**I wrote this a week ago, just slow getting all the pictures gathered.
WARNIGN PICTURE OVERLOAD (how do you decide which pictures to share? )
This past week has been wonderful. It has been full of family, fun, laughs, happy kids, ornery sleep deprived kids, water, red sand, poopy pants, sleepovers, treats, amazing food, sore muscles, treasure hunts, high fevers, water fights, and so so so much more.
This was the first annual Petersen Family Reunion. Yes, there must be a first for everything and this was it.
I grew up having a Burton Reunion every summer and we got to go camping and playing with all our cousins, there are lots and lots of us...somewhere like 33. It was so much fun. That is where i hold a large amounts of my happiest memories. As the family grew it became more difficult to get everyone and now all of a sudden it seems to have ended. This makes me sad. Those 33 some odd cousins are like brothers and sisters to me. We are all so close. I love them all. Seriously every single one of them. I miss them. So much.
Anywho, This year marked the beginning of what we used to have, at least that's my hope, but with our kids. The kids had so much fun. I loved watching them all play. It makes me happy.
The festivities started just after the temple Saturday. Chase and his family headed down to Grover, Mom and Gaylen stole away Kyler, Maddy and Craigy from their parents and they headed to Grover. The cousins got to play play play. There was lots of horse rides (Kyler is still talking about them and is determined to get back down there and this time he wont let me forget his cowboy hat) Lots of Ranger rides, Kyler being less than his crazy self due to a yucky fever, and even a fishing/water playing trip to a lake close to moms house. This was just Monday and Tuesday!
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| isnt heaven a place you can take off your pants and play in crystal clear water? |
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| Buddies |
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| How cool is Aunt Missy |
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| Do you think they are exhausted? They apparently fell asleep on the way home from the lake, on a bumpy bumpy road |
Me Brandon and Brooklyn, Luke Hil and Finners, Jake and Kim all showed up Tuesday night, and Kaitlin Wednesday morning. Bliss. Really. Makes me want to cry even now. We don't get to get all together very often, so to have everyone there. Perfection.
Wednesday:
Began with Gaylens famous pancakes. Then we took the kids on a little treasure hunt around my moms place (its big people, and its in the mountains, and its awesome fun for kids and adults) At the end the kiddos got a ice cream sandwich and water GUN!! They played with those amazing dollar store guns for i bet over an hour. They were in a little bit of heaven.
Then a quick lunch of brats and hot dogs and off again. We went to Trickle Falls. Now this is not the official name of the place. In fact the people who introduced my mom to the wonderful place call it Goody Mud. Both names are quite descriptive of it. Its a kids heaven. Shallow water, a little waterfall to climb on and lots of gooey gooey mud. Kyler was a little bit leery of going crazy with the older kids, but eventually he found his confidence and would slide down the waterfall and climb back up. The dads even had their fun lifting hefty rocks to dam up the water. Boys will be boys, no matter the age. We had a boat race out of peppers, they were so cute and the kids thought it was cool. Not as cool as i thought, but when there is 100 different things going on, can ya blame them. Brooklyn enjoyed eating the peppers after the race. If she gets sick, i guess i will know why, but taking it away from her would have been a fate worse than death. :)
After Trickle Falls we headed home cleaned up and had an A-MAZING dinner and dessert by the one and only Missy. She is my hero, in more than one way. She is an incredible cook, baker, mom and all that jazz. Bless her heart, she made Rolls, delicious stuffed chicken breasts, grilled zucchini and a salad and this oh so delicious and amazing and my mouth is drooling dessert that i cant remember what it was called so i am referring to it as fluffy heaven cloud food. Oh and i forgot to mention she did all this while her adorable Tessa was fevering (because of my sick kids passed it on) and not being a happy critter. Poor baby girl, it still makes me feel like a booger head for passing it onto her especially cause its scary when Tessa has fevers. (she went to the dr though Tuesday and got all better by Friday, just in time to leave the lake and fly home the next day)
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| Aunt Kaitlin is so fun |
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| Seriously, i love this kid |
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| happy kids |
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| Aunt Kim and Me were on Refill duty...and got attacked at the same time! |
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| Finn prefers to spray his own face/drink the water |
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| Refill station |
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| On your mark, get set, GO! (boat race) |
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| Ewwwy Gooy mud |
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| Poor fevering beautiful Tessa |
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| My climber |
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| Brotherly Love.....and yes that is mud all over Finns head. he was in heaven. |
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| Boys will be boys. The Dads built a dam |
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| Heaven. heavenly. |
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| Pooped |
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| Catching up |
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| Luke and Maddy built a way cool sandcastle |
Thursday:
Started off with delicious apple pancakes and appley syrup with walnuts and fresh pork from Lukes pig. Oh yum.Then packed up and headed to Bull Frog. We spent the rest of the day at the lake playing in the sand, mud and water. I might add now that wave runners might just be the most stress reliving thing in this world. I took off for a half hour while Brookie slept in the truck(yup running the whole time, sometimes burning money is worth it, way worth it) and i came back with tired arms and legs but a renewed heart and soul. There is something magical about going ridiculously fast over choppy water being splashed in the face the whole time. I felt like a renewed woman. The kids are so great to watch and play with. Brooklyn loved the water and LOVED the mud. She would poke at it and just grin, smoosh it in her hands and just giggle. Kyler again was a little leery, but by the end of the day Friday he was into it a lot more.
We all headed back to camp had some good ol dutch oven potatoes and BBQ pork and Peach cobbler and topped it off with a Creamy. Then we all passed out in bed. Tired kids, tired adults.
Friday:
Breakfast of Champions Yogurt, Bagels,
granola and fruit. Why do I love this breakfast so much? I don't know
but i do. Then headed to the lake by 9Am and played played played
played, ate ate ate ate and ate. :) The best was cramming everyone into
the boat, me and Brand took the wave runner and headed to Eden( there is
more to the name, but i cant recall) It was beautiful. It has calm
water. It was shaded. We all jumped in and swam around. It was
perfection. Kyler was scared to death. I asked him if he wanted to jump
back in after a short ride on the wave runner and he bluntly said "no,
not anymore. That's Fishy water." Funny kid. He defiantly didn't get my
love for the water. Brooklyn however tolerated it very well for a year
old baby.(somehow we didnt take pictures, oh ya cause we were all in the
water!) We all went back played ate packed up drove home. Stopped at
Stans and got my favorite ever in the whole world banana cream pie milk
shake from there, its kinda a tradition.
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| Kyler i dont think has ever been more tired. He fell asleep and stayed there for about an hour |
Saturday:
I wimped out Friday night and didn't get my meal made(it was a crock pot cook all night breakfast casserole). Ya, i know slacker. But no one told me i should and all thought it would be ok to have cereal. So with that i went to bed. Ahhhhhhhh sweet slumber. :) Then we all separated all the stuff we threw in 4 different trucks. Kissed and hugged Lukes family and Chases family and they departed. The rest of the day we took it easy. Took a trash run in the Ranger, Kyler and Brooklyn's favorite. They love that we were dubbed the trash takers. Its a good half hour ride to and from the dumpster. We watched a movie with Jake n Kim and Kaitlin and all fell dead asleep.
Sunday
Church. Roast dinner, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, salad. Perfection. Brooklyn fast asleep for the whole drive. Kyler zoned into Toy Story for the whole drive. Early bed time. Perfection again.
