SALLAY FAMILY REUNION

Iva and Steve have been talking about doing a Sallay Family Reunion for years. It never happens though because no one has ever wanted to step up and plan it. I think the only reason it happened this year was because Christy and Tim decided to plan a visit for the week of July 16th, and then everyone else planned on coming as well. We also planned our sealing to Vivi for that week as well so anyone that wanted to come could be there. Not a ton got officially planned but we did have a few events together throughout the week.

On Monday the 17th we went up to Brighton and walked around the lake for a little "hike." We were one heck of a crew, and any chance of seeing any wildlife would have been destroyed by the fact that we were all so dang loud. But it was super pretty and fun.

We then popped down to the condo so everyone could eat lunch and then go for a swim. It was a big crowd and thankfully they hadn't started limiting how many guests you could have at once, because I had many. We were the only ones there though, so it wasn't a big deal. It was the first time I'd been up there where it was actually warm so the heated pool was almost too hot. Vivi missed out though because I put her down for a nap with Grandma. I had forgotten her blanky so I had to give her a towel as a poor substitute.

Everyone loved the pool and the slide. Nicolas especially. Poor guy had been pretty grumpy up until that point because he had hurt his foot. And I think in the pool he was able to finally get around without it hurting. Uncle Mark was super fun at the pool for Stella. He got her to stand on his shoulders and he would make her fly up into the air. She loved it. I think everyone had fun at the pool.

On Tuesday night most of the Sallays met up at the canyon again for a hike up to Donut Falls. Valerie and I skipped it. However, Brent and Stella went and had a very nice time. They even saw a moose which made me pretty jealous. Christian hurt himself at the beginning of the hike and I guess Brent carried him the whole way.

I personally was quite busy getting ready for our sealing on Thursday. We were going to have everyone over for dinner after so I spent a lot of my time getting ready for that. We had the sealing on Thursday and then the following day was spent at Lagoon. We did a full day so that everyone could get the most out of their day. Overall it was really fun. I brought the leftover sandwiches from our Thursday night dinner and gave myself a good chuckle about bringing in a cooler of food for us to eat since it is my and Ashley's "worst nightmare" to drag in a cooler of food for a full day at Lagoon. It worked out great though and the sandwiches would have gone to waste otherwise.

I mostly just sat on the sidelines and took care of Vivi as everyone went on the rides. I did not mind at all of course since that was what I had had in mind. I had Vivi ride the baby whales for the first time with Nicholas and it was seriously adorable.

Stella had an amazing time with Chloe. Those two cousins hit it off right away. They had the best time together. Giggling and going on ride after ride. It was pretty hot that day and we made our way over to Rattlesnake Rapids which is Iva's favorite ride so they all went on it twice. Also thanks to Christy asking I found out that Vivi could ride both the carousel and train without using tickets so that was a fun bonus. The train was the only ride that we all rode on together. After the train Vivi and I headed home. She was asleep before we even made it out of the parking lot. She had such a fun and busy day at Lagoon with her cousins. Stella stayed with Peter and Julayne so she could have fun with Chloe.

I took Vivi home and when Brent got home from work I headed back to Lagoon for the night. I found the crew over by Cannibal. When I got there Stella announced that she had some news: She had gone on Colossus! I couldn't believe it. I was admittedly sad I missed it. But I was really proud of her of course. I guess she was worried about going on the ride without me so I didn't think about it too much. She made up for it big time by giving my favorite ride, the Rocket, a try. She was so fun to go on that with. She was so scared and she was crying before it took off. Everyone in line was watching her and then at the end when she was smiling because she liked it everyone in line was cheering for her. It was so cute. Honestly, I was relieved she liked it because it is a pretty scary ride, and I wasn't sure how she would do.

We went on a few more fun rides as it got dark. We were all pretty tired. After our big sealing day the day before, I was totally exhausted! Stella and I rode Colossus again, and I realized that I cannot ride that ride anymore. But it sure was fun to go on it with my girl.

We had more Sallay time over the weekend. It was a good chance to get together and spend time together. I think everyone wishes it had been more organized, but we did fit a bunch in. I think the main thing that made it hard was that a good chunk of us were still at home so we didn't have a full family reunion feel that we might have had if we had gone to a place together. The week totally wore me out, but it is now full of great memories.