THAT'S LIFE

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Bybee Family Reunion at Pinetop

We had the opportunity this summer to have EVERYONE from my family together for a reunion!  It is always amazing to me when everyone manages to carve out time to get together ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  Life gets so busy.  Everyone doesn't live near each other.  It can be really hard to accomplish that.

We met up in the beautiful mountain town of Pinetop, Arizona.  My dad has a cousin with a beautiful cabin large enough to accommodate everyone.  It even had a fabulous backyard with a playset, zip line, tree house, and a fire pit.  The kids had a blast! And so did the adults.  We went on bike rides, took hikes and walks, the boys played a little golf, we toasted s'mores at night, had devotionals, went on treasure hunts, and enjoyed some pretty amazing meals as each family took a turn in the kitchen.

Here are some pics of our nights making s'mores...

My brother, Matt...

My mom, Morgan, Colton, my sister Kacie, and nephew McKay...

Matt's wife, Maria...

Kyle...

Colton...

Morgan...

Bryan...

Logan kissing his mom, Maria...

McKay sharing a s'more with his dad...

My mom and dad sharing a s'more...

My sister, Kacie, getting a sticky smooch from Colton...

Kacie and me!

Kyle and my nephew, Logan...

Kyle, Kacie, and my mom...

My older kids set up a treasure hunt for all the younger kids with clues all around inside and outside the cabin...

And finally...the treasure!!!

Now they got to sit down and enjoy eating their treasure...

Another day we went into town to the go-cart track.  That was a BLAST!  First the youngest three were able to drive their own cars on a smaller size track.  This included McKay and Logan (Matt and Maria's boys).  They are REALLY into cars and trains.  It is their life.  They took driving these cars SUPER seriously...

McKay, Kyle, and Logan...

Then we moved onto the big track.  The younger kids had to ride shotgun on this one (the cars went MUCH faster).  It was pretty fun to watch everyone trying to beat out other family members...

Morgan...

Kyle racing...

Bryan...

I love the expression on Morgan here...

Kyle in the foreground, with my brother-in-law Matt Ling and Colton right behind, and Morgan and Bryan way in the back...

My sister Kacie...

My sister-in-law Maria with her son Logan and my niece Taylor right behind...

Taylor...

Kacie, Morgan, and Bryan...

This picture cracks me up because Kyle's driving partner let go of the wheel to pose as they were headed straight for the wall.  Kyle was POSITIVE they were going to crash.  Can you see how worried he is?

We ate a lot of s'mores.  It was so nice for it to be cold enough to do a campfire when back in Phoenix it was 115 degrees.  Pinetop is about 3 hours north of Phoenix.  It makes it easy to get out of the summer heat.

All my kids...

Kyle and I...

Our little family...

Brittany...

One thing I loved was that each family took a turn giving a nightly devotional before bed.  That meant they picked a topic to share with everyone (usually a somewhat spiritual one).  It was really a nice way to end the day...

On our night to make dinner we decided to do homemade ice cream for dessert.  We used bags of homemade ice cream inside these tubs filled with ice and salt.  Everyone took a turn shaking it until the ice cream was done.  This ice cream never really firmed up.  It was pretty much soft serve, but it was still super yummy!

Morgan looks a little less enthused here...

My mom and Kacie...

Morgan, me, and Colton...

LOVE the look on Bryan...

This was a really fun trip and it was so nice to all be together!