The Over Cautious Child is Really a Daredevil??

We are lake people now...

We're A Real American Family Now!

We've made our first trip to Yellowstone!

I wonder if my kids will ever learn all their cousins' names...

Top Row: Joe's family; ALL THE FAMILY (Don't ask me why my family & Mark's family are separated from everyone else. You'd think the photographer would have mentioned that...); Sarah's family;
Second Row: John, Mark, Aaron's families;
Third Row: Paul, Laura, Ben's families;
Last Row; Jacob & Mallory; Melvin & Linda with their 12 children; Daniel, Sarah, & Lincoln.

Though most everyone is smiling, I can assure you, tempers were flaring prior to the shutter button clicks!! Next time, we've got to hire someone to do this!!

2012 Dodd Reunion in Lava Hot Springs

We reached Lava Hot Springs, ID on Tuesday July 17 and stayed until Saturday. There were a lot of us. At one point, all of Linda & Melvin's living children were in attendance and it was a few hours of utter chaos. To be honest, most of the reunion was utter chaos, but entertaining nonetheless.
At and around the cabin:

Clockwise from top left: Caleb and some Dodd kids on a hike outside the cabin; Ammon on the stairs from the basement; McKenzie with Stinkin Lincoln and Sarah; a whole lotta Dodds in a not-big-enough-for-60+-people-cabin living room; Tayeden, Tenille, & Adalie; little Dodd boys; MORE little Dodd boys in the basement of the cabin; Dodds on the porch; HERE are some GIRLS!!-Taveah, McKenzie, and Kayley; Connor, Caleb, Michael, and Ben. Center top to bottom: more Dodds listening to Melvin; Danny, Cate, and Spencer.

The Portneuf River runs through Lava Hot Springs. You can tube the river and there is also a water park next alongside. Floating the river with a ton of people was awesome! We'd all link up and try to stay together. Can you just picture 20 Dodds--kids and adults--all screaming and twisting around in tubes scrambling for hands and ankles of one another? We set up a 'camp' at a good site to pull the kids out--they'd walk up the river a ways, hop in and float down to us where we'd pull them out and they'd do it all over again. Though the cabin wasn't ideal for all of us, floating the river was perfect!

Clockwise from top left: Jacob going over the first waterfall; our camp; Ben, Connor, & me starting at the top of the river--it took about 10 minutes to float all the way back to our camp; pulling out of the river; Ben going down the first fall; my family and Taveah; some Dodds at the top of the river below the two falls; John getting Connor out--he was the only one of my kids brave enough to do the whole river; Center: Ben, Connor, Peyton, and Joe getting ready to go down one of the slides at the water park.

Will I ever finish posting pics from our vacation?

These two sets of pics are from our time with the family before reaching Lava Hot Springs, ID for the 'official' reunion.

Clockwise from top left: Connor and a bow & arrow, some Dodds in Paul's basement watching the video of their last trip to Lava Hot Springs, ID in 1994, Ben with Calais & Danny, Linc the Stink & yours truly, Kim & Stinkin Lincoln (we both hogged him the whole night--we were so excited to see him since Daniel & Sarah moved back to UT in April), Will & Spencer.

The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, The Tabernacle, some Dodds causing a ruckus, Salt Lake Temple, my family in the Assembly Hall, The Christus Statue in the Visitor's Center.

*fuzzy photos courtesy of my iPod

Dodds Invade BYU

Our first Saturday of vacation, we gathered with a few fellow Dodds and headed to BYU campus. We did some fun things but the most memorable of course involved an officer of the law. Those always seem to pop up when Dodds congregate...

Apparently the BYU field has sensors that alert the police when movement is detected. A cop pulled up and told some of the adults "people get arrested for stunts like this". Awesome. What a way to start a vacation!! As you can tell by the picture, the guy was pretty cool and probably loved the flattery oozing from three Dodd brothers and their dad. Another story for the books!!

Getting Good Use Out of Mom & Dad's Investments...

My family comes from the north--Lepperts, from Indianapolis. Dad's youngest brother brought his two kids, and my cousin and her hubby came with them. We 'laked' their whole visit. This included learning to ski for some, tubing, fishing, and a lot of swimming.

Kids Just Wouldn't Love Me If It Weren't for Pinterest...

Birthday Fest 2012

If you know anything about the Lepperts, you probably know that from 2004 to 2006, our parents had two children and one grandchild--what makes our family unique is that fact that those two kids and one grandkid all share the same birthday--June 16. This year, we got to spend it together.

It was a special birthday for Caleb because he turned eight. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a child who attends church can choose to be baptized at the age of eight--an age where they are supposed to have the ability to choose between wrong and right and so on. This also qualified him to begin attending Cub Scouts. He was excited about both events!