Sand Hollow 2009

We just had our annual Richards Family Reunion at a lake this week. We usually go to Lake Powell, but this year decided to stay closer to civilization because we had two little babies so we went to Sand Hollow near Hurricane, Utah. It was SO much fun! We stayed in some condos at Worldmark by Windham in St. George and then drove to Sand Hollow.

We went straight to the lake before dropping our stuff off at the condo. We had to stop two times on the way down for Ryan. Traveling is much more difficult when you have a baby and are breastfeeding! I think next time I am going to try bringing a bottle of milk and then pump in the car! That will probably save us an hour of stopping time in a 4 hour period. My grandpa rented two wave runners and they were so much fun. It's amazing how wussy I am after having a baby. Yes, having the baby is my excuse!

We're all lathered up and ready to play! Ryan did awesome on this trip! He loved being outside and loved the water! We brought him a floaty to sit in. He just chewed on it and walked along the ground in the water. It was so cute to see the floaty walking in the opposite direction of the waves. Sadly, the bugs also loved this floaty so we didn't get to use it much. I took Ryan out on the water without the floaty and just sat him in the water. He just splashed around and loved the waves coming up on his chest. I love that he's a water baby and hopefully I can get him in a pool a bit more before the summer is over!



My favorite part of the whole trip was cliff jumping! I haven't done it before so I was WAY nervous. Especially being a new mom, I just had these awful thoughts of me dying and Ryan not having a mommy any more! But I overcame my fear and did it and had a blast!!! I don't think I've ever jumped this high into water before so it was exhilarating!

Me jumping off! I always cross my feet like that, I guess!

All three of us, Me, Steven and Nancy (my brother and sister), were going to jump at the same time. I was way nervous because there were rocks on the other sides and I was afraid we were all going to land on each other. We planned on doing this smile pose that my mom made us do when we were little. You can see Nancy posing it in the above picture. You can tell I'm a bit nervous about this!!!

So I totally chickened out! Can you tell what a wuss I was! Nancy's face is hilarious because she was just realizing that I wasn't jumping and was scared about me not being there. Steven's is the best because he is actually doing the smile face! I felt bad I didn't go. Oh well! lol.

Me and Nance after cliff jumping. You can't tell very well, but my swimsuit broke doing it. Good thing it's the end of the summer!

It was also fun going on the wave runner. They were 3-seaters, which are harder to throw two people off of, so they weren't as much fun. I didn't get thrown off or fall off once. It could possibly be because I am a wuss, because I'm a mom now (right?), or it was just too difficult. I'll go with that one!


Uncle Mark and Aunt Holly brought their boat so we could have fun on that. I LOVE being on a boat. There's nothing better than just chilling. I hope that someday we can have a boat too. I went out on a tube thingy with my mom and Steven. It was a ton of fun. My and Jared didn't get to go on anything. We brought Ryan on the boat the second day and I had to get off the boat early with Ryan because of his eye. Putting sunscreen on a sleepy baby's hand is not a good idea! Apparently babies rub their eyes and sunscreen makes it red! Poor guy! So I took him off the boat and had him take a nap.

I just love this picture of him on the boat. He's my little bubs!

We had so much fun and hardly got sun burns!! Yay! That's the hardest thing to avoid, but we reapplied and reapplied. It's so crazy because last year I was pregnant and everyone kept saying, just imagine, you'll have a baby next year!!! I was about 8 weeks pregnant then. This year everyone kept saying, can you believe you were pregnant this time last year!? I blogged about it so you can check it out in August 2008! :) I am excited for next year when Ryan will be a lot older and be able to go swimming more. He's just so much fun to watch.

Here are some more pictures that I liked:

Ryan with Uncle Steven! (My cousin-in-law Juri got Ryan these shorts and they were so cute! If you're reading this Juri, thank you so much! We love them!)

Great Grandma Richards is holding Ryan and my cousin Cooper. It's amazing the difference a few months makes! Cooper was crying and Ryan was just watching him, so intrigued. He kept touching him. It's fun to watch them together!


Ryan is at the point now that he wants to be touching whatever you have in front of you. Touching with his hands AND tongue!

We had a wonderful time and loved hanging out with family. We can't wait until next year!