July: Grandma Pam's Gang Runs a 5k!

Family picture color schemes come and go - who remembers denim on denim circa 1992? White and khaki on the beach? Formalwear at Christmastime? Well it might not be a current trend, but something tells me it might emerge as one after this photo hits the interweb: Family Pictures in Tye Dye!

And running shoes. Vital part of our attire, because these are our special shirts Grandma Pam made for all of us to run the Temple to Temple 5k in Provo! 

For our family reunion with my mama and siblings (minus Coders, we missed him! He would have helped carry whiny, tired kids during the 5k!!), we spent Monday and Tuesday in Lehi and Alpine and Provo. First up was church, where Carma was delighted to have cousin Remi as a nursery classmate and Uncle Sam as a leader! She was also delighted because, you know, bubbles:

Downtime over the two days was spent at Queden's (also where we slept, thank you!!). The children ran around the backyard, Will and Isaac found a praying mantis, Carma and Leila played and fought and played and fought, and a great time was had by all.

Sunday evening we found a lovely spot by Sam and Terri's for the aforementioned family pictures sporting our special shirts made by Grandma Pam.

We used Sam's camera and a borrowed tripod because we were pretty sure no actual photographer would put up with the shenanigans of trying to get good pictures of our twelve wee hippies.

A few outtakes of Grandma Pam and the dozen grandkids:

And the winning shot! So cute, right? Plus in a nod to future generations trying to figure out who the heck is who in old family pictures, we were thoughtful enough to color code. Sam's family is primarily cute girls, so their shirts are tye-dyed pink. My family revolves around me and my favorite color is orange, so our shirts are orange... leaning towards red ;). Quinn's family got blue I think because of BYU? Quinn would say it's due to his startlingly blue eyes... but I'll stick with the collegiate connection. 

And Grammy Pammy tye-dyed her shirt from a previous year to coordinate with all of us!

But seriously, how cute does baby Sammy look in pink? Oh what a sweet little boy!!

The Pioneer Day 5k started at the Provo Temple and ended at the Provo City Center Temple and when our alarms woke us up the next morning, we all reallllly pondered if actually running the 5k was that important to us. Start time was 8am, people! As we drove towards the starting line and saw allll the cars and allll the way we'd have to walk before even starting the dang race, we REALLY reconsidered.

Ultimately, we gave it a go. We kind of started off all together and then divvied up into smaller groups. Terri and Eden are smart and brought strollers, so naturally I pawned off my smaller children on them to hitch rides ;). 

Will loved the 5k. And by loved, I mean right afterwards he pleaded, "Grandma Pam, please don't make us ever do that again." hahahahaha, oh Willy boy! At one point I gave him a piggy back ride; that was suuuuper fun. About 3/4 of the way some nice candidate for mayor handed out Otter Pops and they'll have my everlasting love and gratitude and long-distance vote because that perked Will right up and got us through to the end.

Couple shots of me and my fave running/meandering buddy, Chuck. 

The tye-dye gang claimed a nice shady grassy spot to collapse on post-race, where we enjoyed as many clif bars as the nice volunteers would hand us... which was a lot haha.

Later that day I posted one of these pictures with the following caption:  "Every 5k should end with a good ol' dogpile on top of the person whose idea it was to sign up 😂🙌🏼🚶🏻‍♀️🏅🛣☀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻⛪️➡️💒"

I made the cute little grandkids sit in front of the Provo City Center Temple for some pictures, starting with the big kids, aka Will, Bailey, and Clyde; followed by the five-year-olds, aka Hazel, Isaac, and Jack; 

followed by the three-year-olds, aka Carma, Leila, and Miko; and finishing off with the babies, aka Jett, Remi, and Sammy. 

We hung around long enough for the shuttle line to become non-existent and then we hopped aboard to be reunited with our vehicle. Carma and Jack possibly cite this as the highlight of the day, a legit ride on a school bus!!

Attempt at a family selfie back in front of the Provo Temple. Very successful.

Please enjoy all of the sleeping/almost sleeping kids in the truck on the 15 minute drive to brunch haha.

Sam and Terri treated us to alllll the French toast and (most importantly) alllll the delicious syrup. 

 And as we were leaving, Chuck risked his shoo-in role as favorite son-in-law by sticking a praying mantis in my mom's face hahahahahaha.

After some well-deserved afternoon naps, we rounded up the gang for some fun at the Museum of Natural Curiosity:

It's naturally curious WHY I would attempt the rope bridge contraption... oh wait, I can't say no to Miko. Girlfriend just looks at me and calls me Aunt Jana in her cute little voice and asks me to climb into crazy small/scary spaces and I skip alongside her and go! 

We spent a lot of time in the little imagination realm; I loved walking around and seeing which little cousins and siblings were pairing up and playing at any given moment.

 I made sure to send pictures of Jack and Bailey dancing to Grandpa; finally we might have some more square dancers in the family! 

 Will settled right in at the veterinarian's office, as did Jack and Bailey. Carma and I checked our height at biking abilities at the people doctor's office:

Cute little lock pickers... I mean locksmiths...

And finally we found our way outside to burn off any remaining energy - the kids seemed to have plenty, the adults were tiiiiired haha. 

Ohhh man, I love watching my brothers be dads and uncles. So fun!

 For someone who declines hugs on a regular basis, Carma didn't see fit to give Miko an option, but it made for cute pictures so we'll roll with it. 

Such a fun, quick family reunion with Grandma Pam and the gang. No one tell Will, but we'll be there again this summer! Possibly in tye-dye again! Happy Pioneer Day!