Family Reunion...

June 24th - 27th was the...

at Bear Lake.

We all had a great time... but were sad to be missing two of our siblings and their families... Shelly and Jeff. :(  We thought of you often and wished you were there!

Once again my parents hooked us up with 3 condos to spread out in... (by trading with the condo owners right below and to the side of them for their family reunions.) 

That same weekend was Youth Conference for our ward, which happened to be at Bear Lake, so Tayler and Shane were able to pop back and forth at both activities. :)

There was a whole lot of goofy cousin stuff going on...

Some time on the Beach...

Which looks great from the above shot... but Bear Lake received a HUGE amount of water this year... which means we are back up to the rocky/shell sand that I remember from my youth (not the best for sand castle building)... boats are docking in the marina (my girls are wondering what happened to all the bunnies that they used to chase in the marina last year)... and it's easier to get to the actual lake... but it left it looking something like this...

MAJORALLY MARSHY!!

With only one small path to get out in the water without having to wade through that gross stuff!!

Needless to say...  WAY fewer people at the beach this year!!

Of course the kids still had fun!

And then there's always the pool :)

and games of kickball and chillaxin...

And of course each night was filled with games... mainly Snorta and...

werewolves :)

And of course the family reunion wouldn't be the family reunion with out a few hundred (more like 700 water balloons) to be launched 100 yds down the field...

Of course the point being to CATCH the balloon in a towel held between 2 people...

This year most of the shooting was done by Nate, Shane and I...

Nate and Shane were the pullers..

and I was the launcher.

But I stopped after I hit my own child...

right in the...

FACE!!

It was an "audible" hit from where we were and we knew it couldn't be good when Saige grabbed her face and everyone ran to her...

Pretty much her own mom and dad gave her...

a bloody nose...

split lip...

and a swollen eye (that didn't turn nearly as black as we were sure it was going to.)

O, and she was still recovering from the 4 permanent teeth she had pulled 2 days before...

Poor kid!!

Needless to say she sat the next 300 balloons out...

and then she got to be in the wounded picture with Tara who had a bike crash the day before.

The reunion was filled with yummy food and lots of it...

But the Pickleville Dinner/Show was the highlight of the weekend.

We saw...

The last morning was a presentation by my parents of our ancestors (on my mom's side).  It puts our easy yet busy lives in perspective to hear about the trials, struggles and joys that they experienced.

My dad pointed out that all 8 lines on my mom's side crossed the plains to come to the Salt Lake Valley.

What a great heritage that we have to live up to.

Thanks for a fabulous time Mom and Dad...

And thanks to Missy and Andy for all their preparations this year!

Family is everything...

And I was glad that I got to spend an awesome 4 days with mine.

we missed you Jeff and Shelly... and Kimi, Trey, Rich, Nikki, Lucas, Carlos, Dusty, Megan and Logie! :(