Phil Hale Reunion

We Cresaps relished our full seven days at the Ranch. We got there late Monday night shared sweet-sixteen birthday cake with Brigham. The Pulsiphers came late Tuesday night. Those first two days Trace was the only preschooler, so he and Ethan got some quality bonding time.

Trace: This is my new friend!

     More families arrived Wednesday: Songers, Memphis Hales, Malmborgs, Herman, Polish Hales (minus Sarah and Eliza) and Jacob and Tiffany McKay. That morning Chad took a large group of adventurous hikers to the Black Hole near Lake Powell. Clint set up a Three-Gun shooting course in the Lower 80 and took groups out there every day for hours of shooting fun. I think he gained some converts to the marksman arts.

     Thursday Joey took a large group to the disc golf course in Torrey. While they were gone we took our boys on a hike up White Box Canyon, which we discovered a couple of years ago while 4-wheeling around the Lower 80. It's just around the corner from Clint's shooting range. When we went up the canyon a few years ago, the boys were to young to navigate a lot of the large boulders and we had to turn around before we'd gone too far, but not before I saw what looked like a dinosaur spine sticking up out of the surface of a large flat sandstone rock. It was my mission to find it. But as it is often the case in this landscape, we couldn't locate it again. But we were not disappointed in the least. The hike was full of wonders. Jack said, "This is my favorite hike, ever!"

A beetle's shell

This rock slab we were standing on was 50 feet by 30 feet.

Here is the end of the box canyon. 

Mike Malborg set up the annual Solleyball Tournament.

The cousins assembling before our treasure hunt in the woods began. Victoria and I had hidden a bagful of dollarstore treasures like water squirters, mustache and hand tattoos, glow sticks and candy. For a better description of the event see here.

Dividing the spoils.

     The 60-Second Talent show. See here. I must feel really comfortable with my family because I didn't put on makeup or do my hair for a week. Yikes!

Other Ranch Highlights:
     I managed to keep up my triathlon training with two mountain bike rides to the top of Miners Mountain and two runs to the Lower 80. Clint came on one of the rides and one of the runs. 
     Clint played an eight-hour board game with Jeff Brown, Katie Brown and Jon Pulsipher. At 2 a.m. Clint came off victorious. He mumbled something space wormholes as he stumbled into bed.
     Hannah led the little kids in a two-hour board game. I was so impressed with their focus!
     Many members of the McKay family, notably Gabriel, Hannah and Wendy spent much of the week holed up in Grandma's room with terrible fevers and aches. It never passed to the rest of us. It might have been Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Luckily we Cresaps have had that. Many younger cousins bemoaned the absence of Hannah.
     Some movies were watched but it was gratifying that after movies ended the kids got up and went outside instead of putting in another movie. The kids spent plenty of time outside jumping on the tramp, building dams under the tree house and expanding the collection at the bone graveyard.
    We all got along and had a wonderful time! How lucky we are that we all like each other so much!