St. George Blaylock Reunion

A few days before we left for St. George, Jason came and stayed with us on his way to Arizona and we played Dominion. M loves Dominion and I have to be in a mood where I am okay losing to play or add another person into the mix, so he was pretty excited when Jason was up for learning a new game. And, we tied. M actually won because he had less turns, but he's gracious enough to let us have a portion of the victory because we all got the same number of points. We love having guests, so it was a fun evening.

Because of COVID, Aspen Grove closed for the summer and our family reunion was switched to taking place in St. George. We decided we'd rather fly than drive, and we were so glad we did! The drive to the airport was filled with heavy rain, which immediately put us on edge. I was uneasy before we left, but I wasn't sure why. Then, within only a few minutes of being on the road it started to rain, I knew why I felt uneasy. I was grateful Heavenly Father heard my prayers and filled me with as much peace as possible as we drove. We were so grateful to get to the parking area, be off the road, and on to St. George via an airplane. We had about an hour and a half layover in Salt Lake, and got to St. George about 11 PM that night. It was late, and we're very grateful Grandpa Blaylock was willing to pick us up. Jay did amazing on the flights, and on our way to Denver we had an extra seat so he was able to sleep in his car seat. We were so grateful to get to a nice bed and sleep that night.  

At DIA - Jay's first airport adventure outside the womb!

Sunday was our first full day with the family. We shared a town home with Andrew and Brad and their families. For church, Olivia and Tanner gave talks, we sang the EFY medley (As Sisters in Zion and Armies of Heleman), and Grandma Blaylock gave a little primary lesson. I felt the Spirit, and I know others did as well. In the afternoon we played "Who's Who." Andrew got 100%, he was able to decipher every single person's baby photo. I was surprised at how difficult it was to tell the 36 people apart, especially when I've only known them for a few years. 

Jay loved all the attention, here he is with Elise and Katelynn. 

Matthew joining the fun of Sudoku puzzles with Kyle and Olivia

I won't hit on every day in particular, rather highlights throughout the week. Of course, we had delicious food every day and everyone was so thoughtful to make sure I had enough to eat that was gluten free. We went swimming so often, and mostly had the pools to ourselves. Matthew, Mike, and Nathan did a variety of tricks in the pool, including throwing kiddos. The biggest adventurous one was the three man ladder, impressive and scary. Every day during nap time, we'd enjoy being with our town home peeps and catching up. 

Nathan, M, Brady

Mike, Nathan, M

M, Me, Jay, Claire

Every evening after the kids went to bed, we'd all gather in a town home for the evening adult time. I'm not sure how this started, but each night different couples shared their stories of how they met. It was so fun to hear everyone's! I loved it, and felt like I got to know everyone so much better. We tried to focus on hearing the story from the in-law perspective, which made everything even funnier. One of the best things was we found out at the end of Steph and Ken's story that they are expecting baby number 4 in February! Woohoo! And, on the last night, we all got together and did an escape room game. We won, with a few minutes to spare! 

Kate sometimes joined us for adult night fun.

Escape Room! 

Storytime!

Steph made shirts for all the grandchildren, and it was so fun to see Jay in his little t-shirt and he had a great time playing with Daniel. Brad and Kirsten's kids were so good with Jay. They loved on him, gave him smiles, and tons of attention. Jay ate it up! Towards the end of the week, M got into a little kick of scaring James and Elise. Well, he stepped away for a minute to get Jay something so, of course, I stepped in. I would scare them and chase them to the stairs and they would run up screaming, they'd come down and I'd hide in a new place and jump out and scare them again. They did it over and over again. My voice was a little hoarse by the end, but we all had a great time. M tried to scare them one time when I was busy and they looked right at him and said, "I'm not scared of you, I'm scared of HER." Too funny, because 10 minutes earlier they were running from M. James didn't play with too many of the adults, so I felt pretty special that he was so "afraid" of me and willing to play. He's also a master of dinosaurs and sharks, so M and I would ask him all the time about what facts he could share. 

Jay and Olivia

Jay loves Grandma and Daddy

Daddy and Jay, Jay won the basketball because he's youngest camper

Daniel and Jay, number 18 and 20

We spent a few mornings outside, which included a hike and rock climbing. Our hike was in Snow Canyon on some petrified dunes. Everyone seemed to love it, even though we got a little lost. M and Nathan went way farther than the rest of the crew, and had a great time reaching the peak. Jay was a trooper as it was hot, and probably even hotter in that little carrier. Nathan and Michela took the family rock climbing on Dixie Rock. M was the champion, he was the only person to complete both of the hard routes and get totally to the top. What a stud! We were so grateful for Grandpa Blaylock, he took Jay in the baby carrier and carried him all morning so that M and I could both climb. Everyone had a great time, and we were grateful to Nathan and Michela for showing us the ropes, literally. 

M climbing

Andrew climbing

M and Nathan at the peak of the dunes

Jay having some fun with Mommy

Family photo of our first "real" hike

We also got to make tie-dye shirts! I love a good tie-dye party, and so many good shirts and pillow cases came out of it! We also had the kid Olympics, which consisted of sock races, M&M sorting, cup stacking, and Oreo racing. The kiddos loved it, and it was really fun to watch. Of course, M had to show them how the Oreo racing should be done, just like he showed all the Brady's a couple years ago, and everyone was amazed with his skills. 

Magic in action!

The Cup Challenge

My new tie dye

We also got to celebrate Mike's 40th birthday. 40th Birthdays are a big deal for the Blaylock family with themes and such, mostly inherited from the Eddington side, I believe. It was all a surprise, and BYU themed with game highlights, BYU brownies, BBQ, and a lot of people in BYU gear. The siblings gave little gifts that have memories of Mike attached, like M gave him some chocolate chips because Mike used to sneak into the freezer in the basement and eat chocolate chips while bribing other siblings not to tell on him by sharing the chocolate chips. 

Matthew doing Heavy Heavy Hangover

More birthday shenanigans 

Wednesday was a big day for us. M and I made dinner, which was quite the adventure. It started with about 8 pounds of hamburger which we made into 195 meatballs. Olivia was happy to help as we mixed the meat, oats, sauce, and a dozen eggs together. To help us start the baking, Grandma Blaylock put the meatballs in the oven while we were at the Aquatic Center. Which, we had so much fun! Elise and Caitlin weren't quite big enough to go down the slide on their own, so I went with them over and over again. I love slides, so it really wasn't a problem for me. We had a great time, thanks to Grandma Blaylock being willing to start the dinner cooking. Halfway through the baking, the oven in our town home stopped working. With that failure, we only had one oven to finish the meatballs and roast broccoli. I cooked five pounds of rice in two Instant Pots, and then rotated the broccoli into the oven between shifts of meatballs. Eight pounds of grapes was the last dish which thankfully didn't take the oven. Everyone loved the food, and surprisingly, we had very little left over. It's amazing how much 30 people can put away in one meal! 

Step 1, mix it all together

Ever seen a football field full of meatballs, well, now you have.

Kiddos having fun with the candy bar game

While on our trip, we started our self-reliance class, Personal Finance. We've been wanting to participate in this class for a really long time, and we were excited when the stake said we would be doing it virtually this semester. Perfect for us! We don't have to find a sitter and we can attend wherever we are. M and I have been blessed to usually be on the same side of the finances, and hope this class will helps us as we prepare for the future. 

Our last night there we had a big dance party, just like we would have at Aspen Grove. The kids relished the dancing and some of the adults too. I'm not a big dancer, but we had a good time. We were up way too late, as usual for a family reunion. We left super early Saturday morning and while we were in the security line we heard they had overbooked the flight to Salt Lake and needed three people to fly to Denver or go on a later flight. I went to the desk and said we were flying to Denver, and they switched us from Delta to United and a direct flight that was leaving only 10 minutes after our departure to SLC. Woohoo! Such a blessing with a direct flight, we were home by 10 AM. Jay again did great and slept most of the flight. 

Jay loving his toes

Claire loved Jay!

I did a fun new hairdo on Olivia

Dance, Dance, Dance

Another of Jay and Claire

The cutest travel bunch

Jays babbling got the attention of many in the airports

We were excited we got to go to church in our new ward on Sunday. It's great to be in a new ward, meeting new people, and embracing service opportunities. The last highlights are for Jay. He's consistently rolling back to belly with us watching and starting to do more torpedo rolling. He's very chatty, and learning to sit up. I think seeing Daniel was a big help, Jay really liked seeing someone close to his size at family reunion. 

Jay was exhausted after his first day in the new ward.