Texas and Park City

We sure did a lot of traveling during the seven week break! But it was all good and fun and I'd do it again in a heart beat. One of the places we were able to go was to Texas! We headed off after the family reunion and then spent about 1 1/2 weeks there. It was a lot of fun and I know that I really appreciated Mike's sisters and brothers putting up with us for so long. It was really nice for me to spend time with them and get to know everyone better. I'm so use to being so close to my family and seeing them frequently that this is quite the change only getting to see the majority of Mike's family a few times every year. But yes...this was a very fun trip where we did lots of stuff...above is a picture of Mike holding Emily and Kate at his feet, at a water park called Slitterbaughn...is that spelled right? I'm trying to remember from my memory which is always a scary and unreliable thing to do! :-/ But anyways, we went there, and also to this HUGE farmers market that was amazing and fun and so delicious! And we had a Phineas and Ferb party were we had ice cream sundaes (we don't have pics of that...sorry) and then we went swimming a lot, and went to play miniature golf and such. It was all just so much fun!

My handsome husband holding a gorgeous girl...one of the few that I'll let him hold other than myself ;)

Me in the swimming pool on pool day with Emily and Ellie...such sweet girls!

Mike with Kate and Emily (Kate's on the left and Emily on the right) watching the trailer for the new Tinker Bell movie that's coming out.

The next set of pictures is when we were able to make it down for a weekend to Park City to see his parents and Kevin and Angela with their family. We went on some nature hikes which is pictured above with me and Kate and below with me and Kate again.

This little stud muffin is Parker who is so cute, but he was so tired on this hike as you'll see later on :)

Mike's Mom and his sister Stephanie! We were so glad Steph could make it up!

Angela with Emily

Mike and I

A picture from the mountain of the place we were staying at.

See what I mean? Parker was out!

Emily and I...please pay more attention to her face...I absolutely love it! That's the only reason I'm including this pic...my face is less than flattering!

Emily Bemily with the bear that was outside of the entrance.

Riding up to ride down the alpine slides. Papa, Katers, and Grandma

Katers and Papa on the coaster.

Emily and Kev.

Stephanie and Mike's Mom coming down.

Aww...we found our way back! This is the place...the fire pit, the bench, where almost a year ago Michael got down on one knee and asked me to be his for all eternity! I'm so glad you did :) It was so good to see everyone over the break! Thanks for letting us visit and letting us into your homes! I'm glad we had the opportunity to do it and can't wait to do it again, much sooner than later I think too! :)

Rachel and Jacob PLUS a Triathlon? CRAZY!! :)

And here we have the infamous Jacob and Rachel. These two are the best of friends being the oldest grandkids and in the same grade. I sure do love them and I know Mike and I enjoyed them coming to visit. I just wish it hadn't been so short or that I had been so busy! I had a lot of Relief Society duties and meetings, and then my triathlon 1st timer meeting, but it was still fun :) Its funny because we were discussing how close we are in age (Rach was born when I was 7, almost eight, and Jacob when I was eight) and that I'm closer in age to these two then I am to their moms, Heidi and Valerie! Crazy! :) Its weird having them grow up...they're both almost 14 now and time has just flown by way too fast. But back to their visit. Above is a picture of us being goofy. Well, no matter what we did to Rach, she still looked normal and good...she can pull of any look! Jacob on the other hand...well you have eyes! He's a goof! :) But such a good sport..thanks for putting up with us Jake.

Gangstas...true blue gangstas

Me trying to be cool...they're succeeding more then me. Well, maybe not Jacob :)

If you're wondering where Mike is, he's taking the Pics...he wasn't in the mood to dress up with us. Though can you blame him? He might've ended up like Jake! ;)

Getting Ice Cream at Maverick...it was pretty disgusting not gonna lie.

Jacob's awkward cone with Rachel's professional cone done by yours truly...Michael.

Us with my cone...Mike didn't want one.

Day two of their visit we went and played laser tag...yea, we totally won! We were playing another team or a group of kids, who got mad at our amazing skills. Above is in the arcade and was this jump rope thing that really addicting!

Michael on the Jump Rope thingy.

Jacob getting mad that he messed up and jumping off. I thought it looked cool. And sorry Rach, for some reason I couldn't find the one we got of you :(

We also did minature golf which was way fun, but you have to watch out for Jacob...he doesn't know how to hit soft! And poor Rachel...haha, well...nevermind ;)

Now on to their last day and also the day of, drum roll please....THE TRIATHLON!! Yep, that's right folks...I did my first triathlon this year in Rexburg, Idaho. Its called The Rush, and I can only tell you its true...you get such a rush while doing it and after thinking about what you accomplished. I only wish I had trained harder...I know I could have done better. But that only means that there will be that much more room for improvement next year right? I can't wait! It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be really. Yea I was tired after, but during there was so much adrenaline and everything that helped me keep going. The hardest part for me was the swimming...I hate to swim and hadn't been practicing much before hand and had forgotten all the techniques of how to swim. By the end I felt like I'd lapped up half the lake and was feeling pretty bogged down. It was also really hard for me to swim straight without any land marks beneath the water or in the sky. I think I swam way more then the half mile that was required from all the zig-zagging. Oh well...better next time!

This is before the race...a stick on tattoo that helped people in the transition areas know that I was a first timer so that they could treat me extra nicely :)

My AMAZING fan club! Their Shirts read, "Go Cammille Reese". Yep, Cammille. Haha, when I saw the shirt I asked, "Umm, honey...do you know how to spell my name?" It was pretty early when they did them though, so I had to let him off the hook. And then he decided it was just to symbolize when I was in the water, shivering, causing the extra "m". :) Oh honey...I love you so much! :)

The beginning...the half mile swim!

Lots of swimmers...

I'm just barely coming outta the water...I'm the one without the wet suit. The water was actually pretty warm. An advantage to having a wet suit, however, would be that it would help me float, something I needed being water logged!

Here I am again...coming out and with my complimentary cap still on.

Stage II...the 14 mile bike ride. If you look really closely you can see my left leg is marked with my number. That took me an awfully long while to scrub off afterwards.

Biking...just got done with the big temple hill and feeling good!

Another bike shot.

Heading into transition III area...

Rachel's sweet rock sign she made for me while they were waiting. You're such a sweet heart! :)

Coming into the track after the 3 mile run.

Crossing the finish line...it was amazing and I'd certainly do it again! I highly recommend it to anyone! You can do it! If I can, you can!

Everybody got a medal. Here's my bright cherry red face showing off mine :)

This was later that same day...I'm sporting the shirt they gave me and am with Rachel in the "tornado simulator". It was kinda cool...kinda messed up my hair though.

And here is Mike and Jacob in it as well....once again, love the face Jake! :) And there you have it...the fun times we had with Jacob and Rachel were awesome and we're so glad you guys were able to make it!

Family Reunion 2010

This year for our family reunion, Mike and I were in charge. It was a busy summer for both of us, and add this to the mumbo jumbo...let's just say we're glad its over :) It was a lot of fun though and I was glad for the opportunity to see all of my family together. We missed those who weren't there (Moe and Chris for part of it) but really I was pleased with the turn out! It seems to be getting harder and harder for all of us to gather in one place at the same time...we're getting so big! At this point, there were 21 1/2 grandkids. Since then (Just two days ago actually) Mardy has had her baby! Congrats you guys...we're so happy for you :) Count in the adults and that makes it for a total of 36 1/2 in our family as of July 2010! Wow! Gotta love big families :) Since it was an even year, we had the winter Olympics earlier. My family was also having a biggest loser competition, and my Mom wanted the grand finale to be during the family reunion. SOOO that was our theme, Biggest Loser/ The Bingham Olympics. I have to say, I think it turned out well and was more fun then I could have hoped for, but what do you expect when you get such amazing people together? :)

Our first day was on Monday. We had people arrive and set up camp at the KOA in Salt Lake City (I know, its crazy to camp downtown in a big city) and go to my Mom's for their final weigh in. Then we had our Biggest Loser Day activities. For any of you who watch Biggest Loser, you know that they have competitions against one another, so that's what we did...family against family. The things were geared more towards being active since it is "The Biggest Loser" and losing weight usually requires activity :) The first one was the obstacle course. First you had to run backwards, then army crawl to the picnic table, go up and over the table, hula hoop to the bats, put your head on the bat and circle it five times or so, and then run back to the start. The first picture (above) are the official participants doing the army crawl.

Here are a few of us after turning around and being really dizzy. (Marjorie, me, and Jacob)

Of course the little kids wanted to try it all too and it was so fun seeing them all play and interact :) Below are a few videos I thought the family might enjoy.

The adults enjoying the show. (left to right-Marjorie, Angela, Valerie, little baby Sophie, and Ashely...plus the backside of Naomi and Mickie in the background)

More relaxing...left to right is Mardy, Jacob, Jeanine, and Heidi holding Thomas

The next activity was the triatholon- they had to hulahoop so many times, then jump rope so many times (I can't remember the number), and then swim across the pool. Below is a video of this. Below is another video of the kids performing.

Since it was Monday, we had FHE, sponsored by Michael William. He is such an amazing guy...I'm so lucky to have him! He is so good with kids and would do this activity with kids on his mission where they would play spiritual hopscotch and learn the importance of doing everything (i.e. reading scriptures, saying prayers, obey parents etc.) that were in all of the boxes in order to get to the end, eternal life. If we didn't do that thing, then the box would get X'd out and we couldn't step on it. The kids liked trying to jump over these boxes and seeing who could jump the farthest. Then we'd repent and get some of the boxes back. It was quick, fun, and easy and a HUGE hit. After it was done the kids were still making their own hopscotches and "teaching" one another. Too cute :) Because of the big size we had to divide up into two groups. Above is my group and below is Mike's group.



Later that night they announced the Biggest Loser...This is the video of that :)

The next morning, Tuesday, dawned early and above are some of the kids eating breakfast. Each family was in charge of a meal so that Mike and I didn't have to do it all. Thanks everyone for your help! It was really nice and easy for us and we appreciate it! :)

Mom and Megan eating breakfast. Lucky for us, Mom and Dad were able to switch their P-Day and were there all of Tuesday! We really enjoyed having her and Dad with us since that was the reason we wanted to have it in Salt Lake so they could be there for most of it :)

Since this day was Olympic day we had each of the families wear different colors (Mike and I were white/orange, the Cooks were gray, the Lloyds red, the Tomlinsons pink, the Meservys blue, the Trent Binghams green, and the Robert Binghams yellow). We went to Liberty Park to have all of our events and above is a picture of me with my sweet little niece, Sophie. She is such a serious baby, but such a sweet heart too!

These are the contestants for the first activity-snowboarding! In this they had to push off and go down the ramp and see who could coast the farthest. Below are the individuals on their runs.

Naomi for the Tomlinsons!

Kimball for the Lloyds!

Rachel for the Cooks!

Spencer for the Meservys!

Mike for the Binghams/Reeses (we decided to combine with Trent and Mardy)

The next activity...Curling! Aka boccie ball according to Mike :) Above he is setting up the playing field and explaining how it is done.

The Cooks vs. the Lloyds (left to right-Ashley and Valerie with Megan in front of them, then Heidi and David with Emily in front of them)

Stud muffin David!

Amazing Ashley!

Meservys vs the Tomlinsons (left to right, Spenser, Marjorie holding Miles, Jared, Angela, Micah).

Talented Micah!

Dead on Jared!

Super Strut Angela! :)

One armed Marjorie!

Binghams vs Binghams/Reeses (left to right, Jeanine, Mom, Me (Camille), Mardy)

Umm...me

Super Mom! :) ...Heidi? I can hear you singing it! "Cuz She's a Suppper Moooom!" ;)

Superb Jeanine!

Prego Mardy! :) (but prego no longer!)

The next activity was a snowball fight! AKA water fight! This was for the kids, and who ever was the driest won! :)

Perfect form Scottie!

This is a video of the kids running around. I just love it...especially when Emily comes and throws the ball at Mike :) They have such a loving relationship :) Mike wants to win Emily's affection so badly, and I think she knows it because she antagonizes him and knows just what to do to get a reaction outta him :) Love it :)

Lining up to be judged by Michael and Heidi.

This was the Alpine Skiing where they would run in between the trees...the younger ones didn't have to go as far. (left to right, Marjorie, Nicole, Jacob, Rachel, Trent, Naomi)

Get Ready, Get Set, GO!


Here's the end of that race...and as you can see from the back of Angela's shirt, the adults got in on the water fight action (aka snowball fight) as well :)

Now its the kids turn :)

Now the Boys must have a hand (or foot!) at it :)

Sweet little Thomas takin' a nap

My good lookin' husband and myself-Man he looks good! :)

Love you honey!! :)

The Meservy's (this was right before Miles got that shiner on his forehead). And so that's it! We went back, had the awards ceremony, but I didn't get any pictures of that unfortunately. We had made different sized medals with their different colors for gold, silver, and bronze, and the gold medalist also got an origami flower spray painted gold. It was fun...at least I had fun! Thanks everyone for coming and having a good time! Sure do love ya!