We had a family reunion scheduled for August 15-16th, but circumstances changed so we were able to make it into a little vacation, ending with the reunion. We had Young Women's on Tuesday night and didn't want to miss that as the girls got to try on modest grad/prom/wedding dresses.
Lots of fun - these were the favourites at the end. Jordyn, Carlee and Jenna are standing together in the teal, pink and teal dresses. Jenna has really grown this summer and now appears to be the tallest sister, even passing me! Carlee is very close too though.
So we left early Wednesday morning, timing our trip out of town with Carlee's ortho appointment at 9:10am, which took exactly 9 minutes! We met up with Rich's sister Kaylene, who had just moved back from overseas, and were able to haul a trailer full of her furniture into her new home. We unpacked very quickly because the mosquitos there were horrid. And you couldn't smack them away when you were hauling furniture in! From there we headed off to my sisters home and arrived around 7:30pm. We spent two nights with them and the cousins had a ball together.
The second evening we went to their favourite lake.
Youngest cousins are here in the van ready to go - singing along to Frozen and sounding great! Older kids went out earlier with Rich. We got out there and had a delicious picnic supper consisting of baked potatoes, caesar salad, garlic bread, KFC chicken, and chocolate cake!
Then it was beach time!
It was a beautiful beach with the playground right on it, and tires, and volleyball net, and horseshoes, picnic tables and tons of room for sandcastle building and sunbathing.
Jenna and Daddy on the dock.
Dad doing a handstand into the water.
Cousins Olivia, Carlee and Jordyn.
Marina and Katia sitting, the oldest three standing, and Jenna and Savannah in the water.
We had lots of fun with them and Rich was able to help them out by putting some casings around the door in the wall that he built the last time we visited. We left Friday morning and stopped in to visit my other sister, Denyse, who was overdue with her sixth baby. We were hoping she had it while we were other places, so we could see it on our way out of town. She was actually in the beginning stages of labour while we were visiting, but we missed the baby's arrival by about 10 hours. Baby Landen Joseph arrived at 1:15am Saturday morning. But we had a nice visit with their family and enjoyed some delicious ice-cream with them.
We continued on our journey to the family reunion site and met up with Richelle and Addison (Logan had to work) at our hotel. Unpacked, bought our supper supplies and headed off to meet everyone else for supper. We cooked our various suppers and shared pot luck items and visited with everyone as people arrived. Brad was in charge of this reunion and did a great job of of keeping us entertained. He made a frisbee golf course the the kids particularly enjoyed and we had bocce balls and a bean bag toss game that I skunked Rich at! lol The worst part of the evening was gramma locking both sets of keys in their car. An AMA guy came and worked for a long time and couldn't get in, so another guy came and eventually got into the car, but cracked the passenger window in the process.
We enjoyed time around the bonfire visiting. As the evening got later, people left to their various accommodations. Rich camped at the site with his two little girls, Katia and Mackie, and they had a grand time together in the tent. The rest of the girls and I stayed down the road in a hotel. When we got back, the pool was closing in 8 minutes, but that didn't stop some of them from going in for an evening dip.
Jenna, Chelle, and Carlee with Addison.
Addison loved the water!
We all slept great! I got to share a bed with Chelle and Addison and I don't think they moved all night. We went back for breakfast consisting of pancakes, scrambled eggs and tons of sausages. Our meals on Saturday were all at the Seniors Center which was a block away from the beach. After breakfast, we all went back to the campsite for more games.
Kevin had a golf ball and invented a game that kept us entertained for a long time! He threw the ball in the fire pit. The fire pit was shaped like a giant metal bowl, so the golf ball would hit the side and bounce back out, right at the people sitting around it. Often you couldn't tell which way the ball would be headed, so you really had to watch the ball. It's in the right side of the fire pit, a neon green little circle. I think it's boucing towards Jenna because she looks like she's getting ready to screach and catch it. It was a ton of fun to play while visiting in the circle. Later, Carol added a twist: whoever had the ball had to say a movie quote that everyone had to guess. Lots of fun and laughs.
Between the fire pit ball game, Brad organized other games. He warned us the night before that we'd be getting wet so some of us are in rain coats. It was also spitting a little bit from the sky.
The little girls are trying to squirt ping-pong balls off a paper plate with their water guns. But before long, they had more fun squirting people.
Mackie attacking Auntie Kaylene!
For this game, you had to toss a ping-pong ball into the other persons cup. If you got it in, they had to dump the cup of water on their head.
Carlee doing the water dump!
Carol playing with Jenee.
Carol doing the water dump!
Rich and I played together. I must admit to kinda cheating when I had to dump the water on me - I just held my hair out to the side and poured it on that hair. Brilliant I thought!
We played a frisbee toss game - stepping back after each toss.
Jenna was my partner and we did pretty good.
We also did the same game with tons of water balloons after the frisbee toss. After the games, you can imagine that with all the water guns and water around, some little water battles errupted! And this continued to occur as we played our favourite golf ball fire pit game some more! We had lots of laughs and fun together.
It was very nice that all of Richards seven siblings were able to attend. It would have been even more fun though if more of their kids had been able to attend - cousin bonding time! Chelle enjoyed showing off her baby Addison though to distant family members.
Then it was lunchtime, so back to the Seniors Center for subs. After lunch we all had free time to play on the beach, water slides, nap, explore, shop or anything we wanted. Rich and Carlee long-boarded around. Mackie got her face and arm painted with pink butterflies.
It was the prettiest face painting I'd ever seen.
A bunch of us ended up on the beach together. Girls enjoyed hitting the volleyball around.
That little kid didn't want to leave their circle! Rich played with them for awhile too. I tried, but after about five hits, my arms were dead - it was a new ball and sooo hard! Chelle was all bruised afterwards.
Kevin, Rich, Mackie and the twins buried Katia.
She had a head and two odd shaped feet.
I got to look after Addison and put her to sleep.
The sand castle project - about half done.
It was mostly these girls and Kevin working on this creation. You can see Kevin in the background filling his bucket up in the lake.
People checking it out. Looked pretty good when it was done with a connecting moat and drawbridge and flags.
After the beach, we went back to the Seniors Center for our spaghetti dinner. We enjoyed some board games and puzzles while the supper crew worked hard making our food. After supper we had a little meeting and decided that the third Saturday of every August was going to be our family reunion time - so book the time off work now! Kaylene will be in charge next year.
We said our goodbyes and went back to our hotel room. We all went swimming in the pool with the waterslide together and had lots of fun, except for a few minor mishaps. A train on the slide went wrong and Katia, who was in front, got landed on by big sisters and had a sore shoulder. And Carlee's turned into a cannibal when her mouth and braces connected with Jordyn's scalp and took a bite out of it. Good times though, but Addison didn't enjoy the water as much the second time.
We got on the road on Sunday morning and arrived at our pre-determined church location, but not at the right time. We attended half of Sacrament meeting and Sunday School in one ward, and then the first half of Sacrament meeting in another ward. We actually knew quite a lot of people as these wards were part of our old stake and many of our old YSA friends lived there. We got home in the evening and said our goodbyes to Chelle and Addison. Our new lawn looked luscious and green thanks to the rain while we were away. Carlee collected her fish from her friend and Benny the cockatiel was still alive and happy to see us.
It's wonderful to get away and have fun, but it's also wonderful to come back home.
Love Summer!!!
