Giles Family Reunion 2011

Last weekend was our annual Giles Family Reunion.  Every year the whole Giles clan gets together for a weekend of camping.  This year my aunt Janet and family were the hosts and chose Mahogany Grove Campground at Mt. Charleston, Nevada to hold the festivities.  It is so much fun to have everyone from the newest grandbaby to my 90 year old grandpa come together at the same time. We played games, made s'mores and tin foil dinners around the fire, hiked to the top of the mountain, and just relaxed.  It was so nice to get out of the St. George heat for a weekend.  The campground sits at 8,000 feet which made for nice days and chilly nights. 

best buds

Hiking to the top of the mountain!

Because it was a bit cold at night Cason didn't really want to sleep in his own bed and ended up sleeping with Jeff and I on the air mattress.  He slept like a baby... me not so much!  He moves around WAY TOO MUCH during sleep.  Both nights he took up half the air mattress which left me sandwiched between he and Jeff.  Quite the experience :).  He loves the outdoors and loved exploring the campground.  He was constantly moving... and falling!  Luckily we made it out with just minor cuts and bruises.  He was dirty the ENTIRE time, but looked so cute and had so much fun. 

 A friend suggested that we take sand toys.... so glad we did!

 

It is a tradition for our family to do skits around the camfire for one night of the reunion.  This year was a lot of fun.  My family came up with Chuck Norris-esque jokes for my grandparents and each of my mom's siblings.  I thought they turned out pretty funny and we had a blast making them up while preparing our tin foil dinners.  I'm sure we thought we were funnier than everyone else did.

Another tradition is for the whole family to get together for games one day.  We had so much fun playing "Minute to Win it."  Even though the Slaugh family did not win we had a blast!  Chelsea and I dominated at stacking soda cans with pasta and Conner was a little champ at everything he tried.  Chase did really well too.  After the nut stacking round he wanted to spend the rest of the time perfecting that one.  It was fun to watch everyone, especially my mom and dad, even if we did make fools of ourselves ;).  Cason of course was too young to participate which made it the perfect nap time.  It worked out great because everyone was up away from the tents playing the games which gave him the peace and quiet needed to zonk out for a couple of hours.

We also made marshmallow guns and had a full blown marshmallow war!  HILARIOUS!  It was every man for himself.... until we started yelling out names and ganging up on the weak.  My dad was taking a nap at the time and after the war was over we all decided to go in the tent and ambush him awake.  I'm sure he appreciated it.

 suicide by marshmallow?