Madhouse 2011

Well, it finally happened again.  Almost as frequently as Orrin Hatch turns conservative, all nine of my siblings and I get together and terrorize some poor unsuspecting locale.  We originally plotted to invade Anchorage, but due to many unfortunate circumstances, it wasn't possible.  Instead, we picked a small town in southwest Wyoming, where my sister and her husband have procured several acres for their kids and horses to roam.

On our way up on Monday, July 18th, we took the scenic route through Provo Canyon and across the Mirror Lake Highway to Evanston.  I have no pictures because you have to buy a recreation pass to even park on the side of the road on the Mirror Lake Highway.  When did that happen?  I haven't been through there in a very long time, so that surprised me.  I was also surprised at the amount of snow that was still on the ground.  We jumped out of the car at the state line and got pictures of everyone below the welcome sign, then continued to our destination and pitched our tents.  The weather was generally nice, but we did get rained on at times for the first three days.

On  Tuesday, we hit the old Mormon Trail for a short handcart pull. 

The property owner of the Piedmont ghost town also took us on a tour of the charcoal kilns and some of the old buildings and told some stories about the town and some of her ancestors.

On Wednesday, after a scrumptious breakfast cooked on camp stoves, we headed for Flaming Gorge to raft the Green River.  We commandeered seven 8-man rafts for our group.

Finlay showing us how tough he is.  Unfortunately for him (and Sam), it clouded up and rained for the first half of the float and he about got hypothermia.

Camary, Angie and Xander - ready to hit the water.  I don't have any pictures from the actual float because I didn't want to risk my camera.  Which means I should have stayed close to my brother who has a water-proof camera.  Oh well.

On Thursday, we were supposed to visit some museums and possibly a water park, but no one really wanted to pack up the kids and drive somewhere.  So we basically just hung out at my sister's house and did various things.  We took our shotguns and rifles up and several of my brothers brought handguns, so we did some shooting.  The younger kids spent a lot of time on the trampoline.  Especially Xander.  I think he got in at least eight hours of jumping.

The kids also got to ride on a horse for the first time.  Camary was ecstatic.  We were planning on sticking around until Friday morning, but the old bodies decided it was time to sleep in a bed again.  So we came home Thursday night.

And that's enough for now.  I have a ton of pictures, but this will have to do.