Family Reunion: Thursday

On Thursday we hung around the house playing games in the morning. Some families went to Morro Bay and some went to Hearst Castle, and then we all met up at Hearst Beach for lunch.

Whenever I got out my camera, Lisy posed for me. She's quite the little model!

After lunch we had arm wrestling competitions. Go Dallin!

Then some big kids and adults went on a hike while the rest of us relaxed on the beach.

It was pretty cold when we first got there, but then it warmed up and felt lovely.

 Josh went boogie boarding.

Then we went to the Culinary Institute (where we had all our meals catered) and made our own dinner. This made it less expensive because it was considered educational. We made pizzas and salad, cut out cookies, and decorated cakes.

 

 When the kids were done with the cookies, they watched a movie.

 They got to use the big roller machine to roll out all the pizza dough.

Then everyone decorated their own pizza. We had tons leftover.

The middle kids got to decorate cakes. 

 

Dallin was in heaven - he loves to make salad. In fact I used to let him chop veggies when he was 3 to cheer him up. And he wants to attend the Culinary Academy when he's older.

 

I love Sophie's face! She was saying something about there being no such thing as too much frosting.

 

It was a fun evening, but we were totally exhausted afterwards. Brennan started to get sick with a fever, and he and Levi slept in until 11:30 the next morning! 

Family Pictures

I just got the family pictures from the reunion, and I think they turned out GREAT! The lighting, the setting, the colors, and of course all the people I love so much.

 Spencer, 13

Tyler, 11

 Dallin, 8 (almost 9)

Brennan, 6                                                          Levi, 3

Chloe, 16 months

 

It took us the longest time to get Chloe to smile. She was way too interested in playing with the grass. Then the photographer played music on her phone, and Chloe started to dance and smile. She's good!

 My sweetheart

 My siblings (8 out of the 9 kids)

Plus spouses

 

My parents

 

With all 35 grandkids

 

The whole group! Family pictures are always a little crazy, but SO worth it. I love my family!!

Family Reunion: Wednesday

We went to Star Farms on Wednesday, and it was our favorite activity of the week. Not to toot my own horn, but it was my idea. The church youth group has a big activity there once a year, and I was surprised by how inexpensive it was to rent for the day - just $300. It's a little tropical paradise in San Miguel, surrounded by alfalfa fields and vineyards.

 

The kids literally swam and kayaked ALL day long.

There were several hammocks set up among the palm trees.

We ate lunch when we first got there, and then we snacked straight through to dinner - Dave grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.

 

We took our kayak, and there were a couple already there. I love that this place is so well-equipped for fun!

 

Aaron was in charge of the music, of course. The system was in the cabana, and there were speakers all over. There was also a kitchen with fridges and such.

 A little in-ground trampoline.

 The menfolk played horseshoes and this other fun block-throwing game called Kubb.

Some of us mostly relaxed in the shade and visited. It was heavenly.

 

I loved how private it was. My uncle Michael and his wife Yvonne came up for the day also.

We all got a little sun. Good thing we got the family pictures taken the first day.

The kids had fun jumping off the diving platform.

Too bad we had to leave just as the lighting got perfect for pictures. I ran around taking pictures at the end.

Love this!

Sometimes I don't realize how beautiful people's eyes are until I edit their pictures. Gorgeous!

Such cute girls!

Levi had a lot of fun, but he was pretty attached to me. In fact he stayed close by the whole reunion. I think he was a little overwhelmed by all the people.

I'm glad Jen and Uche took lots of pictures too. It's hard to get everyone and every activity. Goodness knows I tried!

I love that little smirk Brian makes when I take his picture. What a cutie!

I think we wore out dad. Both he and mom went home for naps, too. That was nice being so close by.

I may have gone a little overboard with the seventy's action on these edits, but it just seemed to fit.

I took so many pictures it was hard to decide which ones to put in the blog, but I'll send the complete file to everyone in the family.

Family Reunion: Tuesday

We had a wonderful family reunion a few weeks ago. We started planning over a year ago so people could make arrangements to get off work, and we had 8 out of the nine children in my family here. With spouses and grandchildren, there was a total of 52 people. They came from Hawaii, Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma and Arizona and stayed in the three California houses: ours, Kristen's and my parents'. Kids camped in the backyards, and adults and babies/toddlers got the bedrooms.

For the first evening we met at a park for dinner, kites and family pictures. We did this really smart thing where we had the whole reunion catered. The host families provided breakfasts, and then we picked up lunch and dinner from the culinary institute every day. That way we didn't have to spend all of our time preparing and cleaning up meals.

It was pretty windy that night (it usually is at this particular park), which was perfect for kites but not so great for dinner - plates of food kept flying away. And hopefully our hair wasn't too crazy for pictures. Pictures took longer than we thought, so we didn't get around to the games and piñatas we had planned. But that's okay - it was just nice to visit. We can't seem to get enough of that when we get together.

 

Most of the kids ended up playing in the water while waiting for their turn to get pictures taken, and Levi even fell in. So as soon as the big family picture was taken, Dave took him home to change out of his wet clothes. After dessert we came home and finished setting up tents. People at my house went to sleep pretty quick - they were all exhausted from traveling.