This year's Allen family reunion was held at Cherry Hill--a campground/water park about 5 minutes north of Lagoon on Saturday, June 28, 2008. Normally our family reunions are Friday night and all day Saturday. My parents are on a mission and we thought Aunt Carol and Uncle Al would be gone on their mission too, so this year's reunion was a one day event.
We met on a grassy, shady area on the south side of the park. There were some great big trees that gave us wonderful shade all day. It was a perfect location because most of the water areas were just up the hill and across the road (maybe 100 feet away). So we were able to leave our food and stuff in the picnic area and come back easily to rest or eat.
Those who attended:
David and Janet Allen
Ruth and Tony Nichols and kids (except for Gilbert)
Ann Marie and Paul Schroader and kids
Abby and Clint Salisbury and kids
Merilee Swain and kids (Steven was golfing with buddies)
Scott Allen and girls (Angela was on a trip to Chicago)
Julie and Matt Connors and girls (although Matt took Stella home in the afternoon)
Mike Allen
Carol and Al Lemon (they showed up late afternoon and stayed a few hours)
Mark and Wendy Lemon and kids
Brian and MaryBeth Lemon and kids
Aunt Carol is looking good. She has lost her hair so she had a bandana and hat, and she has lost some weight but otherwise is looking really good. I was glad to see her.
I think most of the families bought combo passes, which included an all day Splash Pass (good for all water areas), a game of mini golf and two other activities.
C& J and I arrived around 10:30 a.m. We unloaded our stuff then went for a game of mini golf. I quit keeping score after the first hole cuz the kids were hitting the ball all over the place! We had a great time though C&J definitely need a few mini golf lessons! LOL Most everyone else did mini golf first too.
We all went back to the picnic area at 12:30 for lunch which was Subway sandwiches, chips and fruit. Then everyone took off to go swimming. Cherry Hill has a splash pool for very young children (the deepest part of the pool is probably only 1.5 or 2 feet deep) with a pirate theme. There's a huge pirate ship that has two small water slides on either side. Children can climb and play on the ship itself too. Then in the pool itself are various pirate themed play structures like buckets that fill up and then dump out, cannons that spout water, etc. There's also a regular swimming pool for more experienced swimmers and a third one that appeared to be a dive pool (we didn't go to that one). We spent maybe 10 minutes in the splash pool before C&J decided they were bored with it and we went over to the other pool where they had fun swimming.
There's also a lazy river called Grant's Gulch. It's a 3 feet deep lazy river with tubes. You can either ride the tubes or swim along. C&J loved that one. We went on it several times, going around 3 or 4 times each.
They also have a waterslide called Cardiac Canyon River Run. It looks like it's set in Southern Utah with "sandstone" slides and "white water". You also ride tubes for that one. I didn't go on it--didn't think it would be a good idea in my present state of existence but C&J went on it and they had a blast. I thought for sure Jordan would be scared because there are a few sort-of steep drops and the water is fast but he loved it. Of course, Christie--our little thrill-seeker--thought it was just the greatest thing. They went on it twice then once later with Aunt Julie.
We got back together around 5:30 for dinner which was pizza and whatever leftovers we had from lunch. Then some families went back to swimming while others left. The children and I left about 7 p.m.
All in all we had a great time. I definitely think we'll go back next summer to camp and play--the water park is very family-friendly and so even our little Baby Swain (who will be about 8 months by this time next year) can enjoy it.
Below is a slideshow I put together of the pictures I took at the reunion. Most of them are of my family but you get the idea of what we did. There are about 50 pictures.
Merilee
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