Parades, Presents and an Impromtu Talent Show!

Nobody does the 4th of July better than Provo Utah. 

Not trying to be all braggy about my home town but it's true :)

This was the first year our kids got to experience the Provo parade and they were loving it!

We all wore our family reunion shirts to be awesome and enjoyed front row seats on the curb.

It was TOASTY!! But These cutie pies did great even in the heat. 

One thing I love about the Provo parade is that they have floats with missionaries on them. So cool. :) And when the missionary float goes by everybody goes nuts like they're a bunch of rockstars. Love it!

 They also have the Living Legends! Holla! Brought back good memories from when Taber and I danced with them. 

The parade lasted about 2 hours and despite the molten lava temperatures the kids really did great!

Of course we had to let Cam ditch his pants and take over the iPhone but babies get special privileges.

Speaking of my iPhone, we lost it after the parade. Luckily we have an app that shows you where it is so we looked it up and someone had taken it to South Provo. We called the police and gave them the coordinates and they went after it! When they arrived at the address we gave them, sure enough, my phone was there! They totally would've arrested the dude that took it BUT.... it happened to be my innocent brother in law who was visiting friends in South Provo and unknowingly had it in his bag. hahaha! So yeah....at least we know the app works :)

After the parade it was back to the Uda house where my auntie Diane showered us all with presents! She has all boys, so she likes to spoil her nieces with girly gifts. She bought us necklaces, bracelets, lipstick and cute purses.

Naomi and I showing off some of the goodies we got from auntie. We were excited :)

We also tried to take an informal family reunion pic. My Dad is holding up the family tree in the background. He painted the tree and then we each added our thumbprints for the leaves . It came out really neat!

Here's a closer picture of the tree. There are still lots of empty branches for future grandbaby thumbprints :)

The rest of the day was filled with BBQ, games, hanging out, and even an impromptu talent show (video posted below.) We ended by watching the fireworks from my parents driveway. Awesome way to spend the 4th of July!

And now for your viewing pleasure I have included some sample clips of our talent show. It starts with a little dance by me, my awesome 5 month pregnant sister Sarah and her hubby Tau.  Sometimes we like to pretend we're hip hop dancers :) There's lots of dancing by the kids, a hula by Liz, and even an interpretive dance to Swan Lake.  If the embeded video doesn't work on the blog you can also click HERE to watch it on youtube. Enjoy!

4th of July Freedom Run 10K

Is there any better way to kick off the 4th of July than running a 10K? 

This is our second year doing it and I am a fan!

 This year was awesome because we got to run it in UTAH!! And we had Granny Nanny to watch the kids so we could run TOGETHER!! Naomi, Kevin, Jake and Munro ran it too so it was just one big family party.

The course was on the parade route so it was really cool having a crowd cheering us on the whole way. It was also awesome running side by side with my man :) We weren't going for time so it was super nice to go at a comfortable pace and enjoy each others company.

The miles just kind of ticked by and by mile 5 we still had plenty left in the tank to push it in for the last mile. The race ended on a hill and since that's all we train on, we totally owned it! We were passing lots of people and feeling like Wheaties champs :)

 As we sprinted in for the last 100 yards, Taber reached out and grabbed my hand and we crossed the finish line together.  It was a really sweet moment, so when the race pics came online, I totally bought this one because I didn't want to forget it. :)

After the race we got shiny new medals and big fat water bottles full of Gatorade.  The race shirts were super nice too, definitely had some good swag for this one!

 Everyone did awesome, several PR's and I think Ro and Kevin placed 9th and 10th in their age division! So yeah, proud of my siblings and brother in laws, and glad we got to start the holiday in such an awesome way!

Uda family pictures

If you're going to have a family reunion, there's no escaping family pictures. It's always a major effort but I'm happy we did it and love that we have these pictures now.

My beautiful extended family. 

Mom and Dad Uda with all their grandbabies. I love this shot because that is pretty much what Cam looked like for the entire photoshoot. He's not really into sitting still for longer than 2 seconds:)

 

My Momsie and Popsicle. Aren't they the cutest?

Mom, Dad, and 7 of the 8 kids (Chris couldn't make the trip from Thailand but we missed him!)

All the grandbabies. 

It was sooo hard to get this shot. Cam would make a mad dash out of the picture every time we lined them up but we finally got a pic with him still (sort of) in it. 

Uda siblings!! You can kind of tell we're related.

Especially in this picture. :)

My precious little family

And I had my brother take a few with my camera that I thought came out cute too, like this one.

And this one. 

Yeah for family pictures!! And yeah for 2 blog posts in 2 days!! I'm on a roll people!

Udas Udas Everywhere!!

Once upon a time a Japanese island boy met a sweet sassy southern girl and they fell madly in love and had lots and lots of really ridiculously good looking babies (that would be my siblings and I, of course :)

The the babies grew up and got married and some of them moved away and started having babies of their own, and everyone missed each other so much they decided it was time to officially organize an Uda family reunion!!

Udas Udas EVERYWHERE!!! 

Uda's from Chicago! (Naomi and Kevin, top row)

Uda's from L.A.! (Liz and Tony bottom row)

Udas moving to Hawaii! (Rae and Ro, who are living in Oahu now)

Udas from New Hampsha! (Me and the Tabester)

The Udas came from far and wide to celebrate the awesomeness of being an Uda.

We took the party to Seven Peaks and worked on our Uda tans.

Then we held a big fat Uda family home evening. Mama Uda gave a beautiful lesson about eternal families, Jake played the ukelele and the My sisters and I sang kanaka wai wai. The spirit was so strong, reminding us of the blessing it is to not only be brothers and sisters through birth, but brothers and sisters in the gospel.

 And of course, we couldn't have family home evening without doing the hokey pokey. It's tradition!

 Ah...good times :)

 For the FHE activity, my brother Josh busted out his laser tag guns. The boys were in heaven. 

And for the FHE treat, me and Taber snuck off with Sarah and Tau for a little milkshake run. I never would've guessed it, but I'm telling you, Taco Amigo has THE best fresh strawberry milkshakes in the entire universe. Seriously changed my life.

And that is the end of chapter one of the Uda family reunion. More to come soon...or, considering my pathetic blogging consistency as of late, more to come...eventually :)

Family time at the Beautiful, Picturesque, Rigg River Ranch: July 2012

Since we were already out West for the Uda family reunion, we decided to have a little Rigg reunion while we were there. Not everyone could make it, but Taber's brother Brett drove out from AZ with his family and it was great getting all the cousins together at the Rigg Ranch in Grand Junction, CO.

The miraculous picture of the 8 grandkids in which EVERYONE is looking at the camera! (Can you hear the hallelujah chorus? ;) 

Taber was so happy to be able to spend time with his brother. It's also fun that Brett's baby boy Rocky and Cam are only 3 months apart. Rocky is a major Daddy's boy and when Brett was gone one night he attached onto Taber and wouldn't let anyone else near him. It was the cutest thing ever.

While the boys were bonding the girls were off having adventures of their own. These little explorers loved finding rocks, critters, and treasures at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

They found a giant rock pile and conquered it together. They also climbed through trees and trails and found "magical" horseshoes that were so special they ended up making it into their suitcases for the trip back to New Hampshire.

Of course the highlight of the Ranch is always going fishing with Daddy. The weather was really hot so the fish weren't biting, but you can't beat Daddy/daughter bonding time floating on a lake in such a gorgeous setting. 

And I guess if you can't catch fish, at least you can have fun playing with the bait. Uncle Brett entertained the kids by sucking a worm up his nose. A disturbing priceless memory that I'm sure the kids will treasure for years to come :)

The rope swing provided hours of entertainment as well. 

Especially when Uncle Brett and Daddy came out to push the kids. They were flying!

And what can beat a tractor ride with Grandpa? Cam was all smiles when he got to go.

Another group boating adventure!

They took the boat out to the island and I made them pose for me. LOVE how it turned out. The Rigg Ranch is just so beautiful and this pic really captures it. 

We also had an impromptu limbo session. I hung in there for awhile but the kids who were 3 ft tall and under beat me at the end. :)

I think the highlight for Taber may have been jeeping with his brother. "Bro" time in a jeep, taking on rugged terrain definitely qualifies as a good time for Taber. 

Plus they came back with sweet pictures like this!

Of course it wouldn't be a trip to Grandma's house without visiting the dinosaur museum up the road. The kids always have a blast when they're there.

This year they actually had a new "mammal" exhibit with mammoths and Sabers. Cam really liked the Sabers.

Skyla and Brinley digging for dinosaur bones. Such beautiful little Rigg girls.

Oh and I can't forget to mention the awesome four wheeling. Taber's uncle Saul let us borrow his quads and we had a great time cruising around the property. 

And last but not least, we took some family pictures while we were there. I thought the photographer did an amazing job and absolutely love how they came out.  This one of me and Taber makes me happy. Sure love that man :)

Love how our family pic came out too. Might have to blow this one up and frame it.

Love my Rigg family and am so grateful to have such wonderful in-laws. Also grateful for the time we were able to spend, relaxing and enjoying nature on their beautiful ranch. Just wished we lived closer! Someday...