Summertime with The Richeys

As told by Jen...

Feeding the Ducks: The first people I met in his family were Grandma Linebarger, his oldest sister Megan, and her adorable son Cal who were in town visiting from California. We fed the ducks and then his older sister, Meredith, her husband, Scott, and her adorable little boy, Carson joined us. So fun!

Richey Family Reunion: Later in the summer, the time had arrived for the famous Richey family reunion. This is when I first met Ryan’s dad. Ryan and I joined him, Uncle Joe, and more family on a sailing trip on Utah Lake. So fun! Later that evening, I finally met his mom and Rachel. Ry’s parents, Rachel, Scott, Meredith, Carson and I went to Tucano’s for dinner. Yum! It was fun to meet the family! After dinner, we headed up to the Richey Family reunion in Heber.

He has an enormous family! I loved the reunion, and I love his family. They sure know how to have a good time! I remember we went bowling and I accidentally bowled backwards and the ball narrowly missed Ry’s cousin, Adam’s foot. I also came up the next day of the reunion. We had lunch, went to a car show, got shakes, and went out and watched sailboats coming in off the lake. Afterwards, they took an extended family group picture in matching 4th of July t-shirts, and they even bought me one and had me wear it for the photo. Sadly, I had to return home before the talent show, but I had a blast. His family rocks, both immediate and extended! However, I was bummed that I still hadn’t met Hannah or Marky who were not able to make the trip up. 

Sailing at the Richey Reunion! :)

Car show! 

Richey Family Reunion

Family Vacation: The Richeys were kind enough to invite me to join them on their family vacation that summer. Ry and I drove down to St. George with Rachel following behind in her car. We met up with his parents and went to see Aladdin at the Tuacahn theater. We had AWESOME seats, it was fabulous. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel and Rachel and I shared a room. Haha! We didn’t know each other too well back then, so it was kind of awkward at first for both of us, but it ended up being really fun. We talked for a long time that night. I love Rachel!

The next day, Ry and I drove up to pick up Hannah and Marky from EFY at SUU, while Rachel, and his parents went down to Powell to ready the boat. I remember I was nervous to meet them, then again, I was nervous to meet all his family members... however, I had no need to fret, they too, are wonderful people! They were pretty high off of EFY, it was fun to hear their stories, and then they crashed and fell asleep. We drove down to Powell, and went wakeboarding. It was so fun! Later in the afternoon, the boat broke down, it had to be repaired, and unfortunately, we were not able to boat for the rest of the trip. However, we pressed on and had a wonderful vacation!

Angel's Landing

On Sunday, we went to church, and then we drove to the Grand Canyon. I watched “Singing in the Rain” for the first time on our drive up. Of course, it was beautiful! So fun!

On Monday, we drove to Zion’s National Park. It turns out that even though we could not boat, it was a blessing in disguise. The weather turned horrific after we left Powell. The Richeys even had some family friends whose boat capsized! We too experienced some rain that day on our hike up to Angel’s Landing. We were about halfway up the hike, when it began to pour. It was little bit scary, but exhilarating at the same time! It wasn’t until the next day that we hiked up with the chains and all to the top of Angel’s Landing. I highly recommend it, it was an awesome hike!

We chilled at Zion’s for another day or so, and then gave our goodbyes! It was such a fun trip! Thank you again Richeys for letting me join in! :) Little did I know, I would see them soon, this time in their hometown of Redlands, California!

Angel's Landing! Ry's mom hiked it twice in one week! Impressive!

On the top of Angel's Landing

Our second enormous ice creams.... :)

Lake Powell!!! 

Lake Powell

Grand Canyon

On our way to the Grand Canyon

Redlands: Ry had a two week break between summer and fall semester and he planned to go home, and his parents yet again were kind enough to invite me! Redlands is beautiful! I can see why he wanted to go home. We went four-wheeling, drove around town, and ran through his neighborhood where I almost stepped on a 5 foot snake. That was crazy. I ran back to get a camera, and while I was gone it coiled up and tried to bite Ry, and then it slithered into the bushes. No photo. Dang. It was unusually hot in Redlands, so one day we decided to drive out to Newport Beach. LOVE. Ry’s mama came with us. We rented bikes and rode along the beach, took the ferry to Balboa Island, and of course we got the famous Balboa bars. Afterwards, we played around on the beach. Ry lost his shirt on the beach, and earlier on our bike ride his flip flop broke. We hopped back in the car, and headed back to Ry’s house. While we were driving back, we were in the carpool lane when suddenly a big truck on the other side of the freeway smashed into the cement barrier and flipped up over into our lane. Ry swerved the car and we narrowly missed getting hit. It was frightening. All the cars behind us had stopped. Ry jumped out of the car, shirtless and shoeless, and tried to go help. The whole thing was crazy. We felt very blessed and protected that day. (Ry: THAT WAS SO INSANE! Rocks and debris hit our windshield and my side window. I thought we were toast! And of all ways I could die, it had to be shirtless and shoeless....)  We also took another trip out to Big Bear. It’s kind of like Park City in California. We went kayaking, rode the alpine slide, went to a chocolate shop, and went to a creepy doll store. So fun! 

Biking at Balboa! Tandem with Ry's mama!

Taking the ferry over to Balboa Island

Newport Pier

 

Alpine Slide at Big Bear 

Kayaking. So gorgeous!

Creepy doll store.

Some more paroozing at Big Bear. Ry loves his planes. I love my mini coopers. :)

We also got to celebrate Ry’s 22nd birthday! He got some cool shirts (I bought him a pink one), a nice new suit from his fam, and an awesome cake made by his sister Hannah. Hannah should be on Ace of Cakes. She rocks. She can do fondant, chocolate shavings, and everything. I was very impressed! 

On a walk with Sammy! :)

Hannah's Awesome Birthday Cake for Ry

Pretty in Pink :)

We chilled with Marky too. The Richey boys are avid lego builders. I don’t understand how boys are good at that kind of thing. Anyways! It was fun to visit and be with his fam! I wish we could visit more often! What a fun trip! :)