Family Reunion Time!

 We had a fun time at the beginning of August having a family reunion up at Bear Lake! We've gone up there the last 3 years and it looks like we'll be going again next summer. The weather was a little cooler this year but it worked out pretty well. We had to change our dates and venue at the last minute so we could make it to our nephew's wedding. I'm grateful it worked out. We had all our children and grandchildren there except our son's family who just moved far away across the ocean. There were 22 of us.

After a yummy dinner of tortellini and French bread, we started Monday evening with icebreaker games planned by Lincoln and MiCayla:  telephone charades, murder with a wink (like tag with winking), and another game played in a circle with everyone's eyes closed. My knee was hurting a lot so I didn't participate much but enjoyed watching and holding grandchildren.

The next day we had delicious pancakes with lots of different syrups and then we headed out to the beach. We took the "lily pad" that came with the house--a big floating rectangle that lots of people could get on. We also brought several kayaks, a shade, and fortifying sack lunches. We rented a jet ski for four hours which was quite popular. The weather cooperated and a few people got some sunburns. Talmage's was particularly impressive. 

Dinner that night was fish tacos which were quite good with a killer sauce and the best black beans. Then we had our family trivia game. The questions (made by me) were a little challenging but everyone nailed the category of finishing the movie quotes:

"Imagine the most horrible thing you can think of..." (and multiply it by 6!)

"Waahoo! I'm the first one on the new road!" (It rides purty smooth.)

"I've got my wedding to arrange..." (my wife to murder, and Gilder to frame for it. I'm swamped!)

We also celebrated Cole's first birthday!

Wednesday morning was delicious breakfast casserole. Afterwards we took a family picture in our T-shirts.

This was the grandchildren with Oma and Opa plus Lincoln because Addy didn't want to be anywhere else but in her father's arms.

Then we had our Undokai courtesy of Everett who is carrying on the tradition Michelle started about 20 years ago in the Hansen family. He did a good job and, of course, my team won. :)

Yellow team looking very friendly and not quite as ruthless:

Red team: (much more ruthless)

Somewhere in between those two extremes was the blue team:

I have a few videos from the Undokai:

Afterwards we played 9-square, courtesy of Bruce and Michelle's set.

For lunch we had a yummy taco salad. That afternoon, Mindy led a craft, also courtesy of Michelle who gave us the idea and some of the pieces. It was spinners with a marble under a CD and colored paper on top.

We also did a treasure hunt. David and Stephanie sponsored an escape room.

For dinner we had hamburgers and hot dogs and watermelon plus oven-baked s'mores--it was raining outside so we couldn't build a fire, sadly.

That night we visited the hot tub and played card games. 

The next morning we packed up and drove away. Scott and I went straight to Clyn's wedding at the Oquirrh Mountain temple. It rained the entire first hour as we drove through the spectacular Logan Canyon.

Favorites:

Giant lilypad:  Jay, Felix, Katie

Pickle ball:  Sallie

Beach:  Jan, Susanna, Talmage, Lincoln

Minecraft:  Camille

Undokai:  MiCayla, Katie

Games in the evening without kids:  David, Stephanie

Kayaking:  Stephanie

Family Trivia:  Everett

Jet ski:  Caroline

Craft:  Mindy, Addy

Park:  Max

I think Scott and I liked all of it!

And here is our time-capsule video:

It was a great reunion and we plan to get together again in two years!