Reunion Part 2

July 4th, Happy Fourth of July!! Our first full day in the cabin. We awoke to a yummy breakfast made by Jen and Codi (we split all the meals, Jen and Codi had breakfasts, my mom and I had lunches, and each of us took a night for dinner). My niece Alyson caught a fish that morning and the men cooked it up and picked at it for breakfast.

The kids were eager to PLAY! Lexi got to be one of the first on the 4-wheeler.

Once the boys learned what was going on, they quickly got their sneakers on and joined in on the action:

We caught a couple of cute pictures of kids in their red, white and blue.

After the 4-wheeling, the kids wanted to play in the water. So we got everyone changed, covered in sunscreen and enjoyed the rest of the morning down at the lakefront.

The boat was running pretty much all day with different groups of kids, or adults, wanting to ski, tube, or just go for a ride. My kids were happy to just ride in the boat, but if they got to go in the tube, it was awesome! They took turns riding with different cousins.

After lunch, my mom got out some craft projects. The kids could make "stained glass" with beads. You essentially pick what color of plastic beads you want (some of the cousins got really intricate with their patterns, colors, and designs), put them in a pie plate, and melt them at 400 degree for a few minutes in the oven. This provided hours of entertainment with kids picking through beads, picking what colors they wanted, and making as many little designs as they wanted.

Right as we were getting dinner ready, a thunderstorm came through and soaked everything. We had enough going on inside to keep entertained. A few of the older kids wanted to learn how to play poker. My brother Joel and my Dad were happy to teach them.

That night we had a special Family Home Evening that my mom put on. She told a few stories about some of our ancestors, then divided the kids up with different "puzzles" of pictures of them. It was a little harder than she anticipated and took some of the groups quite a while to put together.

After FHE, most of the younger cousins and my sisters-in-law went on a hike. The rest of us stayed behind and got a game of Texas Hold 'Em going. I'll be the first to admit, playing poker with my family is one of my favorite things we do together!

We definitely got an earlier bedtime than the night before. The kids were wiped out and went to bed quickly. As much fun as Lexi had with the bigger cousins, we moved her in with us so she could sleep better. She ended up on a mattress on the floor in the walk-in-closet. Pretty cozy, had her own space, and she could sleep as long as she wanted in the morning without being woken up.