Family Reunion

We had an Updike Family Reunion in Bryce Canyon National Park over the past few days. We had a wonderful time. Our reunion started at 5am by getting up and driving from San Diego to St. George. We had a nice drive and stopped at Nana's & Papa's for a couple of hours for lunch and to hear about their trip to Samoa. Nana also made Lily a birthday cake since they weren't here for her birthday.Our drive from St. George to Bryce Canyon was great. There were amazing views and endless forests. It was a beautiful drive and not to windy or narrow roads. Part of the drive we were on Highway 89 which takes me back to the days that we drove between Phoenix and Provo.
We checked into our room at one of the lodges at Ruby's Inn. It was near the lake so we had some nice views. All my aunts, uncles and cousins were in rooms right around ours. It reminded me of the old days when we would do family reunions when we were younger. We loved being up in the woods with the smell of pines. We even had a monsoon go by. We stopped by Old Bryce Canyon Town which was across the street from the hotel. So cute.


Friday morning we drove around the park and hit the visitor's center. We learned a lot of interesting facts in this film that we watched. Later that day as we were hiking Inspiration Trail with the rest of my family my kids were able to ramble off all these facts and my relatives thought they were all so smart. That was funny. It was a great hike though. Lily made a great friend in my cousin Cari who carried her most of the hike on her back.


Friday night after dinner we had a softball game, played with sparklers and then we sat around the campfire and made smores and heard stories from the aunts and uncles about our family. The kids loved it. It has been fun seeing my cousins and getting to know some that I don't really know. We started to set off fireworks until security came by and told us that we couldn't do fireworks there. Fun killer.
Bryce Canyon is beautiful. We really do live in a unique country. I get angry when people say America is boring and dull.

More to come.