Family Reunion

Ok, so it isn't that good of an idea for the Blankenagel family to get together. We all went to La Sal for a week for a reunion and vacation. The first day we laid a new sidewalk/front patio with Mom, Dad, Uncles John and Bill. The next day I got to mow the lawn with the tractor. Mom is just cleaning up my messes with the girls. After the lawn was done Mom let the girls drive the tractor. They had the biggest smiles in the world!!
We spent much of the rest of the week shooting prairy dogs, Jeeping, and four wheeling. Nathan had a great time just going out with the 22 and went through a box and a half of bullets in the week. He was happy.
On Wed we started having everyone else arrive. We had fun going up on the mountain to see the scenery for the next few days. I will say again that it isn't safe for all of us to get together, especially in the 7th year.
So on Thursday we went up to Cash and Copper to take pictures for Brittney's announcements. Dad and Jeff went to go follow the road a ways on the 4-wheelers to see where it went. On the way back Dad was trying something he shouldn't have been doing. The 4-wheeler rolled over him breaking his wrist, bruising some ribs and most of his back. For the rest of the week he needed help getting up and down from his chair and bed.This was our eating arrangements and Uncle John helped the kids put up this cute little tent to play in.
On Friday we went to go meet the rest of the family that had decided to camp out on the mountain to go play with them. Most of them were gone so we decided to go for a drive ourselves. We didn't realize how long of a drive we were going on and how bumpy the road was. We went up to a lake and found a new way back that wasn't going to kill the kids in the back of the truck. Kristl was driving the jeep in front of Kenzie driving her truck. We were going down the mountain road a little fast, and coming to a blind corner, and all of a sudden another vehicle was there. Both Kristl and the other vehicle slammed on the brakes and moved to their side of the road. All would have been fine but the other vehicle had a trailer that started jackknifing towards Kristl so she moved even further over. The problem was that there wasn't any more road or shoulder to move over onto, so she drove up the side of the hill rolling the jeep. It did a 3/4 rotation ending on the passenger side.Nathan, Kenzie and I Jumped out of the truck at the same time yelling at the kids to not get out of the truck and ran to help. By the time we got there Sheena and Ben (passengers in the back of the jeep) were running away from it so we weren't worried about them. We started yelling for Kristl and John to answer us, and once they did we knew that everyone was alive. None of them were wearing seat belts, so that added to our worries. We made it over there and John was yelling that he had broken his arm. After getting the top off the jeep they were finally able to climb out. We tipped the jeep back up and got it out of the road so that the other 4 vehicles that were waiting behind it could go by, and got John braced together with a camera bag. The jeep made it off the mountain and didn't move the rest of the weekend.
They ran to Monticello and once there the Doctors decided they needed a little more help with this so they life flighted him to Grand Junction to go through surgery. He spent the next few days in the hospital watching the injury.
We spent saturday a little calmly. After a while of just the playing around the ranch thing we went swimming at the reservoir. Avi and Dailynn got to show off they swimming skills, and we all got to cool off. While there we got called by our cousins that had left that morning saying they were stranded on a jeep trail in Moab. They needed help getting the truck fixed. All the lug nuts on one wheel had broken so they need to get a ride back to the truck to fix it. Oh what fun. Luckily no one got hurt on that one.
On Sunday we left after church and dinner and headed to Ephraim. We stopped at Nathan's sister Sharalee's house and played with them for a few hours and then came home. It was so nice to be in our own beds!!!!
All in all we did survive and it could have been a lot worse. I know that prayers are answered and that there were quite a few angels floating a little closer to our family that week!!!