Freeman Reunion 2022

 July 1st-5th at Monticello Girls Camp

July 1st, Friday: Day 1

We stopped in Monticello to get pizza with just our own little family before going up to the camp. It was perfect weather to walk around and enjoy quite before meeting up with everyone! We ended up getting into camp around 6:30 and got to spend the evening with Bill and Mindy's family! We just enjoyed catching up on life with them, especially Megan and Todd! That evening Jenell's family arrived and we roasted marshmallows and again just enjoyed the quiet evening before all the other families arrived the next day!

July 2nd, Saturday: 2nd Day

The other families started slowly trickling in that morning. We eventually made it to the lake after lunch and enjoyed the majority of the day there playing in the water! Daniel and Frank's family didn't make it until around dinner time! We took our little family into town after the lake because I was feeling so sick! My voice was completely gone by this point and I desperately wanted to fix it! So we went to the store to find some medicine and got some creamies while we were there. McKay was so tired that he conked out on the way back to camp! We made it back right in time for dinner and singing happy birthday to all the kids that had birthdays that week!

July 3rd, Sunday: 3rd Day

There was about half of the family that wanted to go to church and the other half that wanted to stay at camp and have their own church. Since I was in charge of the reunion this year I had previously asked my bishop for permission to have our own sacrament at camp and he said no that we need to attend a local church. Chris and I also feel very strong the importance of going to church no matter how hard or inconvenient! We have made a commitment to always make an effort to go no matter where we are! So that is what we did! Thankfully my parents ended up going too, I loved having them there at church with our family! After sacrament meeting instead of going to the other classes we decided to take our family to the new Monticello Temple and walk the grounds. We talked about the importance of attending church and going to the temple. We of coarse had to sing I Love to See The Temple! It was a very special time for our family! While at church Chris got to make some connection to some family history from one of the Brethren who bore his testimony! Definitely a little miracle and blessing of going to church! Very neat experience for Chris! That evening Jenell and I were in charge of dinner and after dinner we did a family testimony meeting! This is one of my favorite parts of the Freeman Reunions! The spirit is always so strong and I love hearing my dad's strong message! In preparation for this reunion I worked really hard along with Matt Cassidy in getting a family video: an interview of my parents done. Once it got dark enough we showed the video. Unfortunately the speakers were not super loud and it started raining which made it impossible to hear. So we had to keep stopping and waiting for the rain to stop before continuing to watch it! Good thing they are all getting copies of it for Christmas!

July 4th, Monday: 4th Day, Happy 4th of July!!

The original plan was to have a big breakfast and then have everyone clean up camp and go floating down the river! Well after cleaning up camp about half have made plans to go home and we decided it wouldn't be the best idea to take little Jackson down a 3-5 hour float where there is no way to stop and leave. Megan had felt the same way about floating with her baby. So Jenell and Marla's family still went floating down the river while Bill and my family went to Mesa Verde to see all the sites! Lots of driving and the path was closed to hike right up to it, which was very unfortunate! We still had lots of fun, but keep in mind that I still had no voice and wasn't able to breath while hiking as well as i would normally! After we finished we met up with Deric and my parents to go out to eat at a very overpriced Mexican Restaurant! Still very yummy and fun hanging out with them all. We then all went to Deric's house to see his farm and property. The kids loved seeing all of the goats and Megan and I got to go through all the baby clothes! Bill's family and mine were the only ones to go back to camp that night! We stayed up late talking to Megan and Todd again!

July 5th, Tuesday: 5th day Last Day

After breakfast, packing, and cleaning up camp we met Bill and Mindy at an arch on our way to Hole In The Rock! The arch was a perfect little hike for the kids! The Hole In The Rock was not what we expected. Just little stores to buy souvenirs! From there we went our separate ways but it was fun hanging out with Bill and Mindy more! Good Reunion but I am very excited for next years reunion just being at home. This year was fun but I felt like I hardly got to see anyone the majority of the time! Plus it is a five hour drive to get there! 

Caden Birthday #9

Happy Birthday my Caden Boy!! 

It is fun watching the young man you are becoming! You are so kind and respectful to others and soo fun to be around! Some interesting facts about you from this last year: Still love the color black. Loves BYU! Loves Basketball...and has no desire to try any other sport, he will shoot outside all on his own and love it! Loves playing with friends, especially Sam and William. He loves to read...some books he has read this year are Harry Potter Series, Rangers Apprentice, and Narnia! Loves to go fishing. Started learning how to play the piano and picking up on it so well and he enjoys it to! Still loves to cook. Great helper around the house. He loves sitting in the front seat of truck and talking to his dad! Super fast runner, but hates running long distances. He is super smart, fun, loving, goofy, pretty mature boy for his age, all around joy to be around! Love you Caden!

Weight: 76 lbs. (85%)   Height: 56.5 Inches (94%)

For his birthday this year we decided to keep it simple! We went to a part and had ice cream cake, opened presents and then played some challenging games...Top three winners won some candy! Most of the challenges had to do with basketball but there was also a egg on a spoon challenge, water-balloon volleyball, and a passing water in a bowl challenge! Chris came up with the challenge game and the kids all had a lot of fun with it all! Fun group of boys that all came to celebrate Caden! *I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures because I was busy taking care of McKay and Jackson!

June 2022

Seems like every month is just super crazy busy! This month was especially busy with Jackson's dr appointment, swim lessons, all of Chris's fishing adventures, my birthday, fathers day, race, and squeezing in family time! 

June 1st: McKay started swim lessons! Man oh man did he not like swim lessons!! He had swim lessons for two weeks and the first couple days were awful! He would fight teacher Debbie, cry, and even tried running away a couple of times! By the end of the two weeks he was much better but will definitely need to put him in again next year! Debbie was nice to do a private session with him because we had missed a day! He really needed that one on one!

June 2nd: I was feeling desperate to get out of the house and meet other ladies. So a group from Fatties planned an outing that I went to! It was fun but I am not sure if I would do that again, just too exhausted at nights to try and socialize!

June 3rd: Matt's Fishing Tournament! They got up early to go to Utah Lake to start it off! Bridger joined them for a little while and they all had great success! The tournament went back and forth with their competitor for a while but in the end they ended up winning! Matt made a really fun youtube video of it all! 

June 4th: While Chris was gone I took the kids on a 8 mile run....Afterwards we went and got some ice cream as a reward!

June 6th: Caden started his week of Bingham Basketball Camp! He loved it and loved how many of his friends were there too! 

June 6th: Jackson's Procedure to stretch out his esophagus was at 1pm and he had to fast all morning before that! He was one super tired and very hungry baby! Once we got checked in it took about an hour before they were finally ready to start the procedure! For the procedure they had to put him to sleep and put a scope down his throat to see how bad it really was. Unfortunately it had to get cut a little so that they could stretch it with a balloon thing! When the Dr. came out to show us the images and explain to us what they had to do, Chris immediately turned white and was sweating a ton! He came very close to passing out! Once they brought Jackson to us and he was waking up, his breathing sounded horrible!! He sounded like Darth Vater! The following days of recover for Jackson were awful! Jackson was in so much pain! First few nights he was waking up almost every hour for the whole night.We were giving him Motrin and Tylenol round the clock! First couple of days even getting him to drink liquids was a struggle. We are still only giving him puréed foods and even that can be a struggle for him. Especially breakfast…usually after the first bite be will start crying and will take about an hour for him to painfully finish eating while crying the whole time! The hardest part about all of this is not knowing if that procedure even fixed the problem. We won’t know until he heals and we are able to try giving him solids to see if he chokes or not! We just pray that we won’t have to do all of this again! Poor baby!

June 7th: The weed barrier business for House2Home is doing really well! They wanted to drop off a load here for customers to come pick up orders!

June 7th: With everything going on McKay has been acting out a bit so I decided he needed a little one on one time. So we went to Duck Donuts and got a yummy treat! He obviously loved it!

June 10th: Chris went with the young men to High Adventure for a night! While he was gone I took the kids to Jordan River Trail to try and find some caterpillars (with no luck). They still had a fun little picnic and got to play in the water! Chris had fun with the young men. He got to show more of who he is and how Awesome he is! haha He got a bunch of fish and almost won the corn hole tournament! 

June 11th: Almost a week since his procedure we thought we would try watermelon! Started off great and he loved it but it ended in him choking and us patting his back for like 3 minutes! Blah It just would get stuck half way down his throat....super weird because he can somewhat breathe still but you can hear how it is stuck and he starts crying!  Just love this cute little boy and love how his personality is showing more each day even with all of this craziness! He loves to do little head stand tricks! 

June 16th: Chris was unfortunately sick but luckily still able to watch kids so I could still try and make my birthday exciting! Catherine and I went and got our nails done! Then later during Jackson and Chris's nap I took the other kids with me to go get some onion rings at Nielson's! That evening I took the older kids with me to meet up with Matt and Kaitlin to go to the circus! I had never been to one before that! The kids loved it! So many fun tricks and things to see! It ended up being a two hour show which didn't get us home until about 10pm. Kids were super tired but had a blast!

June 17th: Caden went with Sam and William to a two day BYU basketball camp! They loved it and loved getting a tour of the locker rooms and facility! They even got shirts and got their basketballs signed by a couple of players! They were in Heaven! Definitely one that Caden wants to do every year! Ben was super nice in inviting them to come to the mall for a free chick-fil-a meal after each day. He even gave them a tour of the facility too! 

June 18th: Wasn't sure if we were going to be able to do this trip with all of Jackson's stuff and Chris getting sick! But here we are! Karlee was so kind to come spend a night with the kids so we could go to price and run a half marathon! Sheesh I can't remember the last time Chris and I got to go spend a night together without kids! Once we got to our camp site Chris grilled up some delicious food while I set up our tent! It wasn't the best nights rest but at least we got to talk with no disruptions! The race was fun but hot. I originally wanted to try and stay with Chris but my competiviness took over and I left him behind!  I took second out of all the woman and broke my 2hr goal by getting 1:59, that got me 6th overall! Chris got first out of his age and it was his first half marathon ever, I think he was like 24th overall!! Proud of us for training hard and doing our best!

June 19th: Happy Fathers Day! Such an amazing father to our kids! He is so fun, patient, and kind! Chris was so excited to take this picture and put in up on FB. This is what he put: "Sometimes Fatherhood feels like this picture, you physically and mentally carry the weight of these children. BUT I would not want it any other way. I am so grateful for all these kids and for Amber Huntington sharing in this adventure with me! There is nothing that brings me more joy than providing, protecting, teaching, and watching them grow up! 

Happy Father's Day to my Dad, Kerry Huntington and all the Dads out there. Grateful to all your examples!

“The home is the first and most effective place to learn the lessons of life: truth, honor, virtue, self control, the value of education, honest work, and the purpose and privilege of life. Nothing can take the place of home in rearing and teaching children, and no other success can compensate for failure in the home.”

― David O. McKay"

June 20th: We took the kids to Jordan River Trail for a family bike ride! It was a much needed out for our family and McKay did super well! I think he ended up doing at least 3 miles maybe 4!!

June 22nd: We went and bought donuts and drove up to Donut Falls! Classic family hike for us that the kids can easily do! They love it and it is fun to get a yummy treat out of it and super nice to get out in nature! 

June 23rd: Cowabunga Bay Water Park! We wanted to try and squeeze in as many family activities as we could before the summer gets busy with reunions! Also Chris quite LR officially and has two weeks off before he starts his new job so we are trying to take advantage of the time with him! This water park was perfect for our age of kids! McKay could go on all the rides and it wasn't a huge park where we would lose kids! They thoroughly enjoyed it all! That night we took the kids to a drive in movie theater for a little pre-birthday party for Caden! We watch Buzz Lightyear! The kids had so much fun....Catherine fell asleep! haha lots of fun these past couple of days and only more to come!

June 24th: Happy Birthday Caden...On separate post! But Hey we got a PIANO!!! The kids were so excited for me to start teaching them and having piano lessons from me! The first day of practice they each had an hour of practice! They loved it!

June 25th: We went to Chris's Missionary MTC get together! It was fun hearing stories and meeting them all! Luckily they had a pool for the kids to swim in and be entertained with! However it was ice cold water! They could only last so long in that water. 

June 26th: Chris took Caden mountain bike riding up the canyon. Love that they can do this together!

June 27th: Chris, Bridger, and Hunter had a work meeting out on the lake! They went to Strawberry Reservoir. Very effective says Chris!

June 30th: Gave Jackson corn on the cob for the first time! He was a monster with it, he loved it so much!