able to give Allison to my mom and she was able to put her to sleep just by holding her even though kids were playing, adults were talking and it was bright all around. She just slept in Grandma's arms. It was so sweet.
Wednesday night, it started getting cold but we hadn't prepared ourselves for Utah cold, just Texas cold. We didn't have coats, only sweatshirts. We were just going to have Allison sleep in our bed so that she could stay warmer but it was just flat out too cold. She kept crying, I was crying because I was the one putting her in the situation to be so cold. I just held her tight, kissing her forehead, telling her how sorry I was that she was cold and crying. It was really sad. Matthew was curled up as tight as he could be but I am sure he was cold though he didn't wake up. Chris, Allison, and I were all so miserable we knew that there was no way that we could do this for another 2 nights. We were thinking about how we would be able to go down the canyon and stay in a hotel each night. Whatever it was, we were freezing and couldn't do that another night. I finally took Allison to the car with me and turned on the heater. I wished at that point that we had a bigger vehicle to lay down in. Instead I just sat in the front seat holding my precious baby. She cried so much that night. Sadly, even though we "got our heater fixed" it still is sort of intermittent. It took an hour to actually get heat coming out rather then just outside temperature. I was very glad once the heat actually came on. I put it on full blast until I was really warm and then I turned the car off and would try to sleep until it got too cold in the car, then I turned the car and heater back on until I got warm, however long that took. I was not a happy camper in the morning (haha)
When Spence came out of his trailer in the morning and heard how cold we were, he informed us that there was a heater in that tent trailer and we could use it that night. After putting on all of my dad's many heavy shirts with Allison bundled inside and after my dad started a fire, I finally eventually got warmed up.


Sometimes it was just nice to sit by the fire.

Allison chilling with a ball.


I think only 3 of the 21 grandchildren got naps though more then that normally take naps and probably usually which to bed earlier then they did at the reunion. By Friday this is what we found with my little nephew, Anderson. He was just playing in the dirt and fell asleep.

What a tired little boy.

We had a beautiful view of the mountains.

Our family in American Fork Canyon

The Chris Thomas Family July 2010
We survived 3 nights and 4 days of camping:)

Reunited

I have a wonderful friend that I grew up with in Montana who happens to live in Utah. Since we were going to Utah, I thought it would be fun to see her. She let us stay in her house. Darci was a year older then I was but it didn't then or now. We had so many great times growing up and it was SO SO fun to see her after not getting to see her for 10 years I think. I think the last time I saw her, when when she graduated. It was so fun to meet her wonderful husband, Ryan, and two adorable boys, Thomas age 4 and Jake 15 months. Matthew LOVED playing with Thomas and they even got to have a sleep over in his bedroom. It was so nice of Darci and family to let us stay the night and hang out/catch-up with them.
Thanks for letting us stay with you Darci:)

GQ

We just thought Matthew looked so GQ in this outfit one Sunday morning so we had to get him to pose for us (and his sidekick:)

Start 'em Young

We love nerf guns in our house. They are so fun. We had to get a picture of Allison holding this.

Little Update

I finished Summer 1 session on Friday, July 2 and after all my studying I was able to come out with an A in my Psychology of Adjustment class. I had Dr. Heffer and he was a FABULOUS teacher. He made the class so fun and entertaining. I was lucky enough not to miss a single class. I loved that class and was actually a little sad that it was over. My other Psychology class: Sensation & Perception was a lot harder but I learned different ways to study so hopefully that will help me in my future classes. After having two different graduate teachers (which was VERY hard to deal with) I came out with a B. By the time I figured out how the first teacher did tests and did well on the the second test we had a new teacher. The second teacher was Definitely new at teaching and just read what was on the slide. She would actually confuse me even more when I asked her a question. I was very happy to finish the course with a B. Had the class gone on any longer I am sure my grade would have been lower. I was not sad at all to have that class done. I hope I don't ever have to have the privileged of having two teachers for the same class again.

Saturday morning, July 3rd, we were able to go to our ward's annual Freedom breakfast. We always have a ward breakfast on July 4th but since it was on Sunday this year we did it on Saturday. Saturday afternoon we packed and got ready to leave on our big long trip.
When the kids woke up Sunday morning we changed their clothes and put them in the car. We fed them their breakfast in the car. We drove 9 hours that day and stayed in Amarillo, TX. We were worried about Allison but surprisingly she did very well. We figured the next day would be bad. Monday we drove from Amarillo, TX to Cortez, CO. We normally stop every two hours for about 5 minutes just to get out and go to the bathroom so we didn't have any accidents in the car. On of the stops (I think it was in NM) we saw my friend, Amy's parents. I would not have recognized her dad but I have seen her mom enough that I totally recognized her. It was cool to see somebody in a place you wouldn't expect. Again we drove 9 hours on Monday to Cortez, CO. Allison once again did a great job in the car. On Tuesday we drove 6 hours to Saratoga Springs, UT. Again Allison did very well and I never had to give her the binki. We went to my friend Darci's house whom I grew up with in MT. I hadn't seen Darci for 9 years so it was SO FUN to see her and meet her cool husband and cute little boys. It was great spending the night at her house. Matthew and her almost 4 year old decided to sleep in their sleeping bags that night on the floor. They had so much fun playing with each other.
Wednesday morning we woke up and got ready for our family pictures. We were suppose to meet at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple at 10am for pictures. Of course being McNivens I knew that we would have members of our family late. Heather's family and us (not being McNivens anymore) were there on time and also my mom and dad were there at 8am. They had driven from WY early that morning and got there early. The rest of the family, were late, as I expected but I love them anyways. Luckily it wasn't a HUGE deal of people showed up late. As hard as it is to take pictures of 35 people with 21 of them being children, I hope we got some cute pictures. From there we drove up American Fork Canyon and went up the winding road to our campsite. We had a wonderful family reunion which Spencer and Joni did all the planning and preparations all my themselves. They put so much work into making this a INCREDIBLE family reunion. They have set the bar REALLY high. We had a great time and I will post pictures and talk more about it in another post when we get home.
On Saturday we took down camp and Heather's family and us drove to Las Vegas, NV and stayed in Spence and Joni's house for the night. Allison has since decided she no longer likes the car and we had to give her the binki.
Then Sunday morning we drove from there to Mesa, AZ. We got to Chris' parents house right before Grandma was headed to church. She asked if she could take Matthew with her (Harvey is ex. sec. in a singles ward). Grandma thought it would be such a great surprise for Grandpa. I was expecting to be traveling all day both Sundays we were gone so I didn't pack church clothes. I came up with a button-up shirt and he wore shorts. I was actually mortified to send him like that but...oh well. Matthew was a HUGE hit. Grandpa was so shocked and excited to see Matthew at church he had to hold back the tears. Grandma said Matthew was very reverent and then he was a huge hit with the ladies. Matthew sang songs for them and the bishop and anybody that gave him attention. Some of the girls just HAD to touch Matthew's ORANGE hair and asked Grandma if it was real. (I have been asked before if I dye his hair) Matthew even came home with two suckers. He had a great time and LOVED all the attention.
On Monday, we went to the Phoenix Zoo with my sister-in-law and her brother along with the kids. (Pictures and more on that to come when we get home). Monday night Grandma and Grandpa babysat while we went out to eat with Deb, Jason, Tyler, Katie, and Deb's brother, Chris. It was so fun to go out with them and and just enjoy adult time together. I was very thankful that Grandma and Grandpa were willing to watch our kids. It was SO SO SO nice. When we got home, they said that the kids were really good and there were not any tears which was surprising with Allison.
Tuesday I was able to go visit my old roommate and see her beautiful new home. I love her home and would LOVE to have a home just like hers. I loved the layout and then she has decorated it SO cute. It was so fun to see her and catch up and let my kids play with her boys.
This morning I was able to go visit my cousin Danean and it was so fun to see her. It is so wonderful seeing family and reminiscing.
We are having a great time in AZ even though it is 108 degrees today and suppose to be 113 degrees tomorrow. I really like the AZ heat. I love being around family. We are having a great time.