On Thursday morning we packed the car and headed south for Adam's family reunion. With his parents home from their mission to Cape Verde it was time to gather all 10 of their children plus families for a big family reunion. How big? How does 21 adults and 35 kids sound? Only 2 people from the family were not in attendance, Braiden, who went into the MTC the day before the reunion started, and Tyler who is in the Marines and is training in Florida. Both are 18 years old.
The one and only outdoor activity during the reunion was swimming. Let's be honest, there isn't much you can do outside in St. G in July besides swim. The original plan was to swim at the pool in G.G.'s neighborhood, but when Kim was telling someone in their ward about their plan to have 56 people swimming in the neighborhood pool on a holiday (July 24th) she said, "Oh, you should totally come and use our pool!" We had no idea that the pool being offered was the most AMAZING pool we will ever see in person. We just figured we were heading to a typical backyard pool, but my first clue that this wasn't the case was when I saw this huge walkway from the house to the backyard pool area.
It lead to a large pool pavilion with an outdoor kitchen in a covered area. It also had bathrooms and a sound system playing lively party music. The pool went underneath the pavilion and came out to a waterfall on the other side.
You can see a stone table with chairs underneath the water in this part of the pool.
This was the other end of the pool. It had bar stools sitting up to the rock waterfall that doubled as a table top. The entire covered area was shallow enough that the kids who weren't strong swimmers could play without their life vests.
The balcony doubled as a platform to dive off into the 14 ft water below. This, of course, was a HUGE hit with both the teenagers and adults alike.
Here is an action shot of Jenna (in the green) jumping off.
It really doesn't seem that high up when you see it from the ground, but once you get up there it is a different story.
It's a lot farther down than you think!
I can tell you that not one adult was planning to swim when we arrived, but once we saw the setup we couldn't help ourselves. Soon the brothers-in-law were all jumping off the balcony and Adam and I decided to get in on the action. I'm told there is a picture of the two of us jumping off, but the person who was using my camera only managed to catch our splash.
Oh and I couldn't help but check out the rest of the park backyard.
Sand volleyball court, an amazing 3 level treehouse, playground area, pond with a bridge and paddle boats and kayaks, pavilions, in-ground trampoline, zip line and a full size tennis and basketball court in the lower 40. It was bigger than a lot of city parks! It just kept going on and on.
After getting all cleaned up the kids went to Jaclyn's house for pizza and movies and the adults had dinner from Cafe Rio at Adam's parents' house.
| Marci, Kirsti, Josh, Adam, Bethany, Kim, Micah, Jaclyn and Stephen. Bonnie and Dave in front. |
All 10 kids together. I'm not happy with the neighbor lady that took this pictures because she totally left Loren out of the shot. He was standing to the left of Marci.
All of the kids with their spouses. Bonnie and Dave didn't plan to be matchy matchy in their teal shirts, but they were. They must be on the same wavelength or something.
After eating and having some adult time, we headed back to Jaclyn's house for fireworks. Uncle Stephen was in charge of the 24th of July fireworks and he went above and beyond. We had a great little show in Jaclyn's cul-de-sac.
| Sparklers before the fireworks |
The next morning we were motivated to get to the first activity on time because we had exclusive use of Laser Mania for exactly one hour before it opened at 11:00 a.m.to the public From 10-11 a.m. we could do laser tag, bumper cars, miniature golf and short movies in the 4D theater as much as we wanted.
| Adam and Jameson on the bumper cars |
| Jenna, Katelyn, and Sarah |
I couldn't get pictures of laser tag, a 4D movie, or miniature golf but all of them were very cool. Playing a family laser tag game was such a fun experience. Jameson wasn't sure he liked it at first, but by the end he had stopped crying and seemed to be having fun. He was Adam's little sidekick the entire time. After our hour ended we all stayed for a little while and played a few of the arcade games. The next activity wasn't until 2 p.m. so we went to DQ for lunch with Stephen and Kirsti and her family.
The rest of the day was spent at the church building. It was really the only venue that could accommodate 56 people on a hot day.
The afternoon started out with a family basketball game and then moved on to volleyball. I had zero expectations for volleyball, but now that some of the kids are older and the adults were involved it was actually quite competitive and fun. I was surprised to find myself genuinely enjoying the games.
The kids carnival came next with nail and face painting, a photo booth area, craft, cake walk and a "chuck the chicken" competition.
| Jameson and Emmalia |
| Jenna's banjo craft |
| Dallin, Emmalia and Jameson |
After the carnival it was Bingo. They had lots of prizes so everyone really got into it.
| Group shot of the Bingo game |
| J-mo's "Captain America" face painting. |
After the favorites baskets Gramma and Grampa got up and gave a gift from the mission to everyone in the family I couldn't believe they were able to get a little something for every single person. I got a necklace, Adam and Britton got hats, Jenna got a bag and Korinne got a little purse. Then Gramma played a few songs on her guitar and she and Grampa talked about their mission for a little bit. By the time it ended and we had everything cleaned up it was 10:00 p.m. We left the building just as the night person arrived to lock it up.
Adam's parent spoke in Sacrament meeting the next morning with another young Elder who had returned during the week from his mission to Madagascar. It was a great meeting followed by a luncheon at the house. There were a lot of people squished into their small home, but somehow it all worked out. The rest of the day was spent just visiting with family. By the end of the night we were the only "out of towners" still around since our plan was to leave first thing Monday morning. Bethany's family stayed to play games and we were also able to go visit G.G. at her home.
It was successful reunion and we all had a great time. Jameson was in 7th heaven with so many cousins to play with. He was definitely in his element. He was a little grumpy on the way home, but did finally fall asleep for the last 2 hours.
Jenna got home and immediately started packing for girls camp. She left first thing this morning for her very first camp.
As if we haven't had enough partying already, we are preparing for yet another family reunion this weekend! Woohoo!