Nordfelt reunion

We were lucky enough to still be in Utah for the Nordfelt reunion in Moab! This is my mom's side of the family and they never disappoint in the entertainment department. We ALWAYS have a good time with these guys. No matter what. Plus, my uncles feed us like royalty, so how can we not enjoy ourselves?
However, the Springer's would not be Springer's without bringing a little drama. The majority of us (Norm, Dana, Wendy, Ben, Lesha, Lake, Kenzie, Sedelle, Freeman, Jill, Parker, Tage) decided to rent a huge stinky van that smelled of cat litter, and a big RV to pull up the mountain so we would have a home base while camping. The other's (Andy, Kelly, Hayden, Cole, Hudson, Casey, LaTisha, Jared, Daiana, Leila, Conrad) met up there. It's a pretty good climb to the camping spot, but we were assured that the van pulling the RV would for sure make it. No problem.

(Parker asleep on the way there with a super unsafe seat belt job)

Well there was a problem. Half way up we knew we would not make it. We were barely moving and getting slower. The dirt road was very narrow with a good size slope on one side. Nobody really wanted to tumble down it with the massive RV on top of us.

We started to get quite the line of cars behind us since they could not go around. Nobody was very happy about this. We knew the campsite was close but not exactly sure how close and we couldn't get a hold of any of my uncles to come give us a boost. So I was volunteered to run up the hill and find someone at the campsite to help. Since I had just done it at the Wasatch back it should be easy right? Wrong! Running up hills is apparently not my thing. Not sure how far I had to run, but uncle Craig picked me up about 100 yards from my destination and drove me back down to get the others. They were able to pull us free and we made it to our spot, happy to be alive :)

First things first, wrestle uncle "Superman"! (Kirtly)

Next on the list was to get rid of as many cow pies as we could. My dad was really good at this.

Here is our home base. Stinky or not, it was sure nice to have.

Most of the group around the fire,

It was a little difficult to be there as a single mom without Jared. I have a bit of a dirt phobia. So when Tage was taking "dirt baths" ever other minute, I got a little stressed. I know (insert Casey's pretend Mom voice), "He's a boy, let him play in the dirt for goodness sake!", and , "You're camping! Everyone is going to be dirty!". Heard it the whole time we were there. But seriously, look at him!!! He was a disaster. However, I don't know that I have ever seen the kid so happy and content. He could have played in that tiny dirt pile forever. Good thing Grandpa scooped up all those cow pies! 

Hudson got in on the action as well

Besides scooping up cow pies and taking dirt baths, here is how we spent our days,

Flag football & baseball for both young and old (check out my cute niece Sedelle with all of those boys!)

Ate delicious food cooked by our chefs (my mom's brother's), Kirtly, Craig, and Dennis

Rafting down the river (Katelin, Sedelle, Parker, Cole)

Kelly Springer and I stayed at camp with the munchkins (Tage, Kanyon, Hudson) and went for walks,

Saw some deer,

rode in the ranger

                                             And took naps. (even Kelly and I. Sweeet!)

Went hiking through "dangerous Indian territory"

Tage fell asleep on my shoulder so I had to carry him the whole time.

Saw dinosaur tracks (Kenzie, Sedelle, Hayden, Parker)

Visited "John" (Don't worry Wendy, the person in this picture shall remain anonymous)

Went fishing (Cole, Lake, Hayden, Sedelle, Kenzie, Parker)

Went on 4 wheeler rides with uncle Urb (Jared, Cole, Parker)

And ranger rides with...everyone (Freeman, Sedelle, Kenzie, Tage, Leila, Daiana) I love this picture.

And this one :)

Attacked uncle Homer every chance we got (Casey, Tage, Freeman)

Relaxed (Tage Hudson, Freeman)

Jill, Wendy, Casey

Maybe a little too much relaxin. Haha! (Lesha, Casey, Dad)

Consumed hundreds of smores

Listened to Dad sing "the missionary song", "the other day I saw a bear" and many more classics around the fire

Did a little campfire snuggling. Please don't judge us for our appearence. Not only do we play in the dirt while camping, we also wear mismatching clothes. It's cool.

Tish did some last minute hair cut jobs for the soon to be missionaries,

Saw some amazing scenery

Spent some much needed time with our wonderful family. Here are all of the Springer cousins piled in the ranger for a terrible cousin picture. Sorry mom, we tried :) (Back row: uncooperative Freeman, helpful Kenzie, Cole, Parker. Front row: Leila, Tage, Hudson, Hayden, Lake, Sedelle. Not pictured: Conrad)

And many aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins kids. Wish I would have gotten more pics of everyone. (Dad, Craig, Mom, Dixie)

One of my favorite parts of the week was when uncle Kirtly presented his "Indian hunting leaders" with special surprises...which just so happened to be knives for the younger kids, and full on swords for the older ones. Real ones. I was a little nervous about my 5 year old son having a pocket knife until I saw my 11 year old nephew with a sword. Yikes! Holy cow the looks on these kids faces when he called them up one by one for their "brave acts" in leading us away from the indians was the sweetest thing ever.

Another sweet thing was watching my parents say goodbye to everyone before we left to go home. They were leaving on their mission 2 days later so they knew they weren't going to see anyone for a while. This is a picture of my mom and uncle Larry. He passed away from cancer 2 months after this was taken.

It was a great trip. But we were happy to be home to soft beds and showers. This last picture of Sedelle pretty much sums up how we all felt...Thanks for the good time Nordfelts! Hopefully we'll see more of you here in 2 years!