After a summer of being far apart, we all gathered together over Labor Day weekend for a family reunion. Everett came home from Armenia, David and Stephanie drove from Louisiana, Lincoln and MiCayla came back from Houston, and Garrett and AnnaSue came home from spending the summer in Latvia. We were definitely far-flung this summer!
We drove up to the rental house in Bountiful up in the foothills on Friday afternoon. All the married couples got their own bedroom and there were enough other beds for everyone else too. Each couple was in charge of a meal and I put my teenagers in charge of Saturday morning breakfast.
On Friday evening, we played some fun games--Werewolf, 4 to a Couch and maybe something else I can't remember. We started an Assassin game with water guns. The hot tub was quite popular.
Saturday morning we went on a hike not too far away. When the younger children got tired of hiking, I stayed with them at a little creek where they loved playing in the water. My favorite quote of the reunion was when Katie found a wasp that was dying. She and Camille started making a little gravesite for the wasp and buried it with a few sticks. We said, "Rest in Peace, Wasp." A little while later, Katie discovered that the wasp was actually still alive and was trying to escape. So she started hitting it with a stick and yelling, "Rest in peace, wasp!"
After lunch, we did some water games. I had borrowed a big Slip 'n Slide which we put on a hill in the backyard; we also did some water balloons and more hot tubbing. Then during nap time, most of the adults were able to go to the Salt Lake Temple to do an endowment session with family names. I was very pleased to get all those names done. AnnaSue and Susanna were the babysitters so that Stephanie was able to go.
After dinner, we played 9-Square which is a fun outside game that I borrowed from my SIL who made it with PVC pipe. We also played some inside games and did more hot-tubbing.
On Sunday morning, we attended Music and The Spoken Word in the Conference Center. David and Stephanie didn't go but went to church with her parents who had driven down from Canada. We wandered around Temple Square and then went to a Sacrament Meeting in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The ward that meets there gets lots of visitors and made it very clear that only ward members were invited to bear their testimonies. Which I can understand. There were 4 members of the Seventy sitting on the stand.
That afternoon we went to Stephanie's aunt's house to do Max's baby blessing.
Later we did a short testimony meeting and then had dinner. After dinner, we divided up into groups of 4 and took about 15-20 minutes to put together a skit. Everyone did something different. One group did a complicated yoga thing; another did a video of the joke, "My name's not Bob!" Scott's group did a skit with Camille as a psychic smelling people's shoes. My group was me, Garrett and Lincoln. We googled for ideas and came up with a short skit and then doing it in several different styles: Texan, epic, and Chinese. Garrett and Lincoln were hilarious.
After that we did pictures out in the backyard and then had a campfire with s-mores and more 9-square. And a little more hot-tubbing.
Monday morning we packed up, took a few more pictures with our reunion t-shirts and then drove to Orem and had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. It was a fun reunion!
This next picture is oh-so-typical of the challenges of taking pictures with small children. I love it.
The reunion house was a little eclectic in its decor so we decided to memorialize it with a picture mocking the picture in the front room.
We drove up to the rental house in Bountiful up in the foothills on Friday afternoon. All the married couples got their own bedroom and there were enough other beds for everyone else too. Each couple was in charge of a meal and I put my teenagers in charge of Saturday morning breakfast.
On Friday evening, we played some fun games--Werewolf, 4 to a Couch and maybe something else I can't remember. We started an Assassin game with water guns. The hot tub was quite popular.
Saturday morning we went on a hike not too far away. When the younger children got tired of hiking, I stayed with them at a little creek where they loved playing in the water. My favorite quote of the reunion was when Katie found a wasp that was dying. She and Camille started making a little gravesite for the wasp and buried it with a few sticks. We said, "Rest in Peace, Wasp." A little while later, Katie discovered that the wasp was actually still alive and was trying to escape. So she started hitting it with a stick and yelling, "Rest in peace, wasp!"
After lunch, we did some water games. I had borrowed a big Slip 'n Slide which we put on a hill in the backyard; we also did some water balloons and more hot tubbing. Then during nap time, most of the adults were able to go to the Salt Lake Temple to do an endowment session with family names. I was very pleased to get all those names done. AnnaSue and Susanna were the babysitters so that Stephanie was able to go.
After dinner, we played 9-Square which is a fun outside game that I borrowed from my SIL who made it with PVC pipe. We also played some inside games and did more hot-tubbing.
On Sunday morning, we attended Music and The Spoken Word in the Conference Center. David and Stephanie didn't go but went to church with her parents who had driven down from Canada. We wandered around Temple Square and then went to a Sacrament Meeting in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The ward that meets there gets lots of visitors and made it very clear that only ward members were invited to bear their testimonies. Which I can understand. There were 4 members of the Seventy sitting on the stand.
That afternoon we went to Stephanie's aunt's house to do Max's baby blessing.
Later we did a short testimony meeting and then had dinner. After dinner, we divided up into groups of 4 and took about 15-20 minutes to put together a skit. Everyone did something different. One group did a complicated yoga thing; another did a video of the joke, "My name's not Bob!" Scott's group did a skit with Camille as a psychic smelling people's shoes. My group was me, Garrett and Lincoln. We googled for ideas and came up with a short skit and then doing it in several different styles: Texan, epic, and Chinese. Garrett and Lincoln were hilarious.
After that we did pictures out in the backyard and then had a campfire with s-mores and more 9-square. And a little more hot-tubbing.
Monday morning we packed up, took a few more pictures with our reunion t-shirts and then drove to Orem and had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. It was a fun reunion!
The reunion house was a little eclectic in its decor so we decided to memorialize it with a picture mocking the picture in the front room.
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