In August my Dad wrote a letter to each child and asked that we all have a family gathering as soon as we could all get together. I think my parents wanted to make sure that we could have the family gathering before something happens and one of them is not here anymore.
We planned out a date in October that worked for everyone (even for Matt and Julie to be able to travel from Indiana). My parents had been planning to just do a dinner at their house. However, Shantel and I really felt like it would be special if we could do an Airbnb so that everyone could come together, stay the night together and do something different. We found an awesome place near Park City that had enough rooms, had a fun kids area and basketball hoop, a hot tub and a huge movie theater.
We got there around 5 pm on Friday and all took a tour and it was so fun. We did Pizza for dinner and then we just hung out together. This included games and getting in the hot tub. It was really nice for my parents to have us all together. (Bruce drove from Colorado and was there all night, Matt and Julie flew in from Indiana, so they got there very late that night.) The whole family was able to come the whole time except Michael and Jeff. Jeff came for just a couple hours on Saturday.
The kids playing with Shantel in the hot tub. 
Lucy and my mom.
Austin chose to watch a movie and was so happy to have this giant theater all to himself.
On Saturday we played games together, went on a hike, watched the BYU football game, and then did family pictures. We have not had family pictures for a long time, and even though we were missing a few people, it was really good for my mom to get new pictures with as many as she could have. My mom was leaning towards not doing it, but Shantel talked to our friend about doing it and we decided to pay for it. I think it turned out really nice. After pictures we did dinner and then did the official family gathering.
Kids playing air hockey.
Us out on a hike.
Eating dinner. After dinner we all got together and we watched a video that Shantel made with a slideshow of pictures from my parents life with all the kids and grandkids. Then my Dad shared a few thoughts and Wendy brought some questions and each grandkid asked my parents a question. They spent about 40 minutes answering questions and telling stories from their lives. It was really nice to be together and hear those stories.
The next morning was mostly just clean up and a last trip to the hot tub.
Here are the family pictures.
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