Allen Reunion

Soon after school got out, we headed up to Greenwood for the Allen reunion. It was a great week! We went up Friday and had a great first night at the Pizzeria with Chris and Lisa and family. Saturday, we had a pool day.

Sunday, we all went to church for sacrament meeting and then gathered at Mom and Dad's to give Mom the sacrament and have a Come, Follow Me lesson. I loved that and loved hearing the thoughts different grandkids shared. Then we took some pictures out front:

It was hard using the self-timer to get Grandpa in the picture but we did get some:

We missed Melissa, Andrew and Hannah this year.

Then we had fun playing soccer and other sports at the field, followed by dinner, Abby opening her mission call (Charlotte North Carolina, Spanish speaking!) and FHE that night. Nate and Isaac were in charge this year and they decided to talk about prioritizing spiritual things with the rocks and the sand object lesson. Then everyone made their own prayer rocks with messages they wanted to remember. They weren't as enthusiastic as other partnerships but they did a great job! :)

On Monday, we went over to the lake where we met Chris and Lisa and family and Matt and Ivy. We didn't ride on a ski boat this year so we rented some kayaks, paddleboards and jet skis this year and had fun with those:

Catching crawdads, too of course:

Followed up by the annual lunch at Char Pit:

Gotta love that place!

One night we had fun playing around at the practice holes and then saw this beautiful sunset:

We also did a hike up above Lake Tahoe one day that was fun. Joe had to head back to work for a couple days so it was just me and the kids. Unfortunately, the boys were not happy about this hike so it was rough for a while. Their attitudes improved somewhat on the way down, thankfully. I really need to make my kids hike more so they don't complain so much. Natalie turned her ankle on the way down and was in pain for a few days, unfortunately. 

We did get some beautiful pictures at the top, though.

Another day, we went to Northstar and the kids had fun skating, except Natalie who rested her ankle.

On our last day, we decided to try out the ropes course up there. It was SO fun! Definitely worth the money, although it was pricey. Eli had a rough start and was quite nervous about things but he improved a lot by the end. I was impressed with how well the older three kids did trying all the hard courses.

I loved this one of Joe patiently encouraging Eli to go through the tube when he was scared:

Lizzie:

 Natalie and Josh:

I mostly just have video of the courses but they were really fun. We were all pretty tired out after that.

We had another great week and loved getting together for meals, playing games, watching movies, puzzling, playing pool games, and just being together. It was a blast!