{Ashton Family Pictures}

My super talented sister-in-law Monica brought her camera to the reunion in Utah and took some wonderful family pictures for everyone! They all turned out sooooo great!

Gene & Cassie

Cody & I



Cody & Brooke Family (yes my children are very photogenic, lol!!)



Tyler & Susan Family



Teri & Jace Family



Kael & Monica Family



Boyd & Mona Family



Dustin & April Family



Danny & Lesli Family



Gene & Cassie with all their children and spouses



LOTS of Grandkids!!!



The Gene Ashton Family 2010!!

The butterflies represent Cody's sister Jodi who passed away when she was only 4 months old, and Kael and Monica's daughter Devon.

{Ashton Reunion 2010}

Several years ago Cody's family decided that every two years they would have a summer family reunion, and the siblings would take turns being in charge of it. We've gone to Yellowstone, Bear Lake, and Disneyland....and this year Dustin and April were in charge. They arranged with Cody's cousin Brian to use his beautiful (and very large) cabin located near Brian Head in Utah. It was a nice central location for most of us and the best part is everyone was able to come.

On our way there we stopped at The Hoover Dam. It was exciting for the boys to see up close even though we felt like we were melting in the 100+ degree weather. We let the boys look around in the the gift shop. Although they looked so great in these sunglasses we stuck to our $1 budget and they each just picked out a postcard :o)



We were VERY excited to make a stop in Logandale, Nevada where our dear friends the Turners just moved too. Shelby has embraced the small town feel and has vowed only to have southwestern decor in her new home.



We arrived at the cabin safe and sound and it was so fun to see everyone! The weekend was filled with fishing, lizard hunting, hiking, friendship bracelets with help from Aunt Lesli, games, and lots of reminiscing.







The kids loved sleeping together at night, and looking at how many kids we have between us it is amazing that any of us got sleep at all!



One day Cody and Danny took us on The Narrow's hike. It was beyond beautiful although it was a bit of a challenge for the little ones as most of the trail is going upstream in the river. Everyone was up for the challenge though and had a great time.









Monica brought her nice camera and her sweet photography skills and took some family pictures for us. They turned out so nice, I'll put them in a separate post.



We had such a wonderful time....it was so fun to be around Cody's sweet parents, his siblings and all the in-laws, and my fabulous little nephews and nieces. It's a wonderful family to be a part of and I love how everyone gets along so well. It's hard to live so far apart from most of them, but I love how when we do get together things flow so smoothly and the kids just love playing with their cousins.

{Flagstaff}

Each summer Cody's work has a weekend retreat and this year we went to Flagstaff. We had such a great time and the weather could not have been nicer! It was hard to go back to the heat when we were spoiled by cool nights and mornings!

The boys love a good hotel bed...the only time they get to perform tricks and jump from bed to bed. My favorite part about hotels is cranking the AC on so the room gets cold and shutting the blinds so it's nice and dark and tricks my kids into sleeping in :o)



The kids had fun swimming in the pool, eating from the yummy buffets...and most of all being outside! Cody had some meetings so we went on some little hikes and had fun exploring in the forest.



We toured The Riordan Mansion, built over 100 years ago and is 13,000 square feet with 40 bedrooms. There was a map with clues that led you to neat features of the home and they loved decoding it. They were impressed with Louie the Lumberjack, he's pretty big :o)



Cody took Rhett and Ethan up on a ski-lift ride to the top of a mountain and they found some snow to play in.



One of the nights there was an awards dinner and it was fun to dress up and have a nice dinner with all the adults.

On our last day we headed back into the forest to find a lava tube cave Cody had heard was really neat.



We were prepared with jackets (we heard there was ice and it was pretty cold) and flashlights since it's completely dark in the cave. It was pretty steep and icy when you first descend into the cave.



The mile-long lava tube cave was formed over 700,000 years ago from a volcano eruption. It was really cold inside and I didn't realize until we had gone a mile to the end that we wouldn't just come out of the ground, but had to turn around and go a mile back! The boys LOVED it though, what boy doesn't love a chance to use a flashlight?? It was a really neat experience and we will definitely go back soon.

{Swim Lessons}

I am way behind on my blog and it is stressing me out!! I am going to try to catch up...so let's go back to June!

Every summer my boys look forward to swim lessons, they learn a lot and have so much fun!

Kade became a fish this summer, shedding the life jacket and becoming a good swimmer like his brothers! He also was very excited when at the end of the summer (just tonight actually) he was finally tall enough to go on the big slides and for a solid hour and a half just went on the slides over and over again.





Ethan and Rhett were very excited to learn that Jerry was their swim teacher (same as last year) and these pictures show why. He is fun!! On the last day of class he bounced on the diving board while holding the boys, and then when he jumped off he threw them up. Very safe I'm sure....but oh so fun!