Eyrealm Reunion 2017 — Part 2

We started out with three-deep on the night we introduced the schedule of events since we counted that first day as the “social” day of our “five-facets.”  Three-deep is when everyone mixes together to find the two other people who are supposed to be in their category and then sit three-deep.

And really, that was a horrible explanation, so click back HERE if you’d like to really know how it’s played.

One night we played a “name game.”  Everyone puts their name on a little piece of paper in a bowl.  Then you mix up those names and each person picks one out (it’s ok if it’s your own name).  That name is who you “are” for the game, but you don’t tell anyone. You have to have an equal number of male and female players because the goal of the game if you’re female is to get four female players in the four pre-designated spots right next to each other.   If you’re male, your team is trying to get four males in those same spots before the girl team does it.  Whoever fills up those spots with their team the first wins.

But it’s tricky because everyone has a different name so you have to keep track of who’s who to get the ones you want in the right spots.

There is one empty chair in the circle.  If the empty spot is to your immediate left, you get to be the one to call out someone’s name.  Whoever is that person in the game stands up and moves to that spot.  Then the person next to the spot they left empty gets a turn to call someone’s name out.  Once the four spots are filled with either all women or all men, that team wins and the game is over.

See these four three girls in the front there below?  They just have to figure out who Ian is (on the right) and get him to move out, and a girl to move in.

I’m not sure if that makes sense, but there you go.

We had a game afternoon one day where we played a card game all divided up into five different tables:

Then the winner from each table got to play in the championship round:

Of course, we had Eyrealm Olympics as part of the games as well…

Ended with a game of dodge-ball but with water balloons.

We did Capture the Flag throughout the whole reunion. Each team was supposed to hide their flag and the team that found everyone’s flags would win.  Dave also hid two bonus flags that people could find for extra prizes…Julie found one:

…and Isaac found one but I never got a picture of that, dang it.  He came in quite pleased with himself wearing it around his face like a bandit.

The kids always have games of some sort going, and I love to watch these cousin interactions.

My favorite game this year was Live-Ball that we played up in the mountains with Dave’s family over Memorial Day weekend (back HERE).  I love this game because it gets all the kids involved who want to play.

Everyone stands in two lines on one side of the court:

…and there are two “winners” on the other side:

If they hit it “in” to the other court, the ball is in play.  The first of those two teams to get two points wins.  If the team on the “winner” side wins, they stay where they are.  If the team wins on the side with the lines of players ready to play, they have five seconds to RUN to the “winner” side before the new team (next one up in the lines) hits the ball to them to make it in play again.  (the others who were knocked out of the “winner” side run back over and get in line again).

Oh man I sure love that dad of mine.

One last game we did was the Ancestor Auction.  I loved what my Aunt Helen did with her little “birthday auction” on her husband’s birthday (I talked about this back HERE).  I figured it would be good to do some sort of variation of that since everyone had so much new fresh knowledge about ancestors from the Grammie Camps that took place a couple days before (I wrote about those beauties back HERE.)

So I took note of some questions from those camps and also added in a bunch from my parents (because they count as ancestors too), and divided everyone into five groups to see who could answer the most correctly.

They got ten points for each correct answer, and the winning team got this “take candy to the MAX” candy bar….which they promptly shared with everyone 🙂

Family Reunion Meetings

Of course, no Eyrealm reunion is complete without a meeting or two mixed in.

We always meet to figure out how to best use any funds from a humanitarian fund my parents started many, many years ago.  I have come to really love these meetings over the years because we all get to share our thoughts on different 501c3s or humanitarian organizations we want to contribute to (or have been involved with in our own individual families) or service opportunities our families have found.

Since we had a full Sunday in the reunion this year, I asked my five brothers to do a “Brother’s Devotional” after church.  I love these brothers of mine so much and the way they each live their lives so beautifully and intentionally and I love how they live the gospel.  It was so fun to hear from them (kids 12 and up were invited to join us…and my brother Josh isn’t standing with these guys in this pic. because they are singing, and he isn’t one who loves to perform 🙂

We also had a little “information session” about BBS (Lucy’s syndrome) kind of like we did in Lucy’s class this last year (back HERE).

I had asked Lucy before the reunion if she wanted to do it and she was pretty excited about it.

Yes, those cousins know a bunch about what Lucy is dealing with, but we still want them, just like we want the kids in Lucy’s classroom, to feel encouraged to ask whatever questions they may have and understand the depth of Lucy’s issues and vision loss as she grows, possibly in such a different way than they will.

Assignment of Tutors/Tutees

Beach/Boat Time
Amidst all the reunion hoopla there is still some good down-time.

I don’t post many pictures of the down time because I’m usually utilizing it catching up with people.  There are a LOT of people to catch up with I tell you!

But here are a few of the simple hang-out time…

Lots of good conversations happen on this deck while lots of hours are spent with kids playing in that sand right there in front.

Dances made up to all kinds of music:

Real musicians:

Dog-dancing:

Family Pictures
We do family pictures every year.

I don’t know if it’s because we have quite a few photographers in the group, or if we are just creatures of tradition, or if we are just plumb crazy.  Probably all of the above.

Here we are trying to figure out the best lighting:

Love that light but for a group of 48 we needed more help shading that lens from the camera.

So guess who came in handy for that?

Yep, this guy right here:

It’s always comical getting ready to take a big family picture.

And also comical that Dave claims to dislike this dog…

Ha!

But the most important people to get are these two:

Because seriously, isn’t it amazing what can happen when two people fall in love?

Oh and this guy was happy too…happy enough that he asked for my sister to take this picture.  And THAT is pretty happy:)

…and also to give out awards for the winners of stuff like the various games and also the kids with the most beads on their necklaces (which Elle was in charge of).