In April of this year I started having some thoughts. One of my little brothers was turning 30 and I asked him what he was doing for it and he said he would probably be working or sleeping or doing school. LAME! I jumped into action and started planning a family surprise birthday party for him. It went better than I could have imagined. Over labor day we loaded up and headed to the red rock city.
We stopped at an Air B&B we had rented for the weekend and put up a few decorations then everyone met at Red Robbin for the surprise. Everyone was able to come except Justin's family. Here we are all hiding as they were walking in.
SURPRISE!!! I think he really was surprised about ALL of us being there and he immediately started worrying about where we were all going to stay since they live in a 1 bedroom apartment. We explained to him later about the house we rented and headed out to the house for some fun!
Of course you've got to have some ridiculous birthday bling. It was at this lunch that Ashton got to announce that his mom and dad were expecting a BABY!! A serious blessing for these guys!
A cold one for the old one!
The house was lovely! There were 4 bedrooms and a big living room. a tiny kitchen and...
Lots of random dead animals on the wall. The kids weren't too sure about them for a while and Carter told one of them to stop looking at him! HAHA!
There was a pool table and air hockey and foosball table in the house and we all sat around and hit a balloon around like the Reed's always do. It was so great being together and just having fun! We had wanted to hit up Zions national park but with it being a holiday we didn't want to hit big crowds.
So we decided to get up at the CRACK of dawn and be at the park entrance by 6 AM! I wasn't too sure it was a great idea but as soon as we got there I was SO glad we came early. There was hardly anyone there and no lines to wait in at all for the shuttles.
The kids were really excited about going on some hikes..
as were the adults!
GOOD MORNING FROM ZIONS!!
Grandpa and Bri sported matching superman/girl shirts for the occasion.
We hoped on the shuttles and the views were BREATHTAKING! Oh it was so pretty and it kept getting prettier as the sun came up and reflected off the red rock.
Carter holding up the mountain.
These were fascinating to me. Not sure if it was man made or what but very straight and flat and intriguing.
We got off at the last stop and started hiking. It was a peaceful and beautiful walk. And perfect for all the little legs we had with us.
We stopped for several photo shoots along the way.
My favorite shot of them all!!! Beautiful!!!
G&G Reed did a great job and Mollie enjoyed hanging with them.
The sibs!
Kids loving not being buckled on the shuttle!
When we got back and had some lunch mom and a few others decided to relax on the grass so a few of us could get another short hike in. It was VERY awesome and had several fun stair steps like this to go up.
We made it to the 2nd emerald pools then turned around so we werent gone too long.
This will by far be one of my favorite trips because it was just so relaxing! We had lots of down time to just rest and talk and I even took a nap while "Nanny' the goat watched over me.
Later the kids got in the hot tub (yes it was 90 degrees outside) I don't think the heat was turned on though and I got to relax in a lawn chair again!
Chad bought a toy to play with and we actually had alot of fun tossing the airplane back and forth.
On sunday we went to the spanish branch with Tony and then walked around the temple for a bit and visited the visitors center.
With all the scenery on the wall we got lots of fun shots like this!
and this.
Since Carter's birthday was right around the corner we had one evening where we got to celebrate him too! We had an ice cream cake and he got to open a few gifts.
And since the family beautician was there i couldn't resist the opportunity to get Rylee's mullet cut off! It turned out SOOO cute! Thanks Brit!
Keep reading for where we went next!
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