the reunion {and how we do it–version 2013}

Noah and Kristi were the masters of ceremonies at the reunion this year (we move down by age each year).Those two are one heck of a dynamic duo, I tell you.
Let’s take a closer look at that schedule:  It’s a unique work of art every summer, compliments of my sister Charity.
As you can tell, everyone was overjoyed for what was to come. Ha!(I think they were actually just in very deep concentration and awe of what we would be doing…)


Grandchildrens’ green


This year my Dad added some grass near the cabin.  It was a hit.
…and a perfect spot for these two to unveil some funny stuff that was dug up from the attic from my Dad’s run-for-governor-of-Utah campaign years ago.
…and to show us the t-shirts for this year.


Theme


I loved that they chose a theme.

It was “For Real Life.”

They talked about how the decisions we make and the things we do are for real life and how we need to make them the best we can (but they said it a lot more eloquently than that 🙂  They symbol on the t-shirt was a camera (pretty fitting for our camera) to remind us that we always want to use our “cameras” (our eyes and hearts) to record the goodness and realness of life.

We all got paired up (tallest matched to shortest, etc.) and got to find out some new stuff about our partner, then announce it to everyone else.
I especially loved watching the kids tell stuff about the adults. 



The Bonfire


The first night of the reunion we have a bonfire.  We play all the “favorite songs” people have turned in and try to guess who turned in which one, and then we listen to those songs the rest of the week.
I love that my Dad is always spilling something out in his special books.


“Real Life Relay”


The next morning we had a “Real Life Relay” like a ragnar.

Everyone got a number according to when they joined the family. 
Here are the starting runners:
…and a few of the pass-offs: 

The kids did so great.  I wish I had more pictures of the other teams with those little kids running their little hearts out.

The cars:
The girl who passed her mother up:Yes, the one who just broke her toe the week before…

We ran through the most gorgeous countryside.
And ended at our favorite spot to get raspberry shakes.

Here’s one of the teams coming in the finish line:
This was my team.

…and here’s Dave’s.  That “1” my boys are holding up is to show off that they won 🙂

(IWAN)

Fear Factor


Fear Factor is something that the “reunion committee members” (aka: my brothers) added last year.
It was a pretty big hit so the kids kept asking when it was going to happen right from the start.
Eli started it off with a bang this year by adding music. 

I think it’s funny the kids were so darn anxious for this activity because I don’t know of many other things that can make kids’ faces go from this:
to this:
…in three seconds flat.

Remember last year when I mentioned the disclaimers (here).

No children were harmed in the making of this reunion activity 🙂  And please don’t be offended that it is mostly Asian food…my brother served his mission in Japan and knows how different that food is from what we are used to over here.  I think people over in Asia should do their own version of Fear Factor but with hamburgers and macaroni and cheese.  I bet they’d have some of these same expressions because it’s so not what they are used to.

Here are a couple more beauties: 

Boy oh boy some of them sure made some valiant efforts.

Others, like my five children for instance, decided that ducking out early may be their best bet.

Especially if it meant getting to have a sweet baby all to yourself.  
Or getting to take over your mother’s camera to capture it all.
Or getting your own personal coloring book just for making it through the first round.
Grace and Max made it the longest.
With tactics like this:
Sadly, once they were out they missed out on gems like this:

Let’s go ahead and admire the concentration on cute Camden:
It paid off cause he was the 2013 winner.Congrats, Camden!

Ok, boy howdy I’m out of time.  Part two tomorrow with Minute to Win It, the talent show, and how we do food and cleaning.

Happy Tuesday!

Part 2 is HERE.

Part 3 is HERE.

The part about the lanterns is HERE.