It was so much fun seeing my whole family for the reunion
this year and I am so glad that everyone got to come. Michael and Taylor came in early and got to
spend Independence Day with us and then everyone else arrived the next day,
Sunday. We had a nice big Sunday Dinner
and it was so fun seeing everyone and seeing all the cousin's re-bond. Melanie and Grandma Stones came this year
also!
Monday morning was the Family Service Project, which really
meant the men's service project because they took down, chopped up and hauled
away two dead trees from my parents yard.
At first the idea that it takes hours for all of those strapping men to
take down a tree seems weird but all that went into it was even weirder (or
scary). Here are just two interesting
highlights as they begun; they climbed up a big ladder to get to the top stuff
but it just happened to be raining and very very slippery, so they had Dad do
it. They didn't have enough rope, to
pull the tree in the right direction (so it didn't take out the neighbors
house), so they used a hose. From there
it was smooth sailing-ish; it was a cherry tree and the wood was very
hard. They took turns trying to take it
town and it was hard hard work. They
finally, with a lot of pulling, pushing, muscle and no injuries, got it down.
The rest of the day was low key with a trip to the Rec
center to swim and 'soak the tired muscles.' We didn't go to the Rec Center (nap time) but
Elizabeth did enjoy playing with Page, Gwyn and Nana's new dress-ups. That night we had a great Family Home Evening
about the positive attributes we need to have a strong family chain and then ended the night with delicious dutch
oven desserts from Mat and Andi.
Tuesday was Airsoft Day; everyone older than 10 got to go
airsofting and they loved it. It was a
little intense for some, a little painful for others and exhausting for them
all. While the house was empty we had a
Princess Tea Party with a special visit from Princess Anna from the movie
Frozen. Anna brought the girls flowers,
sang songs with them and answered all of their questions. At first Elizabeth was a little hesitant (she
had just woken up) but she quickly became enamored with the beautiful Princess
visitor. After Anna left the girls had a
Tea Party Lunch with snowflake shaped quesadillas, fruit cabob wands and
sprinkle cookies. They had so much fun
and loved it all. (Wyatt, the only boy
not included in airsofting, begged Grandpa to get him out of the tea party so
they went with Grandma Stones to I-hop for $0.55 pancake stacks.)
That night we all went down to a Rockies Game and they
lost....bad. It was some of the kids
first time at any professional game and they loved it. We had lots of junk food, nosebleed seats and
so much fun!
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| Ha- watch Mat in all the pictures. |
Wednesday the 'Mom's and young kids' went to Erica's house,
while everyone else went on a beautiful hike (and then had a video game
tournament). Erica had a delicious lunch
for us, craft for the kids and lots of new and fun toys/dress-ups for the girls
to experience. They had a lot of fun and
it wiped them out (yay for naps).
We
left from Erica's house and met everyone at CASA BONITA (a Stones Reunion
must).
It was the usual; mediocre food,
cliff divers, sopapillas galore, haunted houses, puppet shows, piñatas and
arcade games- Awesome but standard.
BUT
through the eyes of a child it is Colorado Disney Land; I love watching the
kids faces as they experience it and love it all (and I am a kid at heart
because I love it).
Elizabeth was
nervous around the Gorilla but loved the puppet show.
Thursday morning we all went to the church gym, set up patricians
in an obstacle course and had a three hour long Nerf War.
It was so much fun and funny to watch! Dad
was the referee and would announce the rules of each game, the toddlers
(Elizabeth, Page and Gwyn) were pedestrians and were not allowed to be shot at,
trampled on or used as shields (that rule was made after Ben used Elizabeth as
such), there were balls used as grenades, flags and bases.
We stopped for a quick pizza lunch break and
then the games resumed!! Everyone had a blast and all have agreed that it is
now a Reunion 'must'.
That night we had our talent show full of singing, dancing,
jokes, poems, a violin solo and lots of audience participation. Elizabeth sang, "You are my
Sunshine!", helped Michael with his talent ('I can't feel my face' dance)
and did a lot of princess dancing!! We
then had a Family Birthday Party where we sang 'Happy Birthday' to Everyone,
had cupcakes and did a pinata (with stickers and crayons- Elizabeth loved
it).
Friday morning the Dawson's introduced us to the wonders of
Pancake art and with an artistic family it was a huge hit.
The multicolored pancake pictures were
amazing and everyone enjoyed making and eating them.
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| Andi as a Pancake Face |
In the afternoon we all changed to our
special coral, mint and blue outfits for Family Pictures.
During this picture shoot someone asked,
"I wonder if it is this hard for her (our photographer) so get pictures of
other families or if we are just high energy?" Ha- I would choose the
later.
We had fun taking pictures, goofing
off and allowing the photographer to get in a few shots.
Oh man, I love my family!!
That night we went to the park for pulled pork, crawdad
fishing, playing at the park and water balloon launching.
We found that the launcher threw the balloons
VERY hard and were fortunate enough not to have hit any of the kids with them
but we did have some sore adult men (Ben and Michael).
Sean and Heather got to come up for this and
it was great to see them.
Saturday was July 11 and that means Free Slurpees at 7-11.
The Turner's came down for the day and they
went with everyone to the Longmont Rhythm on the River.
This was a street faire with lots of fun free
activities; mountain biking, rock climbing, shirt tie dying, zipline, balloon
animals, ect. I stayed home and took a nap but Ben went and said it was so much
fun.
That night we had to say goodbye to everyone (Michael and
Melanie left Saturday and Mat's family left Sunday morning); it was so sad to
say goodbye to everyone but we are so glad that we got to spend the week with
everyone. It was so fun to see everyone
and especially fun to see Elizabeth with her cousins.
