One of my happiest times! (Ashton, Idaho, Savage Family Reunion 2021)

Wow. Can I just say that I just LOVE my family! This past week has been one of the happiest times in my life. I got to go to Ashton Idaho with my Savage Cousins and it was incredible! I love them so much!

We left last Sunday to head to Utah so that we could drop off my dog at my aunts house. I didn't mind the drive considering we have to drive 5 hours to see family in general. We spent the night at my sweet grandparents house in preparation to head to the reunion.

We arrived in Ashton around 4pm on Monday when we got our first impressions of the AMAZING house that we got to stay in as an Airbnb. It had 3 stories, 9 bedrooms, TONS of bathrooms, a massive kitchen, 2 BIG dining tables, a movie theatre, lots of deck space and balconies, a hot tub, game room with a pool table, bocce ball, and ping pong, a kitchen in the basement, tons of property including my favorite...a private lake with kayaks and paddle boards! That evening we had tacos, and we played on the lake. We stayed up until 11pm and we PARTIED!

On Tuesday, (our 2nd day) we started off with a nice breakfast and then got ready to go to the Mesa Falls! We hiked up to see the upper and lower falls and let me just say that BEAUTIFUL would be an over reaction. It was absolutely gorgeous... We also made stepping stones for my grandma and grandpa Savage's front yard. We kayaked on the lake again that evening which was just absolutely MAGICAL! The weather was perfect and the sunset was so pretty. We had a blast! 😊💖

On Wednesday everyone was excited. We were going to St. Anthony to ride on the famous sand dunes! We got up really early that morning and we loaded up the trucks with motorcycles and four wheelers ready to hit the dunes. It took a decent amount of time to get camp all set up and even longer to get the razors that we had rented to the dunes. We played around for a few hours around lake that was near our camp and some people rode on the dunes. It was really hot at first and we thought we were going to die of heatstroke until it started getting VERY stormy. LIKE VERY! There was crazy wind and rain, and lightning and thunder. Everyone hid under the very tiny shade tent that we had set up, put the rain fly on, and you know with 45 people at the dunes (some of them were riding so maybe more like 30) It doesn't fit a lot. Eventually I decided that I would brave the rain and I got out on the side by side massive razor thing and I had the time of my life! It was hilarious the amount of rain and mud that was getting pelted at us but I was fine with it. The weather started to get kind of intense so some of us chose to head back to the house. Namely ME. Not just me though, some of my other cousins left too. Anyways, we had a great evening! We had a pool championship and we sang karaoke until our throats BURNED. It was so much fun. :) As you can probably already guess we stayed up very late. I probably didn't fall asleep until MAYBE 2am. It was pretty rough. 😂

Thursday was awesome!!! We started off the day with caramel strawberry and whipped cream pancakes that were just FANTASTIC! The big event that day was rafting down Warm River. We got going at about 12:00pm and it was so much fun! My family rented a massive 6 person raft that we all traveled in except for Britton (he got in the old school tire tube that we called "The Cheerio") The whole rafting experience was just awesome! It took about 2 & 1/2 hours to travel down the whole river which was many miles. There were a couple of funny incidents such as my oar falling out of the boat. I jumped in the FREEZING water (because no one would help me grab it) and my legs got tangled in kelp, and no one was helping me into the boat! I was angry 😡 Eventually my dad pulled me in but I was TICKED!!! We also crashed the boat at one time! My dad was trying to get us to go between these 2 massive rocks (one that he called "Pennys Point" and the other "Old Man Johnson" He cracks me up!) Anyways, my mom was not so bright with the idea and their oars were fighting 2 opposite directions so we eventually hit "Pennys Point" straight on. We had a good laugh over that. Everyone but my mom at least.We finished our journey across the river at 4:30 pm and everyone seemed to want to go home. We decided to go to dinner at Big Judds a world famous diner after being featured on Man Vs Food. We tried to get there earlier then the rest of the fam so that we could get our food first (considering how PACKED the place was) and even then it took FOREVER to get our food. We were all very hungry so when we got our food it was totally worth it. Some of my cousins got the famous "Big Judd Special" which was a burger that was a whole pound! In fact, my cousin Jake threw up after eating that beast. After dinner we went to a local grocery store called "Dave's Jubilee" and we got FANTASTIC ice cream! It was so delicious and we even ran into some friends that we knew in New York like 10 YEARS AGO! Lol :D And they just HAPPENED to be in Ashton at the very SAME grocery store at the same TIME and we recognized them! Everything happens for a reason!!!

Friday. Friday was choose your own adventure day and definitely one of my favorites! Everyone had a couple of ideas for what to do and we decided on bridge jumping! That morning we got up good time and we planned our day out. The first thing we did was feed the fish at a resiovour not too far from the house. The fish were humongous and I really enjoyed feeding them. They loved canned corn and cat food! Who knew? Anyways, they were probably 7 or 8 pound fish and you could tell that my dad wished he could have caught one (it wasn't allowed) We stayed there for about half and hour and then we went to the twin bridges in St. Anthony. Bridge jumping was a first for me and let me just say that I was pretty hesitant to jump. I mean its a freaking bridge! A high one in fact! I decided I should probably give it a go when my 6 year old cousins were. I may or may not have had to have the emotional support of my sweet 9 year old little cousin Taleah but I'm still proud. I jumped off of it quite a few times and we all had a blast! Mid day we decided to eat lunch in the trunks of our cars and then got right back to it. I really enjoyed swimming in the water and it was a fun challenge to try to fight against the current of the river. In one spot where the current kind of ends we found a car underneath the water! It was so crazy! Later that day my Great-Grandma Workman showed up and we got to spend some time with her. We went back to the house and had a really fun evening. We did a talent show, a family crossword puzzle game, a glow stick person dance party, and we even got pranked by my Uncle Justin. He put a speaker out in the woods and played bear sounds and my cousin Gage started rustling in the woods and snapping twigs. It was so scary! Some of my cousins even started to cry! :0 We had a great night just being with family, completing the pool tournament, dancing, singing, eating, playing, and talking. It felt like heaven :)

Saturday morning we left this beautiful sanctuary we created to go home. I was sad but I knew that it wouldn't be too long before I got to see my sweet family again. I miss them already and I am so thankful that I have them as some of my closest friends. I don't know what I would do without them. Now I guess I just have to count down the days until next year :)