Reunion Part II

Chow Time 2: Stacy, Rachael talking to Tawnee, Becky, Rosalind, Demeter and half of Neenaw.

Uncle John feeding his face; Dad in the background.

Laila, Carter and Roz.

Bella (wearing my stolen-from-Bri sheriff sweatshirt) and Carter. Looks a little smoky.

Ernie taking a snooze

Melanie and Dad. Cheeeese!

Here's a good shot of our scabbed-up kid in our stuffed-to-the-gills van. We took a trip to Union for some supplies - I also snuck in a visit to the cemetery and grabbed some pictures. Obsessed much? (Roz saw this picture and laughed, "I'm so fat!")

Brennan and Bella at the picnic table. Did we miss our Bella while she was in Utah? You bet we did.

Bri and Carter. This is an important moment in history: Bri is voluntarily holding a Mad Libs book. Look at that - it's even OPEN. And you were here to witness it.

Jetta and Jeremy

BC and Dad chatting it up

Chef Karen

Rosalind, Camrynn, Demeter, Berkli, Carter: The Next Generation

Mr. Carter hanging out next to the playpen, his favorite spot. He's loved babies ever since Roz was born - he likes their hair. He used to say to us about Roz, "I want to pet her head." He loved holding all the babies this weekend. They were pretty good sports about it.

Brook, Paisli and Xanden. The blow-up pool worked great as a playpen. The four babies spent much of the weekend playing in it.

Reunion Part III

Matt and his ball game, another popular camp item. I can't remember what it's called but the players get a different-colored band and the ball yells out what color to toss it to next... pretty fun.

Uncle John, Heather, Dena, overseeing the collapse of their tent on Saturday

Whit, and Stanlee sweeping behind her - they were the smart ones who brought the broom.

John and Neenaw

Xanden and Stan next to the babies

Hanging out in the kitchen (where all the food is): Jer, Deen, Heather holding Paisli

Melanie's extreme closeup

Kiley, Brennan, Stacy. Brennan and Stacy are less than a year apart - her birthday is Oct. 4, 1991 and his is Sept. 30, 1992. It's fun that my aunt and I had children so close together, and neat that they're good friends.

BC, Uncle John and Becky. This is on Saturday again and half of us left to go home, so the campfires were doused and smoke was everywhere. I can't tell you how good it was to get out of that smoke smell. I shampooed my hair twice and washed my feet three times before I felt clean. Poor dirty me. My life is so hard.

Rozzie, Berkli, Demeter and Dionysus "Ny Ny".

Melanie and Brennan - I don't think Brennan laughed as much in his life as he did this weekend. And we're pretty funny, so that's saying something.

The Group Picture Ordeal: I'm just glad I'm not a photographer. Good grief. (Group picture will be posted later)

Jeremy and Stacy. We decided we need Stacy to come and live with us for those inevitable bad self esteem moments, because she's so sweet. We loved her hugs and the way she always laughed at our dorky remarks and silly faces.

Dad and Melanie. Ernie said of Mel: "It looks like someone gave her a lobotomy and then smacked her with a bat."

Ernie's no slouch in the stupid-face-making department either.

The Magical Watermelon Helmet!!

It all started - obviously - with a watermelon rind.

Bella's triumphant pose - she was so proud of herself for thinking of this idea. Pretty soon everyone in the family wanted to wear it. (Well - some of us had to be talked into it.)

Jeremy

Berkli

Dad the tough guy

"Ewwww... do I have to put it on my head?"

Rach's placement is convincing. She didn't actually put it on her head, but it looks like she did, doesn't it?

The watermelon helmet met its sad end during a trip to a nearby reservoir. While playing in the water, Bella accidentally let it go, and it floated away a la Wilson the volleyball in Cast Away. "Watermelon helmet! Come back! Watermelon helmet... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... (sobbing)..."

Group Pictures - Family Reunion

I couldn't be in these pictures, so I asked my ugly twin to stand in for me. (Seriously, I am NOT a pretty camper... just imagine me with a bag on my head, please?)

I posted this one earlier of all of Neenaw and Gran's 40+ children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren trying to decide on a good spot for a group picture, milling around, people trying to pack and leave, babies crying, campfire smoke wafting, wild hogs running indiscriminately through the campground... pretty messy.

Group Shot #1. If you want to know who's who, email me and I'll send you a diagram. I still find it amazing that all this came from Neenaw, Gran, and their two sons. Did Wally and The Beaver have this much offspring? I guess we'll never know.

Group Shot #2 - I don't like this one of me, just so you know. I liked hiding behind Brennan.

Then Mel had a good idea - let's get a picture of Neenaw and all her great-grandchildren. In theory, it was an excellent idea, one that made us all go "Awwwwww...". Too bad no one informed the kids. Here's Jen in the stripey pants, directing traffic.

Oh, the trauma! This is actually the best one - you can't see Xanden in any others. He's the one on the left, looking like he's kicking his cousin Jetta.

I love the way Camrynn and Rosalind are covering their ears for this one and the next one. Apparently all the crying was pretty loud.

Let's try naming these kids off: back row - Zane, Isabella holding Luke, Brennan holding Brook, Kiley holding Paisli, Harrison.
Middle row: Jetta, Cami, Stanlee, Neenaw with her hand on Xanden, Demeter.
Front row: Berkli, Rosalind, Carter, Dionysus, Laila. Missing from the picture is Jen's youngest, Sienna, who was taking a nap.

Seriously, I feel like taking a Valium after seeing these pictures again. :)

ALSO: We have boxes! We have newspapers! We have one application turned in at a rental management company, and another one to fill out and fax today! We have the bishop on the lookout for a house in the ward!

AND: Bri and Brennan left this morning for High Adventure (a Boy Scout thing for the ward boys), Harrison has Cub Scout day camp all week starting this morning, Bella has a hike Wednesday, preparatory to Girls' Camp later in the month... what was I saying about Valium?

Independence Day

Our first installment of S Family Reunion camping pics. We spent the weekend at Catherine Creek campground, eight miles outside Union, Oregon.

Our tents, with BC & Tawnee's place behind them. We all slept in the big tent and Brennan had the small one to himself - the bachelor pad.

Dad and Rozzie. Roz loved camping - I don't think we'd ever taken her before, but she took right to playing in the dirt and hanging out with the little cousins. The night we left Vancouver, while helping Dad load the car, she tripped and smacked her face on the pavement. She has a lovely scabby goose egg on her forehead and a cut-up nose... just so you'll know what happened to her when you see her in pictures.

My injured brother BC. The night before his birthday, he was trying to butcher one of his chickens, and the axe landed on his finger instead of the chicken's neck. It cut to the bone, but his finger should be fine. He spent his birthday in the hospital having surgery and we weren't sure if we'd see his family at this reunion, but he figured he could either sit at home and do nothing all weekend, or be with us and do nothing all weekend. We're glad you made it, B!

The common area of our camp. Heather and Deen are looking tentative.

Note to me: that thick coated wire makes a much sturdier clothesline than plain old rope. Uncle John and Aunt Karen brought it - they're the master campers.

So are BC and Tawnee. Here's Tawnee expertly washing out a pan. We were all wowed by Tawnee's tie-dye prowess this weekend - she tie-dyes clothing and sells it at the Farmer's Market there in Tri-Cities on weekends. Very cool stuff. Demeter wore a darling top and skirt that Aunt Tawnee had made for her.

Dena and Neenaw in the kitchen. It was fun meeting Deen's baby girl Brook for the first time - one of four new ones to meet this trip.

Grandpa, taking it easy by the fire. Ahhhh, camping.

Stanlee, Berkli, Jen holding Sienna (another new one), Becky and Cami - making campfire biscuits. Jen was so sweet to pick up Bella at the Boise Airport before leaving for the campground. She and Matt had to wait around longer and leave later than everyone else so they could pick her up and bring her with them. Bella was in Salt Lake City all week for U of Utah soccer camp and stayed with Aunt Kristy, and we flew her into Boise so she could join us at the reunion. Thanks so much, Jen and Matt!

Aunt Karen, Harrison and Stacy. When we left the camp, I asked Harrison which of the cousins he liked best and he said, "All of them." He had such a great time hanging out and playing with everyone.

Uncle John (chug! chug! chug!) and Deen, with Whitney in the background.

The ever-popular hammock with the girls' tent behind. The hammock spent the weekend rocking all the little kids - sometimes I'd look over and there'd be five or six kids trying to ride the thing.

Zane riding his bike (another popular item). We had a nice situation there in the woods, with a great road to ride bikes on. Quite a few family members brought their bikes.

Our recently-released sister missionary, Heather, in front of Jen & Matt's tent. She's easing well into civilian life once again. It was so fun to see her after such a long time.

Chow time! From left: Harrison, Dad, Matt holding Jetta, Heather holding Xanden, Dena holding Brook.

We're BAAAAAAACK

... and with pictures. They're loaded onto the computer, I just have to post them... and write about them... sigh.

We had a great time at our S family reunion outside Union, Oregon. Mad Libs were played and camp songs were sung (along with a few selections by Weird Al). Watermelons were eaten and then worn on heads. Rain fell, sun shone, and we all came home smelling like a freakin' campfire.

More later - I'm tired.

[originally posted July 6]

Recent Discoveries

1) Pandora.com, a free do-it-yourself radio site. Unlike Project Playlist where you choose the songs one by one, at Pandora you suggest a song or artist you like and Pandora will build a personal radio station for you, based on your suggestion. It's funny to see what they come up with sometimes, but I can tell you I'm quite enjoying my lovely mellow "Barry Manilow" station.

2) Alibris.com: Do you like buying cheap books instead of checking them out at the library? Trying to find an out-of-print book you read as a child? Alibris is a great place to look. Whenever I have a few bucks to spare, I head over to Alibris and buy whatever's next on my list. It's fun having a "new" book show up in the mail...

P.S. Feeding your children pop at 8:00 in the morning. Is this a good thing?