I got to thinking about my posting about the Family Reunion... Everyone that reads my posts were there at the reunion! oh wait... except Megan.
OK, I will go on.
The next day was Color me Mine and wear your family reunion shirt day.
Of course I didn't get any pictures of all of us in our shirts or of us painting at Color Me Mine but that's just the way it is.
Afterwards we ate lunch on some grass in park city. Hannah showed us her taekwondo moves (which I didn't get a picture of) and Bethanie showed us something else (which I did get a picture of).
Half of the group (the other half consisting of young children and in laws were walking around looking for more grassy spots).
That night we played a fun game of stacked 3...
Bethanie had put three things that go together (example: red, yellow, green) with a number 1, 2, or 3 on it. You had to find the other 2 that matched you and then stack up in that order.
Wish I had taken a video of the craziness that ensued.... it was so loud!
The next day was supposed to be lake day... after much discussion and waffling about, eventually most went over to the lake that afternoon. I didn't go with them cuz I wanted to go out on the lake with Emily in the kayaks.
The day before I had gone out in one with Angela in the other one and Cooper swam out to me. When Emily came back from work, we went out and each of us took a dog. Cooper just wanted us to be together, Daisy wouldn't even come out to the water and I ended up having to carry her out. Poor old girl was worn out by this day... I think they eventually had fun barking at the birds. I liked being out on the lake although I was pretty sore the next day :)
That evening we played a fun game Emily did for us called the brown bag challenge. She counted us off into two teams and then one person from each team would square off. The losing team got to pick a brown bag which had two servings of some type of food. Whoever finished their portion first won.
I didn't get a picture of the first 1 which happened to be pudding (Joel and Jacob?)... it was funny because once everyone saw the first challenge they thought this was going to be a snap... But the rest were much harder!
Melina and Andrew trying to eat pretzels and peanut butter... Poor Melina with braces!
Hannah and Gage with Oatmeal Cookies... Hannah did great even though she had braces..
Neita and Zane with some sort of beefaroni fake meat and cheese meal... love the faces in the background.
Neita didn't even bother to open hers :)
Bethanie and Angela with Spam...
YUCK!
Laurelynn and Bailey with cuties... Laurelynn at first tried eating the skin too :)
Jared and Carly with Gummy peach slices... Carly wanted it more :)
Aaron and Alec with powdered donut holes... too much coughing!
Dad and Mom with Haagen Daz single serve ice cream. Dad knows how to chug...
Nathan and Sarah with 7up...
Sarah had to breathe... Nathan must have learned chugging from Dad.
Jim and Natalie with pimento olives...
Natalie got a late start but then she downed them all and started chewing!
Amy and Anneliese with chocolate Swiss rolls... Anneliese with the shove it all in!
I don't have a picture of Jenny and I going crazy with the flaming hot cheetos... Jenny put them down her front instead of eating :)... I didn't realize she didn't like cheetos or I would have picked something else (I might have seen Emily putting a few of the bags together for the activity)! There were a couple of bags left so the little kids did some rematching... Much excitement ensued.
The next morning before we left we took pictures by families and other groupings (yes, I'm going to show them all here instead of going to yet another post).
Grandkids (Alec, Jalyn and Carly had already left to go meet old friends)
Idaho Helms
Utah Helms
Dietrichs (some of my pictures are blurry and I don't know why.
Unmarrieds (love the last three reunion t-shirts!)
Parkinsons
Siblings
Siblings, Patriarch and Matriarch
Family Reunion T-Shirts! And no, not planned.
Sigh.. Aaron and Dad.
Having given my phone to a niece... I have many many more pictures of this grouping :)
Things I wish I had taken pictures/video of:
1. Aaron giving his power point presentation on tanks in the movie room and how raptly he was attended to by the young boys of this family.
2. Dad in the bandolier I made so he could always have cheesesticks with him. It was patterned after chewbacca's and the sand people in Star Wars. He only wore it that first day when Aaron presented it to him... could have used it on that first day he forgot his lunch :)
3. Older girls and Grandad sitting around the fire talking after the first evening's s'mores bar.
4. Bethanie and Angela practicing "Have you ever, ever, ever in your long legged life" and adding new verses.
5. Andrew throwing the ball over and over and over again for the dogs. He would put the ball behind his back and Daisy would sit down in front of him.
6. Working on Color Me Mine creations as well as before and after shots
7. Taekwondo moves
8. Emily's tent set up in the back and then how everyone helped to put her things to right after the wind blew it over and sent water all over her work bag. The hockey table was turned on and the papers and tablets spread out over it to dry out.
9. Jared and I carrying Nathan up to the house so he wouldn't have to put his dirty feet inside his shoes.. Emily and I came running down because we thought Nathan was hurt.
10. How as the family reunion progressed, every night more and more children went with Emily and the dogs on the evening "poop" walk she took along the edge of the lake so the dogs wouldn't go in the yard. Poor dogs had quite the audience by the last night.
11, Dad presiding over the ice cream makers Sunday evening.
12. The kids playing together in the back yard/in the lake/at the top of the mountain/in basement. Love seeing the cousins enjoying each others company.
13. All the leftover lunch food! Especially the unopened boxes from Costco of fishies, granola bars, fruit snacks, apples, etc.
I'm sure there are more but that's all I can think of right now.
All in all I think Aaron can mark this one down as very successful. Great job everyone!
Next up, Zombie duckie sightings...
PS... The party came to our house that afternoon... Everyone except the Idaho Helms stayed with us for 2 more days. We Helms know how keep a party going!
