Steve Harvey gives Utah family of 12 trip of a lifetime

(Genie LaVine/NBC)


3 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

EAGLE MOUNTAIN — As Aaron and Catey Ball and their 10 children stood in the streets of Manhattan, all eyes were on the Jumbotron. On the screen was the face of comedian, Steve Harvey, and he had a message for them: “Hey, Ball Family! Your next stop is Orlando, Florida!”

Cheers immediately ensued, and the next morning the family would board a flight to Florida for their next adventure.

This past summer, Catey, of Eagle Mountain, was contacted by a producer of “The Steve Harvey Show,” who had come across the family blog. In the email, the mother of 10 was asked if her family would be interested in doing a segment that they called "Family Bucket List” that was created to help families cross activities off their bucket list.

“A few weeks after that interview, the producer told us that they were going a different direction for the particular show they were looking to fill, but were interested in setting up a huge bucket list activity for our huge family,” Catey said. Huge doesn't even begin to describe it!”

On the morning of the trip, the family was packed and ready for their 12-day trip but had no idea where they were going.

“The only thing we knew ahead of time was the date and time to be packed and ready to go, as well as our return date,” Catey said. “We had no idea what we were doing or where we were going. We found out each piece of our trip one day at a time, via pretaped messages from Mr. Harvey. It was like a cross-country scavenger hunt.”

Their first day was spent at the Olympic Park in Park City, doing the zipline and ropes course. After that, the family was handed an iPad with a message saying that they were heading to New York City. After spending time there visiting Times Square, the family boarded another plane to Florida, where they were taken to Clearwater Beach. The family spent the next week at Universal Orlando, staying at one of the resorts and playing at the parks (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure).

The Aaron Ball family joins Steve Harvey on the set at Universal Orlando Resort. (Photo: Genie LaVine, NBC)
The Aaron Ball family joins Steve Harvey on the set at Universal Orlando Resort. (Photo: Genie LaVine, NBC)

The trip was then ended by allowing Aaron and Catey a day at the spa while Steve Harvey baby-sat all 10 kids, ranging in ages from 16 to 5 months.

“It was a huge blessing to have this time together as a family,” Catey said. “It was not just because of the perks that came with the VIP treatment along the way, but because getting our entire family across the country would just not ever happen. There are so many sacrifices you make when you are raising a large family, one of them obviously being that the budget is always tight.

"You cut corners wherever and whenever you can to cover expenses and make ends meet. We don't do things like go out to dinner as a family, or go to movies, or things like that very often because the cost is just nuts with this many people. There are sacrifices that we knew would come with having a large family, and we wouldn't change that at all. It's worth it to us to have given up a lot of extras and luxuries in exchange for the blessing of these wonderful kids of ours.”

Catey went on to say that the biggest blessing was being able to have Aaron with them for the entire trip. With a job that takes him out of state nearly every week, the family has missed time seeing their dad.

“Having him gone every week and only getting to see him for a couple of days on the weekend has been very challenging for all of us,” Catey said. “To step away from reality and have almost two full weeks to be together as a whole family with him there was so very wonderful! We made some incredible memories together during this experience and are beyond grateful to have been allowed this opportunity. It really was heaven-sent for our family!

The episode featuring the Ball family will air on Nov. 21, but for viewers in Utah, the show will air on Nov. 24 at 8 on KJZZ. To find where and when it will play in your area, go to, steveharveytv.com.


![](http://media.bonnint.net/slc/2505/250517/25051768\.jpg)
About the Author: Arianne Brown -------------------------------

Arianne is a mother to six young children. Her down time is spent running the mountain trails of the Wasatch Mountains and beyond. Contact her at ariannebrown1@gmail.com, follow her on Twitter @arimom6 or search her Facebook page, "A Mother's Write."

Photos

Related links

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahEntertainmentFamily

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast