Sun Lakes 2008

A huge group of our friends take a trip to Sun Lakes every year together and have been inviting us to go for 4 years now. With Don's schedule and our annual family reunion, we have never been able to make it. And this year, Don had a business trip he couldn't miss, so we didn't think we were going to get to go again. Well, after much coaxing from some very good friends, they talked me into going without Don. This trip was just weeks after my sister died and I knew I would need to be around friends, especially with Don gone for a week. It was too late to reserve a cabin, so Shelly and Brittani were kind enough to let my huge gang of six share their cabins. We had so much fun bunking together and soaking up some much needed sun.


One thing they do every year is drive down to the Basalt Cliffs to go cliff jumping. On our hike over to the cliffs I couldn't help but notice this HUGE sign right in front of us...


I knew for sure that I would NOT be jumping since I had injured my knee a couple weeks before. But as you can see by this picture, I gave into peer pressure by a number of friends, as well as my own children. How can you hurt your knee just jumping into the water? I know how. It hurt so bad! But, at least I got a cool picture to prove how brave I was. Make sure you get a closer look on the look of terror on my friend, Brittani's face. Hilarious!


Ginger had no problem jumping and even jumped off the SUPER high cliff without my knowledge! Gillian was very nervous, but eventually did it and was so proud of herself. Davis did hesitate a little bit, but did it several times. Ryan was all prepared to do it, but when it came time to jump, she burst into tears and chickened out. A while later, she pulled herself together and was determined to go, but panicked and broke down again. She had this internal struggle going on! Poor girl. She wanted to so bad, but just couldn't make herself do it. She cried the whole way home. And Ethan...he was definitely thinking about it!


Another Sun Lakes tradition is to have a Lip Sync on Monday night for Family Home Evening. We were late in joining the group and without Don, I was not about to get up there and perform with just my kids. So Shelly and I decided to let our kids be the performers and Brittani had her kids jump in at the last minute. They were the band and singers for "Fabulous" from High School Musical 2. It was fabulous!

We spent four days and three nights just relaxing and boating and swimming and basking in the sunshine. It was a great trip for all of us and a great blessing to me to be surrounded by good friends at a time I needed them. We only wished Don could have been there with us.

Check out Gillian's first try on the knee board! She was the only one of my kids brave enough to try it.

Gilli on the kneeboard