Beckham's first month of life was busy with lots of family time, including the Beal family reunion. Mom and Dad celebrated 50 years of marriage in February. We booked a vacation rental home in the winter of 2020 to commemorate the event with as many Beals as could make it. Of the 52 family members (32 of those are grandkids), we had 49 present! Plus Brynn and Linsey's husbands, so 51 total! Amazing.
Sunday June 20th we loaded the kids and headed to Ashton, Idaho. We stopped by Tabitha's on the way for her to check up on Beckham. We got to the rental house right around check-in time and marveled at our living space for the next three days: 8,000 square feet on a private pond with a theater/game room was sure to make for an awesome stay. Once everyone arrived, we revealed our gift to Mom and Dad that everyone pitched in on: new bikes! They are quite fancy, complete with a basket for Mom's flower delivering/asparagus picking. After dinner, Mom prepared a family history game where each kid acted out a certain ancestor and everyone tried to guess who they were by looking at Mom and Dad's four-generations posters. Most people stayed up late chatting/laughing it up. Me and my nine-day-old baby went to bed.
Monday we took a family picture in the morning then soaked up the pond. The grandkids especially loved taking the kayaks to explore. Chase took my kids along with a few others to watch him fish on the little skiff. I took Emmett and Logan out on a kayak to explore as well. Emmett had us pretend we were octonauts. Justin planned a massive treasure hunt which he was able to pull off splitting everyone up into three teams. We planned a flash mob to surprise Mom and Dad with, so after the blessing on the food for dinner we hit the music and everyone started dancing. Mom LOVED it. We hit Mesa Falls after dinner since it was a short 15-minute drive from the house. I got eaten alive by mosquitos!
Tuesday some family groups went to Yellowstone while the rest of us hung out at the house. Mid-morning we joined the group that decided to go to Big Springs which was 45 minutes away. Gramps brought left over pancakes which we fed to the massive trout that hang out under the bridge there. We also saw a mother moose with her baby. Of the many times I've been to big springs, you can count on seeing a moose there about 50% of the time. That was fun for the kids to see! After lunch I took my kids and Keaton's girl Violet out on the skiff to explore. Emmett hit it off big time with Violet: he wanted to hold her hand and play with her every second he had! That night was the Playmill Theater. I hired a BYU-I student and her roommate to babysit my kids and Keaton's while we all headed to West Yellowstone. We had time to grab ice cream before the show. Beckham was an absolute dream the entire trip, and he was equally amazing during the show. It was blazing hot inside, and the show was Newsies which had some rowdy, loud numbers, but he stayed zonked out the entire time. The show was SO good - I absolutely loved it! When we got home I willed myself to stay up and enjoy the late-night talk since this would be the last time we'd all be gathered like this for a while.
Wednesday morning was check out and goodbyes. It was a great four days, and I am so grateful I had Beckham when I did so we could enjoy it without missing too much. He hardly made a sound being so newborn and sleepy, and many aunts got to enjoy his snuggles.
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