Reunion #2 & #3

On the Monday after the 4th of July, we headed out for another adventure.  We drove up to the mountains for the Allen reunion first.

I did a pretty terrible job taking pictures yet again but I do have a few from a trip to Lake Tahoe one day.  It was pretty overcast and even rained a little bit, but we still had fun.  

Hunting for crawdads:

Collecting a few:

Lizzy went way out to this rock:

Chris rented a boat and we took turns going out.  I was first up in our family and decided to try skiing again.  It had probably been 7-8 years but I managed to get up for a little bit.

Then I biffed it hard. :)  All I really wanted was to see if I could do it, though, so I was happy.

Elizabeth was up next.  She wanted to try water-skiing and even got up for a second before deciding she was done.  Then she rode on the tube.  I don't have any pictures of her, just video.

Then, Natalie took a turn on the tube:

Finally, Joe tried wake-boarding  and did great.  It took a few tries to get the hang of it but then he got it easily.  He was pretty sore for days after, though.

Unfortunately we only had a short stay at the Allen reunion before we had to head out to the next reunion.  It was too short but so fun to see everyone.  Some of the highlights for me were:
-The FHE that Brayden and Ethan prepared on the whole armor of God, along with the Allen family trivia game.  I loved that.
-A big game of soccer with adults and kids.  We had a blast and only had minor injuries, thankfully. :)
-Lots of time at the pool.  Nate loved the shallow area and really improved on his swimming.  Eli loved playing in the water, too.  The girls both went down the water slide over and over with their cousins.
-Meal times with everyone together enjoying some great food and conversations.
-Playing tennis with Chris, Emily, Abby, Matt, and Joe.  I'm glad we managed to fit that in.

Then we hit the road back to Idaho, this time to the Atkinder.  It was so nice seeing Joe's cousins, his Grandma, and other family we hadn't seen in awhile.  We had a lot of fun there.

We all took a day trip out to a lake one day.  They had some cliffs you could jump from there and the girls really wanted to try it out.  I jumped off first and thought it was quite terrifying but I was glad I did it.  Then Elizabeth worked up the courage to jump:

 Right after she jumped, Natalie said, "Well now I have to do it." 

And she did! No pictures of her, for some reason.

Here's Joe jumping:

After some initial nervousness, there was no stopping the kids and they jumped probably 10 times.  Twice was good enough for me. :)

Joe went over to a hidden lake and jumped off a really high one--we figured it was about 45-50 ft!  I'm glad I didn't have to watch.  We only have video of that one.

Some of the highlights from the Atkinder were:

-Another great dialogue were we talked about fear.

-A really fun game of water kickball with a slip 'n slide.

-The variety show: our girls showed off some of their vast Harry Potter knowledge for their act, I juggled a soccer ball and Joe wowed everyone with some interpretive dancing.  :)

We were pretty exhausted by the end of it, though, as evidenced by this awesome picture Regina took on our last night there:

We love family reunion trips!

Summer Break

We started off our summer right with some frozen yogurt after school on the last day:

Elijah especially loved that. :)

We also had a great first park day gathering.  One of my friends froze a bunch of toys and things in blocks of ice and the kids had a blast squirting warm water to get them out.  I really couldn't believe how long it kept about 20 kids, ages 1-12, interested and involved.  I'll have to try to copy it sometime.

This guys loves the park:

I can't get enough of that face.

Here's a moment when I caught these boys all absorbed in watching BYU football highlights:

Nate keeps asking when football season starts.  

Needless to say that does Joe's heart good. :)

Here's the caption I added to this picture on Instagram:

Sometimes, during summer vacation, you get a sudden urge to take a picture of a moment when your kids are playing nicely so you can remember that those times do exist. #sisters

What says summer better than drinking a smoothie with no clothes on?

Reunion #1

 We hit the road in June for the long drive out to Eastern Idaho for a family reunion with Marsha and Joe's side.  We left around 2pm when Joe finished up his work and didn't get there until 6am.   It was a long drive, but not too bad since the kids slept through most of it.  It was nice to have three drivers (Marsha rode with us) so that one person could sleep while the two in the front could keep each other awake.

Look at how beautiful Idaho is at 6am though:

We were outside trying not to wake up everyone inside the cabin.

We had an awesome few days together.  Joe and his brothers got to go golfing together.  Us girls had a little informal baby shower for Toni.  We played games, went on walks, and just hung out around the cabin.

Elijah was equal parts fascinated and terrified by Tom and Shari's dog Lucky.

 Eli and Maggie:

 The bigger kids all playing with clay:

 The class of 2012, getting bigger:

 One morning I went out for a run and Lucky followed me.  

It felt so great running through the country with a beagle next to me. :)

Playing baseball in the tall weeds:

 

Eli watching:

 One day I filled up a cooler of water balloons and the kids had a blast with them:

Marsha and Jon actually filled up a whole bunch more since they were gone too fast.  The kids had fun ganging up on Grandma and getting her soaked.

It was so nice to have everyone together for a couple of days.  We love going up to Jaime's family's cabin (even if it is a bit of drive).  They are always so nice to let us use it.