Father's Day Flee

Pictured Above: Jenna, the house we stayed in, Jenna and Taylor and Peyton painting, Reed Jenson and Skyler, Brandon with his birthday cheesecake (his birthday was on Sunday), Melvin the Moose -- a screenshot of Josh's video, the kids playing "Granny's Gonna Get Ya," Jenna on a walk with me, Jenna decorating her hand with markers, and the girls playing Rummikub. Pictured below: Hot-tubbing with the family! 

Father's Day Flee was pretty chill this year! The theme was "Seeking the Lord" from Doctrine and Covenants 88:83 "He that seeketh me early shall find me, and shall not be forsaken." We missed Jase and Ellen who were home spending as much time as possible with their new baby Evan in NICU. Rick rented a house up in Mountain Green (in Morgan). It was an older home, but it was roomy with big windows overlooking beautiful mountain views! Our only complaint was that the AC didn't work very well and so it got really hot during the day. Part of this is probably because this is an unusually hot summer. We didn't go on any excursions (besides some little walks and hikes), but stayed at the house the whole time and hung out and played lots of games! 

We started off with the opening ceremony with our traditional Father's Day Flee Dance. Rick and Grandpa Westra were the only "Dads" there during this part and so they are the ones who did the chest bump! I will add the video later. We didn't invite the Healeys this year because there wasn't enough beds for two full families, but we did invite Grandma and Grandpa Westra and also Grandma Jensen and it was fun to have them along! Rick invited Brandon's parents to come up for the day on Saturday and it just so happened that they were babysitting Peyton, Taylor, and Skylar that day and so that worked out perfectly to add some spice to the mix! Several of the guests left Saturday afternoon and so we ended up having Curtis and Morgan come up for the evening. Steph and the other kids were out of town. It was good to visit with Curtis and Morgan and the girls decorated onesies (a pre-baby shower activity).

We had great lessons taught by Rick, Janika and Brandon, Reed Jenson, Grandpa Westra, and Janelle and Jared. They all did a great job and we were well taught! We also had fantastic food! Rick always goes all out on the food for Father's Day Flee and this year was no exception! Some of the menu items included: A baked potato bar and salad, Cafe Rio style sweet pork, spare ribs, breakfast burritos, pancakes, sandwiches with tons of toppings, ice cream, and plenty of goodies! Great job Rick and Jaiden for putting together the menu and for buying all of the food! 

We also played fun games! Jenna was the "game master." The first night we played "Capture the Flag," which went along with Rick's lesson. Another game we played was "hidden pictures," which went along with the lesson and theme of "seeking." Everyone was given a canvas to paint and we had to hide certain objects in our paintings. The list included a comb, flag, sunglasses, shovel, turkey feather, scriptures, bell, water-gun, spatula, eagle, and Melvin the Moose! Can you see these objects in these paintings? Jared tried to cheat by putting all of the hidden objects on the back of his canvas! Look how awesome Janelle's painting looks! It was the most professional by far. I guess that CE Art 1010 class she took last semester paid off! She and Rick did the best job of hiding the items in their paintings while keeping a natural looking picture. Some of the rest of us struggled, ha ha!  

Josh had an accidental run in with Melvin the Moose the first day and happened to get it on video! Grandpa Westra saw him every morning since he gets up so early. The girls even got up early one morning looking for him but couldn't find him! 

Brandon's Dad did a lesson about seeking the Lord by comparing the search to an investigation of a mission person. It was an interesting perspective! Then we played a game called "Granny's Gonna Get Ya!" It was similar to "Red Light, Green Light." The kids were trying to sneak up on Grandma to get the candy that was placed around her. She would turn around and if she caught the kids moving then they had to return to the beginning! They played several round of this game! All in all it was a nice, relaxing few days with family and we were well fed both spiritually and physically!