Family Reunion

We loved every minute of our visit!  In describing what we did I may get some of the activities out of sequence, but they all happened.  :o)  We arrived in Salt Lake and Heather picked us up and took us to Kathy's where she was so gracious to let us stay in her comfortable room and sleep in her bed.  We got to see Colin and Grace and Lisa (who has a newly repaired knee) and enjoyed conversation and ice cream sundaes before going to bed.  

Thursday morning we went to Heather's to see what Jer could do about helping her get some air conditioning in her bedroom.  Because of the size and shape of her window she finally bought an a/c that sits in the room and has a tube that goes out a hole in the window.  The man got it installed after several trips to Home Depot for boards and tape, polyurethane spray etc to block the rest of the window space.  She is cool now in the night!  

Then we visited Kathy's classroom where she is organizing the materials in her cupboards.  She is now the head first grade teacher there and has lots of streamlining ideas for her room.  We couldn't do anything to help her, though, because it's all a matter of deciding what to do with the rest of the materials she has.  In the evening we had dinner at her place and Tyler came over to visit.  It was great to see him!  

Friday morning some went to the temple to do family baptisms and I had forgotten my temple recommend and couldn't go.  I need to keep it in my wallet instead of in my bag.  :o(

At noon we got to see Erin and take her out to lunch for her birthday.  We went to The Med and had Mediterranean food that was really good!  I loved the warm pita bread and baba ganoush.  

After we returned Erin to work we stopped in at Bennetts to visit a little since we were in the area.  It was great to see them and Susan and Matthew who accompanied his mom.  Susan said he was the hit of the whole plane flying out and the restaurant where they had dinner the night before.  He is a happy little guy that will visit with anyone for a little while.

  The Men

And then we went back to Kathy's and got our banana pudding and went to the barbecue at Collinses.  Kristin was still on her way from Salt Lake but she said to make ourselves at home and she would be there shortly.  Stephanie and Vince and Rachael were there and opened the pool for us.  Bennetts and Susan and Matthew swam.  Pretty soon everyone was there and we had such a very satisfying visit with everyone.  Brian and Kenzie and Stephanie and Vince and Rachael and Scott were all there and it was great to get to know Kenzie better and meet Vince and see how well suited he and Stephanie are for each other.  We got to visit with Sean the whole evening, and Erin and Brian reconnected and Scott and Atticus had fun playing together.  Scott is awesome on the pogo stick and Atticus was finally able to do pretty well on it too.

At the barbecue it was also decided that the next family reunion will be at Disneyland in 2017.  That way we can get to see Adam and Thadeus!  Heidi will be in charge of the arrangements and Kathy will be the resource person since she has been there and done that lots of times.  

Saturday morning we got to Collinses too late to help much with Brian and Kenzie moving to their new house, but we did get to help a little and then see their house.  They will have it so cute in just a couple months!  Kenzie is awesome at decorating and making things nice.  They have a cute little 3 bedroom ranch style house with a renter in the basement who keeps an eye on it while they are gone.  

Then we got Kathy and went to Salt Lake to have lunch with Erin and Kathy together.  I love the big get togethers and these kinds of small ones too.  

In the afternoon we went to Fat Cats in Ogden to play.  No one wanted to do things in the sun and wait in lots of long lines as we would have to at the outdoor venues that had been suggested.  We bowled first.  We had a lot of fun even though none of us were very good bowlers.  It's not about winning, right?  While Susan was bowling someone held Matthew and he wasn't very happy about that till Collinses arrived.  Then Rachael and Kristin and Kinzie traded off taking him and he was perfectly happy with them.  

Then we played arcade games.  They had a lot of fun competing and winning and losing and playing again.  

This is the motorcycle races.  Susan and Heidi and then Atticus all liked to race.  It was fun for us to watch.  

Sean bought us all dinner in the diner there even though we didn't want him to.  It was nice enough of him to let us bowl for free and get tokens for less.  We went home happy to have been together and had fun.  

Sunday morning we got to visit with Kathy at home for a while.  What a pleasure it is to get to stay with different families and have time to visit!  At 1 we went to Collinses ward and saw Sean released as bishop.  A happy and sad day for their family.  It will be so good to have him home with them.  When we got up to go Scott said to Kristin, Does that mean he'll be coming home with us?  He has been bishop for 6 years.  Scott hardly remembers when Sean wasn't gone most of Sunday.  Now they will have time to be together more.  

After attending church at our old family ward after Collinses ward,  we went to Bennett's for another get together.  It was super to get to see the Poulsons who had been at a Teuscher reunion before.  The kids are all getting so big!  It's hard to believe that Aubrey will be in junior high!  Can't be our little girl that old.  And Henry has his big teeth coming in!  And Ella is just as sweet as always.  

We took a taco salad that we forgot to bring the meat for but it was all okay.  Everyone had plenty to eat and everything was really delicious.  We talked and visited and talked and visited.  Atticus and Henry climbed their tree and we all enjoyed the afternoon in their backyard.  When it began to get dark we went inside and played Mafia.  That was fun!  It was fun to see that some of our people are pretty good liars!  

All in all it was a wonderful time together.  I wish EVERYONE could have come, but that's the way it is with a family this big.  People have other obligations that have to be met.  We can hope that the next one will allow more of us to be there and come together.  I love every one of these people more than I can say.