Summer 2017

There were some fun family times as Shane and Alicia's family came in from California, and Wendy brought some of the kids to see their cousins. After those two traveled so far, Blackhams even came all the way out from West Jordan!

First, there was a family party on Sunday, July 16. Grayson made pulled pork and it was tacos and sliders for dinner. Chris had been in the hospital for surgery on his colon/complications and barely got out (and felt well enough) to come. There don't seem to be any pictures from the party, but there's a little video of the crazy Blackham boys below.

On Tuesday, Wendy and Alicia went out to West Jordan to join Jen for Zumba.

Then the cousins met at the pool ...

 Not all, but quite a few cousins!

Josh didn't want to go swimming,
but stayed and played with some classic Westra toys.

The "Days of 47" Float Preview Party was going on at the Expo Center in Sandy. It's a great way to see all the floats up close and in air-conditioned comfort. Three of the families went to that. Jen even got the older boys (Landon and Callahan) to come and join the fun.  Cooper really wasn't as miserable as he looks in every photo, he was just NOT in a picture-taking mood ... and now that fact is preserved forever!

A couple of the families and Grandpa went to hike Timpanogos ... 

The Westra Women who were available had a lunch date ... Red Robin, YUM!

Wendy's kids had some s'mores in the Westra backyard, 

while Alicia practiced her photography skills.

As promised ... pictures and video of the crazy Blackham Boys! The left photos are from the July Sunday gathering (the cave and the jumping over the flowerbed). The jumpROPE was actually a little later, a September birthday gathering with extended family ... but again, NO photos! Only some video of five little Blackham Boys jumping rope (I snagged a couple still shots from the video). I guess everyone was having too good of a time to take out their phones/cameras for pictures.

The Blackham Boys were a little JUMPY when going to the Westra's house this summer!

The Westra kids have memories of running down the side hill at Grandma and Grandpa Norman's house, swinging around the pole at the bottom of the stairs and daring each other to go down the laundry chute ... the Westra grandkids will have memories of Grandpa's cave, jump rope, the pond , the pool and more!

Here's a little bit from Mom ...

We had an enjoyable week with Shane's family here--they arrived Fri. afternoon, July 14. Wendy and her 3 youngest came straight from their annual "Father's Day Flee" which was at Bryce Canyon this year. The cousins had so much fun together and went swimming every day but Sunday. We played games and watched shows . We had a nice family dinner here last Sunday so everyone could see each other and visit.

Shane's family left Friday about 4 and were invited to a barbecue at a friend's home, then went on to Elko to sleep over and then arrived to their place in Calif. Sat. evening.

Wendy and kids headed to Ogden Fri. afternoon to stay over a night at Grandma Jensen's, meeting Rick and Janelle & her friend there. Then Rick and Wendy and Janelle & friend were heading up to BYU-I where Rick is an EFY Session Director and the girls are attending EFY.

Janika finished 2 weeks as EFY Counselor at the Y and headed up to Ogden Sat. morning to take the 3 youngest kids back to St. George where she and Jared will tend them for the week. Janika was so tired that Wendy had her stop at our place and nap for an hour before the long drive. Janika said being an EFY Counselor is so fun. She works two weeks on and then one week off. During her off week she works a 40-hour work week doing housekeeping at a Veteran's home for Seniors. Busy girl! She has done EFY 3 weeks at BYU, Wyoming, and Atlanta, Georgia so far.  A lady in our ward said she had 2 granddaughters attending EFY this past week at BYU-----I wonder if they might have been in Janika's group.

Shane is flying back here Wed. evening for business meetings at his old work place Work Front at Thanksgiving Point. He will sleep at our place 2 nights and use our truck. Then fly home Fri. for Alicia's birthday.

We are going to visit Chris tomorrow night.

Cookies and Cousins ... and Jumping

JUMP!

As we were growing up, we always had a lot of interaction with Uncle Merrill and his family. As we all got older, it was harder to have family gatherings with all the spouses, kids, etc., because it was such a big group. But today, Mom/Margie hosted a "Cookies and Cousins" party, and we had a great turnout. It was so fun to visit my cousins that I hadn't seen in a while. There were plenty of cookies, and while it was drizzling a bit outside for a good portion of the evening, that didn't deter the kids. Jen brought jump ropes, hula hoops and catch games, Dad/Lamar set up the golf shoes, and everyone stayed quite busy. There aren't  many photos/video, but we caught some action in a little video ... 

At the end of the evening, a huge rainbow formed across the sky ...

Cookies & Cousins ... and Flies Up

Time for a Westra Cookies&Cousins. It was up at Shane and Alicia’s new house in Pleasant Grove. The big boys had fun playing flies up. Derek and Danielle watched Colton, giving Jen a little break. Cooper had fallen asleep on the way and was in a mood, saying "I ready to go home" over and over. He finally relaxed a little and played with Adria, running up and down the hills in the yard. There was a little excitement when a tick was discovered on Taylee (got it off before it burrowed in her). Chris’s boys had birthdays so they got to do the penny plunge. There were plenty of treats, and Alicia made her yummy meltaway cookies.

Not many pictures ... some out-of-date video though! 

... something as simple as a football can bring the family together!

Cookies&Cousins (and Cakes&Coins!)

Cookies and Cousins ... and cakes and coins. Mom/Margie was trying to host monthly family gatherings, and for February, we were celebrating some birthdays too. Mckenna, Alyssa and Callahan. So in addition to lots of cookies, there was cake. And coins. The "penny plunge" where the birthday kids could attempt to grab as many pennies as they could from one container and carry them to another.

Here's Jen's Journal entry ... "Made some cookie-press cookies for the “Cookies and Cousins”. At 6:00, we went out to my parents, we were actually the first ones there. Mom set up a “penny plunge” for the birthday kids (McKenna, Alyssa and Callahan) to see how many pennies they could transfer from one bowl to the next in 30 seconds. Shane and Alicia brought sugar cookie hearts for the kids to decorate. Landon ended up going home with Scott and Amy, as his sleep overs with Kellen are one of the highlights of his off-track time."

Later in the year (in August) Grandma and Grandpa would come out to the Blackham house for more birthdays (Cooper and Keaton) in the Fall. They brought the pennies and the bowls. This Penny Plunge was caught on video camera.

https://youtu.be/CtTQ9jItlrY