Atkin Reunion

Only a few days after YW Camp, and on Joe's birthday, we packed up and drove to Jerome for the Atkin reunion this year. Marsha was kind of enough to make Joe two really delicious berry pies for his little birthday celebration that night so it wasn't entirely a bust. We stayed there at Marsha's with Chris and Regina for a little bit until the reunion officially started that weekend. Joe got busy helping Marsha cut down an apple tree that was diseased and that she wanted to be taken out. I was impressed with how quickly he got it done!

The kids helped a little bit:

They were so excited to be with their cousins again. Just hanging out in Grandma's garage:

We let them sleep in tents in the backyard, which they loved. Even Nate and Eli stayed out there. Eli slept inside some nights, too.

Regina, Shari and I took the kids to the Jerome pool one day:

Jon and Jaime arrived late Friday night. On Saturday, we reserved the pavilion and fields at the church and that ended up being perfect. We set up some slip 'n slides for the kids to cool off. They made up a military boot camp game and had a blast:

The younger ones:

Poor Eli slipped on wet concrete and hit his front tooth. It pushed in a little bit but we were able to pull it back out and it doesn't look too bad at this point--a little discolored and it might be the first one to fall out.

We grilled some burgers and then played a super fun game that Regina and Shari had prepped called Human Pinata. Basically, they hot glued a bunch of candy to some t-shirts that the men (and teens) put on and then the kids ran around chasing them to get it. It was so hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. 

First, the younger kids went after Hallie:

Coming up with a game plan for their turn against TJ, Joe & Jon:

These are screenshots from videos. Look at them go!

The guys planned this hilarious beginning where Joe jumped off of Jon's back. :)

The kids had the most success taking them down one by one:

Uncle Tom got involved, too:

Picking the meat off their bones:

On Sunday, Richard & Toni and kids got into town. We were so excited to meet Charlie! We couldn't get enough of holding him.

Sleepy guys:

We managed to get in some family pictures, unfortunately minus Hallie since she had to work and we didn't have another chance.

 Grandma and the grandkids:

On Monday, we went to Dierkes Lake. The kids had fun jumping off cliffs and swimming. I jumped twice and gave myself an earache. Maybe I'm too old for that. It was a really fun last day before people had to head home. Jon and Jaime left but Joelle stayed behind with us so she could come home and spend some time in CA with us. On Tuesday, we were able to meet up with Simon & Margaret and kids for the day. We took them to the splash pad/red park in Twin and then we got Mexican food. They are so great and I loved having time to talk to Margaret. She is in remission for breast cancer and I was so amazed by her attitude and faith. Godfrey got along great with the older kids even though it had been a while since we'd seen him.

Wednesday, we drove back to CA. We must have tired all the kids out because they were all asleep at one point:

We had so much fun with Joelle here. Unofortunately, Lizzie got sick after coming home so she had to miss some of the fun. She missed the beach day. We had fantastic weather and were so excited to see a bunch of dolphins!

Seeing fins pop up:

Natalie and Joelle made this sand castle:

Of course we had to stop for Marianne's ice cream:

By Saturday evening, Lizzie was feeling better so us girls decided to go to Great America. We had so much fun! I hadn't been to an amusement park in forever and it was fun to feel like a kid again and go on crazy rides.

We loved seeing our faces in the pictures. Natalie decided to make this hilarious face for the camera:

It was a fun night! The next day was Joelle's 13th birthday so we made sure to celebrate her with her favorite dessert--cheesecake--and some other things. Then, she flew home the next day. She was a little nervous about flying for the first time on her own but she made it fine. It was fun to have that extra cousin time. She was so pleasant to have around! We all missed her when she left.