Reunion Highlights

We've been up in Washington this last week at Alan's parents' place enjoying a family reunion.  I think we had around 50 people in attendance; 4 of 5 of Alan's mom's siblings and many of their offspring.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with all the family.  Unfortunately I was a slacker with the camera, so pictures will have to be mooched from other family members (namely Jonathan who took a wealth of great pictures).  

Here are a few of the highlights:

First of all, the weather was fantastic, so we were able to spend a lot of our time outdoors.  We hiked multiple times, played at the beach, we kayaked, we flew kites and threw the football and sat around chatting.  I really wish I'd gotten some more pictures of kayaking.  We just walk down the street from Alan's parents' place, and jump in the boats.  Last year, Ethan was so relaxed he actually fell asleep about 10 minutes into his ride!  It really is beautiful, and because of the location, the ocean is easy to contend with - very minimal waves.

One night, many of us drove about 40 minutes to get to a nearby town in the hopes of viewing Batman on a screen larger than a bigscreen tv (which is apparently the situation at the closest theater).  The theater we ended up at had a screen only slightly larger than a bigscreen (I may be exaggerating a bit here, ok?!), but once the movie started, it never crossed my mind again.  It was intense, for sure.  And there were some strange laugh out loud moments, when the Joker was sadistic and hilarious all at once.  To my knowledge, all viewers gave it a thumbs up.  While we were gone, Amara and Ethan were back at the house with Grandma and our cousins Craig and Chantal (and maybe their kids, too??).  I guess Ethan had been mourning my absence, so Craig and Chantal told Amara and Ethan many a story about their crazy pets. According to Alan's mom, both kids were in hysterics the whole time. I heard snippets the next morning involving peanut butter and dishwashers.... who knows what else, but knowing how pets can be, and how much fun Craig and Chantal are, I'm sure it was a good time.  

Another evening after dinner the kids (and some grown ups) amused themselves playing green and yellow na na.  Yeah, I'd never heard of it either and, honestly, I'm not sure if it even existed before that night.  The rules are simple:  Kid yells "Green and yellow nana!"  in that familiar neener neener voice (please tell me you know what I'm talking about), and its an invitation for someone (usually adults or possibly intimidating older children) to chase them.  That pretty much sums up the rules of the game.  The rest is just running around and squealing.  I think it may have been even more fun than Amara and Ethan's "Foop the bird" that they made up the other day when we were at the church.  Foop the bird pretty much consists of running up to palm trees (or monkey palm trees, as we call them) and making a strange moaning/growling sound.  Somehow, this "game" has managed to hold their attention.  Anyway, back to the reunion....  I'd play green and yellow nana again.

We spent two nights playing board games.  I ended up playing Settlers of Catan both nights.  Its a fun game, and somehow cramming 12 people around a game board meant for 6 really ups the crazy and fun potential.  There was an albatross flying around, and what were the names of those settlements again?  Pitter patter meets boom boom?  And why did one player sacrifice himself in a (failed) effort to take down two other teams??  I don't have any answers to the questions I just asked.  Sorry.  But, on numerous occasions I noticed that my face was hurting from the excessive laughing I was doing.

The always highly anticipated Untalent Show was spectacular this year.  When I first attended a reunion 6 years ago, I was skeptical.  I certainly did not want to get dragged up in front of everyone to do something stupid!  But, we seem to be developing a bit of a regular repertoire, like Sweetcheeks and the Bummetts, and Aunt Cindy's crazy song.  There was Boom slang Billy and Crocodile Kayla, Amara recited a silly poem about a pet hot dog, Daniel sang a love song about peanut butter and jelly.  There were lots of silly skits and jokes, and even a few piano and guitar numbers.  It was very low key, a lot of fun, and it always provides a bit of a window into participants' personalities.

All in all, I had a fantastic time.  I'm glad I married into such a fun and welcoming group, and I can't wait to hear about everyone else's thoughts, and see pictures, etc.

Cousin Melanie (who has finally crossed the threshold on the cool-o-meter and made it onto our blog roll to the right) recently chronicled her reunion adventures and has some great pictures, as well as some video from the untalent show.