The Yoders unite

 

Last weekend was sort of a mini Yoder reunion down in Hurricane. Mark's got nine siblings, and six of them--Frank, Sheila, John, Mike, David and Paul--were able to come, so it was a good turnout! (Minus about 20 nieces & nephews, but what can you do.)

On Friday, we met at Sand Hollow Reservoir, which is technically in Hurricane. It's fairly new and is a great scenic place for pictures, so I took a lot, you know me. Yes, I color boosted them a little, so what. The sun was so harsh that everything had looked washed out before I did.

 The water was chilly, but that didn't stop Luke. He only got out after about an hour when he started shivering violently. Of course, it was 2,049°F 102°F out, so it didn't take long for him to warm up again.

Paul kayaking

 Love the different colors of the water! It gets bluer as it gets deeper.

 The thing is, when it's over 100°F and you've got a body of cold water nearby, that creates wind. LOTS of freaking wind. Mark said it was about 25-30 mph. Imagine a Dementor (from Harry Potter, duh) sucking all the air and moisture out of you through your mouth. That's what it felt like. Or like standing inside of a giant hair dryer.

 So most of us just hunkered down beneath the shade and sat around eating cookies and saying, "Well, isn't this fun!" while sand blew in our face and got into every crevice. Little Cove slept through most of it, I couldn't believe it.

 Uncle Mike & Cove (8 weeks)

 Uncle John (when I say "uncle", I mean that they're my kids' uncle) took a turn with Luke, making sure he didn't drown. Thanks, John!

Madelyn and her cousin Autumn (both 7) had a blast running around together

Alex and Noah, and Luke and Mark

 I really do radiate light like that--it's my pasty skin!

We spent the rest of the day in Hurricane at Mark's folks' house and up in Apple Valley.

  

 I took these pictures as we drove by the new addition to Hurricane High school. Those squatty tan brick structures on the left are what's remaining of the old school, but a lot more was torn down. :(  I am absolutely flabbergasted at the size of the new part. There were only about 600 students when I went there 12 years ago. I guess the city has grown a lot.

 Little Cove is chunking up and smiling, he is so cute!!

 This cabin in Apple Valley used to be Mark's parent's, but they've since moved down to Hurricane and Mark's sister Sheila and her husband Mike bought it as a second home.

 Uncle Mike (Brown) always has fun teasing the girls.

 We had a fun white elephant exchange with lots of gag gifts. Noah got a package of XL men's briefs.

LOL! I guess you had to be there...

 That's West Temple (part of Zion National Park) that you can see from their back porch. This is where Mark lived when I first met him. We used to spend a lot of time up here.

 Back down in Hurricane, John had this awesome outdoor movie setup, and the kids were going to watch Madagascar. Unfortunately, it was almost 9:00 pm before they started, so we had to leave. Madelyn had to be dragged away kicking and screaming. So fun!!! I love having two kids that get hysterical about stuff!

The next day, the fam met up to go to Toquerville Falls, which involved a very long, bumpy ride in a Jeep (even Mark got car sick), lots of playing in the water and finding polliwogs, followed by hanging out back at the house playing Hearts and eating pizza for the rest of the day, but Luke and I didn't go. We were completely exhausted, he appeared to be getting a runny nose (and because of his reactive airway disease I didn't want it getting any worse), so we stayed home and cleaned the house all day. And as crazy as it sounds, it was a good day for me because I actually got stuff DONE instead of having to come home to ornery kids/house a disaster/laundry pile of Mount Doom.

Geezer, I know. I have turned into a crusty. old. geezer.