Sunday, July 10, 2016

Maughan Reunion 2016

This year for the Maughan reunion, we went to Junction, Utah. I know you're all thinking "Junction? Where is that and what the heck do you do there?" I had the same thoughts originally.....It's somewhere in the middle of Utah with population 25 (or something like that) but it was SUCH a fun reunion! I only wish it would have lasted longer. 

On the drive down we all stopped at Big Rock Candy Mountain. This weird little place with a cool looking mountain. The kids thought it looked more liked mashed potatoes than candy...but...oh well.

 
Here they had all kinds of recreational activities you could choose from to do. Trav took Rach and Josh whitewater rafting (along with almost all the other Maughans). I didn't feel like that should be something I do at 8 1/2 months pregnant so I stayed back with Kate, Will, Grandma, then Terry and Carson joined us too. I'm very bummed that I wasn't able to get pictures of the rafters but they all LOVED it. Sounded so fun.
 I thought we'd be headed to 105 degree weather which I was really nervous about. But for some strange miracle, it was cool and rainy the whole time! It was amazing!!! It started raining while the rafters were rafting so Kate and Will chilled in the car for a while causing all kinds of trouble.
 You know things are always going to get a little strange when Terry is around.
 Kate, Will and I went on a little walk to see the river and take some pictures.






 It was beautiful
 They had this swingset that had the highest swing ever. The kids loved that though.
 After the rafters got back another group of us went on the lazy river. I was able to go on this one with my whole little family. We had a few cousins join us too. It was beautiful!! Again, we didn't get any pictures of this but it was so relaxing and beautiful. There was one rapid we got to go through that was really fun. Some of us got stuck in whirlpools, and it started to rain on us, but somehow we all made it. I loved it!

Then we made our way to Junction. We stayed in the old courthouse which was the most amazing building! It was so cool that we got to stay there. By far one of the favorite rooms was the Library. We need one of these in our house.
 All Rach could talk about leading up to the reunion was that there was a library there. She was SO excited but when I wanted to take her picture this is the look I got....
 I said, "Come on! Look like you're excited or something!"........
 Oh well....we'll try again. To Rachel's dismay, her cousin Cassie had to sleep in the library because that was the only room left they could fit a pack and play in so she didn't get to hang out in there as much as she would have liked.

 This is the room we stayed in. "The Department of Wildlife." I think they left us that room on purpose. It was so cool. There was a vault in our room too.
 Here's the courthouse. SO cool!

 Ummm......nothing.....
 That night we just chilled at the Courthouse and had family night. The next morning we packed up and drove to Bryce Canyon.

 We went on a very small hike (thank you) and it was beautiful!


 Kate got sad so Will was trying to cheer her up. I love how he does this. He gets right up to her and says "Smile!!" in a very high, screechy voice. Works every time.




 Ok Mr. Handsome! The uncles decided that Josh's hat stood for "Trav's boy" because they look so much alike.


 Most everyone wanted to keep hiking except for a few of us (one of us was having contractions) Here's the group that stayed behind.

 Here's the group that went....




 We had lunch in Bryce, Cindy got a speeding ticket (ha ha!) then it was back to the courthouse! There was tons of seating in the kitchen. (and plenty of snacks to eat in there too)
 This is looking onto what the front entrance would have been back in the day.
 Upstairs there was a giant family/game room. Plenty to do there!
 There was even a judges bench, so the kids played "court" most of the time we were there.

 We did end up getting a few more pictures in the library.


 Outside was just as fun, and still heavenly rainy.


 Every room had a plaque. This was the one to our bedroom.









 They would even lock each other in the Vault during their court game.


 And....here's the whole crew!! Love this family and that we're all able to get together and take time out of our busy lives to still do this. I know it's rare and I feel so blessed for it.
 Unfortunately, we only got 2 nights there so the next morning we had to pack up and leave. But on the way out a bunch of us stopped at on old mine. I can't even remember what it was called but it was pretty cool to see. There was also a hike that we went on. We had to ride a bumpy 4-wheeler ride to get to the trailhead. I'm actually amazed I didn't go into labor on this trip....tubing on the river, 2 hikes, 4-wheeler rides....and not anywhere close to a hospital. I'm SO glad it didn't happen (considering I was contracting like the whole time)  but it would have made a great reunion story!
 The hike led us to an overlook of this gorgeous waterfall.





 After the hike we came home to 100 degree weather again. Blah! It was a great reunion in beautiful Junction, Utah.

No comments:

Post a Comment