Family Reunion: Day 5

Grandma and Grandpa surprised us with donuts for breakfast! Us east coasters were super excited for those Yum Yums maple bars...delicious! We then met up at the children's science museum at the old Castle Air Force Base. It had come highly recommended from my cousin...and it sure was fun!! We stayed longer than any of us had thought we'd last. I think it was Kim that commented that we're all just a bunch of science nerds...kinda true I guess:)





We worked up our appetites and had to head over to In N Out!! So delicious and fun with so many familiar faces (we occupied quite a number of tables in the restaurant!)




Mark made elephant puzzles out of wood for the kids to paint. They were pretty cute...Kim, Jenny, and Becca even wanted to paint one:)



Matt had been working on building a water bottle rocket launcher. He rallied all the kids and set it off a bunch of times. Barrett, Kim, and I had been in charge of dinner that night, so we were able to break free for a little bit to see the fun! After dinner we took family pictures. The reward for the kids was to play in the Bounce House. Which we quickly learned needed to be regulated by age groups. I can't remember what the program for that night was...I think my dad pulled out the projector so the kids could watch Phineas and Ferb on the big screen.

Family Reunion: Day 4

Wednesday was another fun-filled day. My dad checked eyes of some of the family members down at his office, while the rest of us played at the park (I didn't have my camera). Barrett got in trouble for not changing his contacts more often...I try to tell him!! Also, I can't quite remember each days events....but I think this was the day we had pizza for lunch...Little Cesar's, more memories.

It was sometimes difficult to keep track of all the little kids. You could almost find anyone at the hammock!

Spence and Mark were in charge of dinner that night, so they were working all day on their ribs! I thought it was hilarious that they brought their own gloves to rub the rub on the ribs. They sure were amazing!


Spence was in charge of marshmallow guns. Each kid made their own marshmallow gun then got to wrap colored electrical tape around it for decoration. Then, we had wars. It was pretty fun.








Tommy just liked eating the marshmallows...he was the little vacuum and didn't care if they were on the grass or a little mushy!



After awhile, my mom busted out this target for the kids to shoot their marshmallows at...pretty fun!

This night's program was awesome. Barrett had the devotional and did a good job talking about the temple. Then we had a talent show!! Matt organized all the dads and boys to learn and perform the Haka (think BYU football). All the dads were reading the words one direction and all the little kids were looking at Matt to follow the actions in the other direction. It was so cute.

I didn't take many pictures, but did take lots of video! Matt's family sang, Mark played the guitar, Braden "boogied" and did awesome!, Ainsley did ballet to all of us singing her song, Anne did beautiful ballet,Kate did a great ballet solo, Jaxson and Tyler did break dancing, the Vistaunet girls made up a dance to Party in the USA and wore sparkly hats...it was awesome, Damon told a joke, our family sang a Primary song, Afton scrunched up her nose, Jenny played an original song on the piano (it was beautiful...and you can hear her music on my list of blogs),Lorelei was the cutest mimicking everyone and trying to be big, and Spence and Sidney sang Dynamite (our new family favorite dance song!). It was such a fun night!!

Tommy loved staring at Zoey and she loved staring at him at this moment too:)

Family Reunion: Day 2...actually 3

My mom's family has a cabin in Twain Harte...a little over an hour drive. The family reunion relocated for a day! It was good to smell that memorable pine smell of the mountains! The kids explored then we had lunch. Then, my brothers rigged up the pulley/zip line. It was a hit! They said Damon was the first kid to go down and just hopped up there and rode it down like a pro. He even went down one time without hooking his foot in the strap...he did that on purpose!



Some of the kids liked going down with their dads. Tommy loved it, but then Barrett let him go down by himself too! I didn't have my camera then. I think most of the big people went down too...I did it once...my mom went down too!



A little ways up the mountain is Pinecrest Lake. Our family has many memories there too. My brothers and cousins used to cliff jump there, we'd rent motorboats, there's a fun hike all the way around the lake, and Kim (or Jenny...can't remember) almost drowned in the lake when she was little...memories. So, all of us without napping children, went to Pinecrest. We didn't quite have a good plan...but it ended up ok. Some of us started a mini hike around the lake and some rented motorboats. We all caught up to each other and all had turns on the boats. Some even swam and played in the cold water.









We were really grateful for the moms who stayed behind and got dinner ready for us when we arrived...we were all hungry!! The kids played around outside and we had ice cream sandwiches. We had a devotional by Spence then tidied up the cabin and headed home. I think all the kids fell asleep on the way home...at least ours did:)

Family Reunion in California: Day 1

There are 8 kids in my family and we live all over the place: Arizona, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, Delaware, and Idaho. We grew up in California, so that is where we decided to have our first ever family reunion...back at the old homestead. My aunt and uncle let half of us stay at their house while they were on vacation, so we could have more space to visit with each other...plus we all have tons of memories there too! Most everyone showed up Saturday. I have one awesome father-in-law who loves us and let us use his car...which meant we drove from Utah to California (something I have done more times than I can count) on Sunday. It was quite the adventure for us and the boys...we all survived, barely.


We walked in on the tail-end of the evening festivities of the first day of the family reunion. Everyone was soooo excited to see us. The cousins were so excited to see Damon and Tommy...but they were a little shell-shocked...but they warmed up soon enough. We were glad we made it for Caroline's birthday celebration and cake!!

Here's some of the things we did Monday:

A few miles down the road from our house is a lake. We met up there in the morning for a 5K and breakfast. The kiddies loved playing in the water and sand.






The group that went on the 5K...some of us stayed behind with little kiddies...and some ended up stopping at a park to play with kids that wanted to "run." Barrett and Paul were the first ones back...but we barely saw them arrive and weren't prepared to cheer for them! Everyone else got a great welcome, though:)


My brother Matt kept organizing all these fun activities. First, all the dads (except Spence who had knee surgery earlier in the month) had a race. Decked out in goggles, they ran from the picnic tables to the water, jumped in, swam to the rope, then back, and ran back to the tables. It was pretty funny (Paul won). Then, the kids wanted to try it...those of them that can swim. It wasn't quite the same.
Later on, Matt organized a relay for the kids. 2 teams, 2 buckets, and 2 cups. They had to run to the water, fill up the cup, and run back to dump it in the bucket. They were all really cute and had fun.




Jaxson could always get Zoey to smile...such cute cousins!

My cute sister Jenny and her little miracle baby who is so sweet. We sure missed Jeff...the only one who couldn't make it to the reunion (he had just been offered a job, so had to stay behind and work...we're grateful he has a job though!).


We went back to my parents' house to get lunch and relax. The kids loved picking plums and peaches off the trees in the orchard and swinging on the hammock. They loved being together!

After lunch, we all ventured over to the side lawn to launch water balloons. The kids loved it! We also had 3-legged races, ate Red Vines (I've lost my touch at making those into whistles...all those years of practice, gone!), and Otter Pops. I'm pretty sure we all hopped into the pool too!






Each night after dinner, we had a program in the backyard. One of the dads was in charge of a devotional and then different events followed each night...with treats too. Monday night, we talked about our names and family names. We sang some fun girls camp type songs (I was a little bummed that we didn't do Alice the Camel). Evelyn taught us this fun song called Wiggilo. That was the best...we sang it all week...and everyone still sings it at home:) My talented sister, Jenny, wrote a family song too...so we learned it that night and loved it! We all sing it at home now too:) It was Dave's birthday, so we celebrated and had treats!
Such fun memories...