Ellison Family Reunion

Over the 24th of July Weekend (a Holiday in Utah), we attended the Annual Ellison Family Reunion-at Landon's parents house in Flowell, Utah. All of his siblings and their families came and it was lots and lots of fun. There were activities planned for every day and each family took a turn cooking a meal. The kids all played from sun-up to sun-down; I guess past sun down most nights cause they did night games at Uncle Layne's.
The highlight of the weekend had to be the Zip-Line. Landon had talked about building one before we went, he had even looked into supplies but they proved a little costly. Well, he said something to Layne about it and Layne went over to the Shop, and came back with everything they needed to build it-free of cost-all just stuff that was laying around. Landon and Layne got busy and before long the kids were all zip-lining out of the tree house. At first the pillow brigade had to stop the zip-liner at the bottom from hitting into the tree, but before long Landon created a break at the bottom which reduced that need. By the end of the weekend several of the kids were proficient at getting themselves harnessed in, clipped in, and running the zip-line all by themselves. There is talk of little improvements and upgrades for things, but I think this is something the kids are going to love doing whenever they visit Grandpa and Grandma's.

 On the 24th of July, Flowell has a pretty big celebration; I guess big for a small town, but most of the town participates. Early in the morning they have a 5K run. They also do a children's parade, games and activities in the park, dinner, a talent show, and a movie. Taryn brought supplies and all of the kids made Pioneer Costumes-complete with pool noodle horses.

 Some of the cute kids in the parade....

 When our group finally got there they were a little bit separated-the wagon had a broken wheel and was really hard to push, and Chloe was carrying Bryce cause he had fallen asleep. I guess they got to feel for a few seconds how the pioneers might have really felt.

 Bryce waving to us from the tree house.

 Saturday Grandma rented a giant water-slide. Between this and Zip-Lining the kids were busy outside most of the day!

 Even Bryce went down a time or two...

 Saturday night was the annual talent show-I think all of the kids participated except for Tanner who has kind of outgrown that sort of thing. Chloe, Dakota, and Makele hosted the event and they did a great job putting it all together. Chloe did Zip-Lining and Tramp Tricks for her talents and Bryce named the Dinosaurs for his. They even put Landon on the program juggling chain saws (really he ended up juggling balls, but they had the sound of chainsaws playing).

 One of Bryce's favorite parts of the weekend was this horse swing-he spent hours on it.

 The weekend really was great, yes we had a few issues with water-due to the well, but all in all I don't think anyone let that bother them too much. Everyone seemed to get along and the kids had so much fun they were all begging to stay longer and Chloe was crying cause she didn't want to leave.