Summer Adventures with the Cannon Clan

Cannon Clan

THIS is my family. Well, my mom's side at least. Half of them live within a 15 minute drive of my house. The other half live out of state. For 3 weeks in July and August they were all here again!
My mom has 4 siblings. 3 of them are married and 2 of the 3 live out of state. A.K.A. I hadn't seen 7 of my 9 cousins in two years. Mega uber lame sauce. If I've talked to you recently, I'm sure you've heard plenty of stories about Finley and Tucker or their dad, Chad. Chad, my mom's youngest brother, and his wife, Amy, lived out of Utah since a week after they were married in 2003. They started out in sunny southern California and then moved on to rainy Oregon right before Finley was born. In the next 3 years, Kyle and Angi, my mom's sister, and their 3 girls moved to Texas. Garth, mom's brother, Cortney and their 3 girls also moved to Texas. (Three of my cousins were born out of Utah: Finley and Tucker in Oregon and Dean, Garth's youngest, in Texas.) This past winter Chad and Amy finally moved back to Utah! Hooray for Cannon cousins on Christmas! Since then we see them at least once a week, usually more when Chad is in a cup o sno mood since the only good one is by our house :) It's been so much fun having them around and getting to babysit Fin and Tuck. (I'm sure gonna miss them come this weekend when I move back to Logan.)
I learned of the Cannon reunion a few months prior to the visit. The build up of anticipation didn't even come close to how much fun we would have! We saw the Forsgrens first. Their excuse for being in Utah was that Mckenzie was going to EFY with her Forsgren cousin the week after the 24th of July. They arrived on a Thursday evening and our family ventured over to Papa Joe's house, where the Forsgrens were staying, as soon as we could! We were greeted by big hugs from Angi, Kyle and all 3 girls. It was a lovely evening of catching up for a few hours. 
The next day our neighbors, the Sorensens, let us use their pool. The youger kids sure enjoyed the water!

Later that night, Haley, Mckenzie, and I had a little photo shoot adventure with Jenna. Jenna is an amateur photographer and likes using her friends for practice. I was in charge of maintaining our neighbors yard while they were out of town. Their yard is gorgeous. Their yard is very, very green. Their yard is right on the creek. Their yard is gorgeous. So we took advantage of that! We started out back there but were quickly running out of light since it was such a last minute decision. We ventured back to Jenna's house and decided to set up a little photo room on her deck using an old sheet. We took some cute pictures... but the best part was all the candid, fun, jumping around ones!

"Teen Girl Squad! Cheerleader! So and So! What's her face? The Ugly One!"

"We all paired off..."

Garth and Cortney were in Utah for 3 weeks. The first two were spent Sunday evening thru Friday afternoon in Vernal. (Before moving to Texas their family lived there. One of the doctors he worked with there was going out of town and had asked Garth if he could come take over at his clinic while he was gone. Thank you mystery doctor for giving the Cannon's an excuse to come!) They spent the weekends and a week following the Vernal visit in Salt Lake with us. They arrived in Salt Lake during our impromptu photo shoot. Only Chad and Amy's family saw them that night because they were staying at Chad's house - the rest of us saw them the next day for our 24th of July Extravaganza!


Saturday, July 24th 5:00 - Party starts
Saturday, July 24th 5:38 - Everyone has finally arrived
Typical Cannon gathering


We had quite the spread! BBQ chicken, burgers, turkey burgers, and hot dogs. Corn on the cob. Chips. Watermelon. Veggie Tray. Barq's root beer. Epitome of a summer meal! Love it! We all enjoyed the meal and proceeded to change into our blue/tan/brown/gray/white outfits for pictures. Another family in our ward has another gorgeous backyard which the whole fan-damily took advantage of. All of the pictures we took were amateur as well! Amy and Angi both have really nice cameras and we brought Jenna along to act as assistant so we could get group shots, family, candid, single, girls only, boys only, etc. Three cameras flashing moved the process along quite nicely and we got lots of good pictures.

This one was taken in our backyard with granddad - great grandpa

My siblings and I in a nutshell

Candid Goaslinds - not so cute.

Me and Dick Dawg - Oh how I love my Fath!

Crazy Cannons!

After pictures we came back to our house to give people a chance to change and have a potty break. I showed Avery and Dani where the upstairs bathrooms were. When Avery finished she came into my room. I asked her if she remembered us being “best buddies” and she just looked at me all shy and confused. Ever since Avery was born, I've been her favorite. (I was the only non-parent she would go to as a baby and not scream.) This was the first time I had seen Avery in 2 years and she's only 7 so I didn't really expect her to remember. I showed her pictures we had taken together and told her some quick stories. She was starting to warm up to me again, but she wasn’t totally sure. We then immediately formed a caravan and headed to Butlerville Days for fireworks! To add to our epitome-of-a-summer-meal we had either neapolitan ice cream or a root beer float! Yum! My mom and Cortney were dishing up while we waited for the show to start. Avery and Dani came and sat on a blanket with Haley and I. I had my phone out, of course, and Ave asked if she could play a game on it. I told her I only had one and showed her how to play. She wasn’t having very much success with it and quickly got bored. She gave it back to me and then said “Mallory, remember how you said we used to be best buddies?”  I nodded and smiled. She grinned back and said, “We still are.”  Oh the joy that filled my soul! Haha I love that girl! Shortly after that she asked me if my shirt had sleeves. Strange question, eh? Not so much. She was cold and wanted to wear my sweater. That's okay though. Best buddies share.

G-Thugs!
2006

Best Buddies
2010

*Break from family time: Tim and Phil were in town and ended up at Butlerville Days with Kaitlin. Convenient? I think so. The fireworks ended just before 10 so I went and met up with them for the rest of the evening. Those 3 hours reminded me of how much I love college life! Driving around and meeting up with new people all the time? Win!*

The following Monday our family had a rotation at the cabin - the ancient cabin that we share with my grandpa's 7 siblings and their families. Papa Joe traded out a few days so the visiting family could go up again. Garth and Cortney had to be back in Vernal, but they left their girls with Grandpa and Ginny (Papa Joe's wife.) Mckenzie was at EFY so she wasn't there, but the rest of the Forsgrens were! The cabin for me is an excuse to eat as much as I want and be as lazy as possible! There's always plenty of junk food and I've learned to always bring a book. (We got two cabin trips in July this year. The first time I read Catching Fire - the second book in the Hunger Games series. The second time, with all the family there, I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The name sounds kind of ridiculous and it is quite the mouthful, but it is so worth reading! They both are!) The little kids, especially Ava Flave, and my mom got a little frustrated with me being so lazy... but all I wanted to do was read! :)

Typical...

I did join in on most of the fun stuff though! We had foil dinners and made s'mores - with GIANT marshmallows. 

Cute Dani enjoying her roasted mallow.

Nice tan Chad!

View from behind the fire pit. Isn't it pretty?

We played a hilarious game of Catch Phrase and lots of card games. The kids played in and floated the river with Grandpa.

Drew, Bryn, Brighton, Tucker, Jackson

Finley, Dani, Avery, Cassidy, Bryn

Jackson
We've all done it: freeze out in the river!

Everyone loves a cold, wet hug!

There were crafts galore and on the last day we hiked past the waterfall and to the spring. That is the only hike that I have ever been on at the cabin but a trip up there doesn't feel complete without it. It's become tradition to "baptize" our dogs in the spring, but no one brought a dog on this trip unfortunately.

Walking to the spring

Taking a break

Dani and Haley perform all 27 verses of "The Wheels on the Bus" with actions. Twice.

On the way back from the spring, grandpa took us a different way. He said it was less scenic, but it was shorter. I honestly enjoyed the view on this trail better. We were actually in the trees rather than going around them. It was so pretty! Much less wear and tear which forced us to be a little more adventurous, but it was worth it for me. I wish I would've taken a picture on the way back, but I kinda forgot about my camera :)
Overall, the cabin was a hit! We all had lots of fun with family and nature and no technological interference.

Mal and Fin

The rest of the time was filled with movies, pizza, more swimming, lunch up Millcreek Canyon and hiking with Papa Joe, another BBQ, giant family outing to Training Table (Angi's favorite!) and a trip to the zoo.

Avery next to the elephants: Mama and Baby Zuri

This sneezing elephant was a big hit! If you walked in front of it, it really sneezed! Just a little water, but it gave Cortney a nice little scare.

Dani, Avery, Bryn, and Drew with a giraffe

The parentals were talked into a carousel ride. Avery and Tuck each rode a zebra.

We had some sort of family gathering almost every day the Cannons and Forsgrens were in town. And I enjoyed every minute of it! Even the night Haley and I were put in charge of watching - including feeding and putting the little ones to bed - all 12 brothers and cousins. It felt weird when they all left. I suddenly had a lot of extra time! I missed being with them every day - all the kids taking turns sleeping over, playing airplane with all the little munchkins, staying up late talking to Garth, Cortney, Chad, and Amy, and laughing with everyone! I wouldn't trade any of that time for anything in the world. I have been blessed with an incredible family who I have so much fun with! J'adore ma famille!