Iverson Family Reunion, Payson AZ July 2009

All of the Iverson family members haven't been together since my mom died in March of 2007, and about a year ago, Shari and I decided we needed to plan a reunion. Shari and Rich were just about to FINALLY be done with pediatric dental school in Philadelphia and were returning to AZ. We were hopeful that Paul and Sara's family in WA would be able to come back, but Sara was a month and a half away from her due date and couldn't travel that far. Dave and Tam's family, and Grandpa John and my family headed down to Payson, AZ. Rich's parents own three incredible cabins, land, and are on a river in the cool mountains above Mesa AZ. We set out and got to St. George and met up with Tam and her kids. We left early Friday, July 17th from St. George and met up at Walmart in Payson. It was so fun to see Shari and Rich and the kids. They have all grown up and were so cute.

After shopping at Walmart we drove about 20 minutes to the cabin. We pulled into the property and got settled. Trav and me had the cabin next to the main cabin. Grandpa John and Rich and Shari's family stayed at the main cabin and Dave and Tam's family stayed at the newly remodeled cabin with the tree swing. The kids ran from cabin to cabin and played so well together. Braydon drove their Focus back and forth practicing his stick shift driving. After a snack, we hung out and the kids went to the river and climbed up it looking for the sliding rock. We then went up to the lake and rented a small boat with a motor. We grabbed our fishing gear and fished too. Ashton caught his first fish. He cried at first and then we happy! Rich and Shari took their canoe and fished from it. We took some great family pictures above the canyon rim, however, Dave hadn't flown in yet so wasn't in some of the pictures. Tammy and Shari went down to the Phoenix airport to pick up Dave who had to meet us late because of work. After they got back, we played scum in our cabin. The little kids went to bed and we stayed up playing games and got silly.

Saturday morning was my favorite. I had never cliff jumped and was nervous, but Shari and Rich reassured me and everyone packed up except Grandpa who offered to babysit the the 4 little ones. He was a peach to do that! We hiked up to Box Canyon and donned water shoes and made it to the cliff. There were lots of people there already jumping and swimming in the water. It was so pretty. There were lots of red rocks and it was perfect temps. We all jumped in and had a blast. We followed each other down the canyon up and down the rocks and sometimes swimming in the water sometimes crawling through the waterways and down slippery rocks. We got to the next jumping spot and it was too scary for me. It was more narrow than the other spots and you basically needed to jump straight down and not out. One time Braydon my nephew scared all of us because he jumped out a bit. Yikes. Tammy and Dave freaked out, luckily he was okay. After a few hours we headed back to relieve Grandpa. We kept our suits on and headed to the slippery rock. The water temps. here were much cooler and I stayed out and took pictures. Garrett and Lauren both shredded their suits on the rock, but had a great time. That evening we took the canoe out for a night ride with Dave, Trav and TAm and Grandpa. It was actually very cool and we were glad we brought blankets.

On Sunday, most of us headed to church, but we missed Sacrament meeting and made it to the 3rd hour. We had a nice afternoon enjoying each other. We then went back to the lake to go on a 3 mile hike (round trip) and see the bald eagles nest. It had never left the nest yet. He was 11 weeks old and the ranger expected him to fly out anytime, The hike was beautiful and nice and cool. That night we did a big campfire and roasted smores around the campfire and played Mafia. We then headed to bed since our family was headed back to the lake to fish the next day. Dave and Tam's family hung out with Shari and Rich's family and G'pa. Dave and Tam headed to St. George that afternoon around 5pm. We all started getting cleaned up so that we could head to Shari and Rich's new home in Mesa on Tuesday. We were anxious to see their new home. We swam and Rich's parents home and had pizza that evening. It was so strange to have it be 10pm at night and still be 100 degrees! Wednesday morning we packed up again for a 12 hour car ride home. Trav needed to be home and get back to work. The ride was long, but not too bad with a DVD player in the car.

We are hoping to have these reunions every other year and have each of sibs. plan the event and different location. We really missed Paul Sara Molly and Zach. The kids would have had a blast together. Hopefully next time we can all make it!


Monday morning we got up early to get fishing poles ready and head out early. We all caught fish except Trav who was always baiting someone's pole.