Happy Fathers Day!

Today is such a great day. It is a day that we get to honor the men/fathers in our life. I have so many people to honor its great! I think that I should start with my dad first. Darrell Redford is such a great guy. He has taught me so many things. He taught me to always finish whatever it is I start. He has taught me that I am capable of anything. He taught me that there are so many different ways to show love. He taught me to always honor my mother and to not yell at her. He is someone who will always take care of his family. He taught me to work really hard. He is great at reading stories and has so many voices for all the characters in the book. He will even read it backwards or wrong to either rile you up or to see if you are really paying attention. He is a great grandpa to my kids and they love to crawl on his lap. He is a great artist and writer. He helped me with way too many projects the night before they were due. He has so much knowledge in so many areas. You can seriously ask him a question and if he doesn't know the answer (which is rare) then he will find it for you. He is thoughtful in ways that no one else is. If he knows you are having a problem with something or looking for something he will look for answers for you on his own time and then e-mail you what he has found. With any surgery or illness I have had or my kids he always calls to check on us. I love my dad! The next person I want to honor is my husband. He is an amazing dad. He loves to be the one to put the kids to bed at night. He likes to read to them, sing songs to them, the younger ones brush their teeth and just listen to what they have to say. He tries his hardest to hit every function no matter how small or big that each one of them have. He stresses so much about them and wants each one of them to be happy. He likes to take them each out on dates, from store and gas station runs, to Hannah Montana movie concerts. He is a great provider who takes his job seriously. He loves to play with the kids individually and as a family. He honors his priesthood and gives blessings all the time. He sets such a good example for all our kids and I am lucky to have him as my husband! There are so many more men in our life that we love and respect. Poppy, Harry, Jim, Mike, Melvin, and all the other men that took part in raising Scott, myself, and even help us with our kids. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

Family Reunions-fun or major work?!

So here we are the Henderson clan. This is my mothers side of the family and I think naturally the side that we are closest too. For the last 5 years we have been doing family reunions which is interesting for Scott since we still get together a couple times a month. Yet nonetheless we do them because we love spending time together and also for my Grandma whom we all love and she wants them to happen. Once again this year my mother and I put the reunion together. The men had been wanting to do one on a weekend so that they wouldn't have to miss work and so I found one on the weekend up Little Cottonwood Canyon in the Tanners Flat campground. With every ones summer schedules we did it the first week in June, and we have all since decided that that will never happen again. Friday night was so cold we all had major layers on. Several of us had checked the weather to make sure that all would be okay and it said that it would be sunny and warm. Well, that was a lie... it snowed all night long and I got up at 7 am to make breakfast in the snow!!! I had bought these tents the night before that had the mosquito netting on the sides and put all the food inside it. Well we forgot to put the stove inside as well. Needless to say that the stove wouldn't work in the morning and it took over an hour to do 5 pancakes. The nice thing was that everyone started helping and became a great group effort. We almost left for IHOP but decided to hold out and as always everything did turn out okay. We finally had the coals going enough and had placed the griddle on top so that after those 5 they were popping out like crazy. It did start to warm up but we still had the fire going all day long.
People did activities such as rock climbing, hiking in the snow following my Uncles, and then duct tape wallets in a variety of colors. That night was tons warmer and everyone slept great. Sunday was the warmest day and by the time we went on our hike we actually were starting to shed layers. These family reunions can be so much work to put together but are so fun once you are there. Relationships grow stronger and you start bonds that may not have been there before. The kids just play the whole time and my mom even stays up until 2:30 am in order to play games with all her nieces and nephews. She even rock climbed. We all try new things and learn so much more about each other and we all love it! Next time we just think that we will wait until August. The upside though is that we never had to use any bug spray and no one got a mosquito bite. I totally forgot about my camera and it sat in the car until the last day when my Grandma asked me if I had it for the family picture. So you get to see the group on the last day and that's it. Nathans girlfriend Breeann was taking the picture for us but hopefully next year when she goes she will be Mrs. Nathan Redford instead of Breeann Patch:). (total hint but doubtful he will read this or catch on).