Reunion stuff, finally!

I went through my reunion pictures and realized that I really didn't take very many, and most of them weren't very good quality. So oh well.

We left for the reunion Friday afternoon after Jeff got home from work. After a fairly uneventful drive full of delicious snacks and quick potty trips, we arrived in St. Anthony, where we drove around in circles for over half an hour. Apparently our directions from Google Maps were missing one turn - we were within a mile of the lodge and had no idea how to get there! Finally we stopped at a gas station, where we found someone who knew where the lodge was and was willing to show us.

We arrived at the lodge just in time for a delicious dinner of way too much pulled pork - yummm!!! After dinner we convened for the talent show. I took lots of pictures of the talent show, but it was dark, so all my pics turned out pretty bad. But here's one that turned out alright:

Kathy and Emily sang a song together. It was very pretty and very sweet. Kathy was right - Emily has a wonderful voice!


Other highlights were Kathy and her sons playing jazz songs - Kathy on piano, Jordan on drums, and Justin on saxophone; Aaron and Karen's son Nick doing some awesome gymnastics; and Bill and Karen's family singing together in beautiful harmony. We're one talented family!

It was later that evening that I learned to play Killer Uno. I wasn't very good at it, but I sure had a lot of fun, especially wrestling with Abby for the spoon that would determine which one of us had to draw a card. We were vicious! And I want to apologize again, Abby, for shoving your foot down the vent and cutting your toe. Yeah...

Friday night was miserable as far as sleeping goes. We shared a room with another little family of four. It was hot and stuffy, Jeff and I shared the bottom of a small bunk bed (the top was wobbly and creaky). Also, one of the little guys in the room could only sleep with his special night light - that happened to shine a bright blue. Then fade. Then a bright green. Then fade. Then a bright yellow. Then fade. Then ... etc. Thomas had a hard time sleeping through that, as did I. But we survived.

Saturday morning was the auction. Here's the spread:


I was pleased with how much my offerings brought in. The 4 dozen Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies went for $50, and the 2 dozen Caramel S'mores Popcorn Balls for $35. Wow! Meanwhile, since we are very tight with our finances right now, I only spent $2. There was more I wanted, but the bids kept getting higher than I could pay - phooey. As it is we got a tablecloth and a really cute princess dress for Zaylee. She really loves wearing her sparkly new dress!


Saturday evening we headed over to Rexburg to look up some of our old friends. Two couples in particular that we used to have Family Home Evening with every Monday. We learned that one couple is spending the summer in Washington, so we weren't able to visit them. But the other family, Brenda and David and their adorable kids, were still there. We had a great visit. Brenda recently had twins, and we got to meet them for the first time.

Brenda with twins Heidi (left, sleeping) and Hyrum (right) - aren't they adorable?


David with Caroline:


We had a nice visit; it was so fun to see them again! But we eventually had to leave because the kids really needed to go to bed! So when we got back to the lodge we put Zaylee and Thomas down, and Jeff went to bed shortly after. I stayed up and played Killer Uno again. This time we were much more subdued - on Friday night many people had politely complained that we were too loud with all our giggling and shuffling around - but we still had a great time!

Sunday was full of cleaning, frantically packing and checking over and over to make sure we got everything. Apparently we should have checked a couple more times - we lost Jeff's keys. Pouty face.

A couple highlights I didn't mention yet:

Thomas found a toy shopping cart and had a great time pushing it around. He's been working on his walking skills, and he loved the fact that he could walk all over without falling when he was pushing the cart. I took several pictures of that, but on Mom's camera. I'll try to get those and post them later.

There was that really awesome slide that went from the game room upstairs to the play room downstairs. Zaylee loved that! She would go down the slide, up the stairs, and down the slide again over and over. It was cute. Also cute was Ashley and Joseph's daughter Paige. She would go down over and over again as well. When I was in the game room, every time Paige passed me she would smile big and tell me she was going down the slide. I cheered her on and down she went! This happened several times and was very cute.

Michelle got some pictures of Thomas and William playing together in the little play house. They played really well together. She needs to send me those pictures (hint hint!) so I can post that!

So there you have it - the reunion post I've been putting off all week. Now back to your regular scheduled programming - every day life at our house!