Family Reunion

                               Every July Farris' family has a reunion, sometimes in Burley at his grandma's house, where we were this year.  We love going, his cousins are so much fun and it's nice to see everyone that we don't see often, except once a year at the reunion!  This year there were lots of activities, including a huge bounce house style slide.  I think our kids were on it about 90% of the time we were there.  And miraculously, even with about 20 kids on it, there were no broken bones or knocked out teeth.

 Of course, they did spend some time building these:

 Rocky and Stacey brought the making's for marshmallow guns and all the kids went to town! 

Abby would just grab whatever pvc pipe piece came close to her and stick it together in all kinds of wacky ways.  She's a builder.

After making the "basic" model, they started modifying it, we had long barreled shotguns, double barreled, pistols, crazy up and down models.  Not all of them worked very well, but much fun was had.  And guess which adult was right there in the middle of it all?

  Yep, Farris.  After a little while all the kids were ganging up on him and marshmallows were flying at full speed all over the yard.  We made a huge mess, but we had so much fun.

The next morning (after a yummy breakfast) we played minute to win it games.  We divided into family groups.  Kelan, on the end, was our representative.  He's finding a gummy worm in the middle of cool whip.  And he got a little covered.

We filled buckets by passing a soaked sponge down a line.  Now, let me tell you something.  I love Farris' cousins and aunts and uncles, we always have a ball at the reunions and any other time we all get together.  But they are cheaters.  I know, I know, Farris looks so innocent, it's not true.  I have heard it all started with Grandpa.  Regardless, they are all cheaters.  And we all laugh and then try to top each other.  Towards the end of this race there were sponges flying through the air, just bypassing the line.  It was all good, though, we were laughing pretty hard.

This race that Caleb volunteered for was something about an elephant.  We put a tennis ball in the toe of a pair of nylons and then tied it (we were promised that they had never been used) to heads.  Then they had to swing the ball back and forth to knock over the cans of pop that were lined up.  We learned quickly that the nylons stretch, so tie it closer to the head than your first instinct.

I think this was blowing bubbles through the hoop?  This is the problem with writing this a couple months after it happened, I forget.  But I do remember that all the little kids wanted to hold the hoop.  Look at Joseph beaming.

This one was fun.  Put a golf tee in your mouth, balance a ping pong ball on the tee, and hold it steady while your partner knocks it off with the blast from a squirt gun.  Poor Jaydon had a hard time keeping the tee straight.

Joseph, of course, loved the squirt gun.

And we had to do the cookie down your face into your mouth without touching it with your fingers game.  At any minute to win it party you have to play that game, it's classic.

This picture is of Farris freezing his stomach.  Joseph is demonstrating how he should try his armpit, and I did have another picture with Rocky holding his legs together like he had to go to the bathroom really, really bad.  This game made everyone do strange things.  Each group was given a t-shirt that have been frozen solid (like a week in the freezer) in a big, tight, very cold ice cube lump.  We had to warm it up enough that someone could put it on.  After thawing it enough, we had a tug of war to open it up, and then froze Caleb while we pulled, pushed and prodded it on him.

Felicity with two of her 2nd cousins.  She had a blast with them.

Our family came in third place and since Abigail is the youngest, she accepted the trophy for the family.  We purposely left at Farris' moms house because she's the head of the family, anyway.

Then there was a near indestructible pinata.  I seriously have never seen a pinata get so battered and still stay together.  It must have been the triple layers of duct tape.  Farris has some cousins who grew up on a farm, and let's just say I wouldn't want to be in a fight with them.  And that pinata gave them a run for their money.  But eventually it burst and the kids scooped up tons of candy.

Rocky and Stacey also brought a little sized motorcycle and four wheeler.  Luckily they brought the helmets to go with it.  I didn't get a picture of the aftermath, but Caleb had a little accident.  He decided he wanted to ride the motorcycle, so a few adult men crowded around him with many instructions.  His eyes got wider and wider, and he finally told Farris that he didn't want to go.  Farris encouraged him anyway.  As he started it was ok, Rocky and Farris  were able to keep up with him by running along side, but them he turned into a tighter place of the yard, got a little nervous and accelerated instead of braking straight toward the line of parked cars.  And he crashed into one of our cousins cars.  He was pretty shaken up and his ribs hurt where he hit the handle bars, but none the worse for wear.  Unfortunately, there was a nice sized dent in the car door. Our insurance was able to work with us to take care of it.  Poor Caleb, not a great beginning to his adventures on a motorcycle!

Thanks to Chuck's kids for being in charge this year, it was so much fun, they did a great job!