The Hill family was all in town early, so there were various activities throughout the beginning of the week including: family dinners, ice cream at the BYU Creamery, Imaginaria at Thanksgiving Point, movies, etc. Andrew and Jonathon had work, so we didn’t go to most of the daytime activities, but we were still able to hang out several times. We also invited Nathan and Emily’s family over one night to watch Project Hail Mary. We saw it in the theaters, but they hadn’t yet. I think I liked it even better the second time because I have been listening to the book and understood it way better.
On Thursday, the actual reunion started. We all headed up to Heber Valley Camp. Our first activity was axe throwing. I was terrible! We got 10 practice shots, and I didn’t get a single axe to stick. Haha! I did much better when we used the ninja stars. We had a family competition to see who could score the highest. Justin, BJ, and Aaron were all really good. Despite my ineptitude, it was really fun!
That night we took a quick picture of everyone that was there. The only people that were missing were Christian (mission), Sam and Amanda (new baby) and Crista and David (new baby). Taking a good picture was easier said than done when there are 36 people (mostly little kids) to wrangle. I took the pictures and then photoshopped them afterward to make sure everyone was looking. I only had to edit 6 people. Haha! I think it turned out really good.
Jonathon gave an awesome devotional about the light from fireworks on the Fourth of July and compared it to the light of Christ and the Gospel. We read a few scriptures about being a light to the world, sang “This Little Light of Mine”, and then gave everyone little sparkly flashlights that kind of looked like fireworks when turned on. It was really good! We also had a dance party that night where Jonathon and I randomly did some country swing (Andrew was shocked that we knew how to do it!) and Andrew and Grace taught some line dancing. The frivolity and spontaneity of the activity made it one of my favorite things we did.
It was super hard to sleep that night. There were 16 people in each cabin, and the snoring, talking, and rustling made it so hard to go to sleep. I might have gotten 4 hours of sleep that night, so we were all groggy the next morning. Nathan went to the store and bought ear plugs that day to help with the future snoring. After breakfast, we went to Legacy Lake and played for an hour. Jonathon and I kayaked and canoed, while Andrew and Hyrum battled the other kids on the lake with Super Soakers and got drenched. I know I need to exercise more because my arms were so sore after that.
In the afternoon, we went to the giant swing challenge course. It was easy and safe enough for even the little kids to do it. We have some daredevils in the family, so the line for the swing was long. Jonathon, Hyrum, and Andrew all did it. I was willing, but we ran out of time, and I wasn't super excited to do it anyway.
After dinner, it was starting to get dark, and we had gathered everyone for a devotional. Cameron and Christa noticed that Macie was missing (she’s 3 years old). They looked for about 10 minutes but still couldn’t find her. At that point, everyone dropped what they were doing and started searching the whole campground for her. People were definitely starting to get worried, especially since she had been playing by a little stream earlier in the day. We searched for another 10 minutes before Audrey heard a little voice in the tall grass. We finally saw her, and Andrew climbed down the embankment to go get her and hand her up to me. She said, “I lost my family. Do you know where they are?” She is adorable, and that really melted my heart. When we arrived back at camp, we found out that Caleb and Ezra had said a little prayer in the cabin just minutes before. We were all so grateful to find her safe. It was wonderful to see cousins looking out for each other. It was a great faith-building moment for everyone.
After that we played games (minute-to-win-it) and had a devotional from Grandpa and Grandma before we went on the Faith Walk. I just went last week while at Girl’s Camp, so it wasn’t as interesting for me to do it again, but I hope the other teens and adults enjoyed it. Heber Valley has done such an amazing job on it, and the church has now published all the audio for other wards to copy. People from hundreds of miles away make the journey up there to experience it.
We got back from the Faith Walk super late (11 pm), and had to wake up really early in the morning to clean up camp and leave to get to the Provo Parade. I slept better than the first night, but it wasn’t long enough. I think everyone was tired all day! We woke up at 5 am, packed up, cleaned the whole camp, and left a little after 7. We got to Center Street just in time to watch the parade. Luckily, Aaron and Nathan left camp early to save us spots. The parade was good, but so long. After 1.5 hours, the sun was beating down on us, and I was pretty much done with it.
We went home and had a good nap to make up for the rough nights. That night we went to the Provo Temple lawn to watch fireworks from the stadium of fire. We are in such a bad drought that no one was allowed to do fireworks except the professional ones. That meant that everyone and their dog was out there watching them. They didn’t start until 10:45 pm, so when they ended at 11:10 pm, we were so ready to sleep. Unfortunately, the traffic was terrible! We sat in the parking lot for over 30 minutes before we even moved. Then we inched along for another hour. We got home around 1:00 am. I was so grumpy and vowed to never do that again. We will see how long I remember the torture and stick with that threat. Thankfully, I did get a nap the next day to help make up for it.
On Sunday, we went to Tera and BJ’s to play games and have treats. We played a new game called Quacks of Quendlinburg. We enjoyed it, and I would play it again. It was basically the end of the reunion because everyone already left or would shortly go home. Overall, it was a really good reunion! It was well organized and nothing too crazy happened, so I count that as a win! Tiffany and Mike really did a good job on it! One reunion down... one to go!
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