Where Have You Been?

I certainly appreciate you asking, I've missed you, too. Nothing like a big time family reunion to make you forego normalcy and schedules and all things involving logging in. But now that the party of 27 has left town (and all the laundry's done), it seems a little...quiet. We’re missing everyone! We thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd edition of the "GR8 KIDS" reunion organized by the amazing Cindy and Cameron. Here's the Top Ten Highlights.

10) The sleepover. When "the closet" and "the hallway" make their way onto your "where people will sleep" list, it's no surprise some kids end up sleeping on other kids' butts.

9) The food. Each smaller family unit was put in charge of a meal, meaning I only had to think about food preparation once over four days. And I turned that over to KFC. So since I had so much free time not planning meals, I had more time to eat. Leading us to our next highlight...
8) Just Dance. Cameron can wiggle. Dallin will groove. Mom will shake it out-but only to the Beach Boys. Even the single guys' girlfriends busted out to Wii's interactive dance party. Surely, we burned off a few bags of peanut M&M's?
7)Getting to be a tourist in your own backyard. So just because I can go to Disneyland whenever I want, doesn't mean I don't want to go on days like-- July 1st. But who lets a little summer heat and heated crowds stand in their way? Not the GR8 KIDS crew! We enjoyed a splendid day at California Adventure. Some of us wore fanny packs. Some of us held onto ropes. And ALL of us wore matching t-shirts. We totally blended in.

6) Minute to Win It. If you were so lucky as to be at the Talega Pool, you may have seen stocking covered heads trying to knock down water bottles with tennis balls, or two ultra competitive spouses stacking Ding Dongs on their foreheads while chocolate melted down their faces. Yep, that was us.
5) Drama. What reunion is complete without it? But if you didn't have all that stewing, plotting, crying, and sabotaging, I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate the times where everyone's getting along. Yeah! There were some of those, too.
4)Human alarm clocks. My cute nephew, who is wired to east coast time, is as reliable as a snooze button at making sure I'm up at dawn. And every ten minutes after. Luckily, I know how to put a pillow over my face.
3) Watching someone fall. Cruel, but always funny. While laughing our heads off at the ridiculous movie "Knight and Day," my husband was inspired to try his own stunt as he leapt over the theatre seat in front of him to run to the restroom. And got his foot wedged between the arm holders, and had to have a female relative pull him out. Blah ha ha! That's what family's for.
2) Talent night. So there was one good reason for Countess LuAnn to record that dreadful "rap" song, "Money Can't Buy You Class." So my sister and I could don evening wear and Monopoly money and lip sync to it.
1) The lawn chair moments. When you have four full days of sitting around with the people who've known you forever and still love you, and are able to laugh as you watch your own children grow up together, summer just doesn’t get much better than that.