The Reunion Rundown

We got back yesterday from our Skelton reunion. We were missing two of the siblings, and of course Dad, so it was a bit weird having so many missing, but it was awesome just being able to spend so much time with those that were there. I had a BLAST with all the kids. With 12 kids between 2 months and 12 years (not that the 2 month old required much other than his Mommy, but still!), I spent hours pouring over websites and craft books looking for ideas for activities to keep everyone busy, engaged, and happy. It could have gone better, but I think the kids had fun, so I'm happy. Here's some of what we did (sorry the pics are a little fuzzy...the camera got left out in the rain one day and it's still trying to dry out):

• ate!
• played tug o' war
• played stumps (tug o' war on milk crates between 2 people...hilarious)
• sword fights (our cute neighbors made us softie swords out of pvc pipes and swimming noodles covered in electrical tape for us to borrow). They were a huge hit...literally ;)
• Paper airplane contests
• Sand castle construction contests (the kids actually came up with this one on their own...brilliant!)
  
• Doll making (I made these really super simple dolls, and the kids got to color them and glue hair and clothes on them. I was surprised how all of the kids seemed to enjoy this one).
• bracelet making (I bought one of those big bags of super cheap chunky craft beads and let the kids go to town). My one nephew refused to take his off the entire time we were there...not sure if he's still wearing it or not ;)
• We had a big raffle. Everyone brought at least one item (kind of white elephant-ish), and then I got some tickets from Oriental Trading that we used. The kids were excited, but the big winner was my bro-in-law, Alex. He had his eye on some Reddi-Whip and his wife drew the winning ticket. Lucky boy!
• ate more!
• movie nights. The kids had a huge loft area room with lots of beds and a tv, so each night we would let them go up there, eat popcorn and watch a few movies before they'd finally pass out.
• An impromptu baseball game with Bryan, Alex, and the older kids. Sarah, Danelle and I even took a couple of runs. Who knew Sarah could run that fast holding one of her kids?! :) There was lots of sliding, diving, and the uncles I think are realizing it's only a matter of time before their skills get really tested by the older kids. We have some mad baseball skills in our family.
  
• My sis-in-law Danelle taught the older boys some card games, which they LOVED! The last day and a half they were there, we'd find them disappearing off to some corner to play Egyptian Rat Trap, or Golf or something else like that.
• Beach day. We headed out for Pineview dam and played on the beach for a few hours. We have a little blow up raft that we tied to a tree and let the kids row out a ways. The highlight for me was when Liah's hannah montana floatie that she won in the raffle was "accidentally" tossed out to sea. With her screaming, I hurried and jumped into the raft...mind you, I can't swim, I am uncoordinated when I'm NOT pregnant, and a disaster when I am. Somehow, I managed to paddle my way out to get it, and with everyone laughing their heads off, I awkwardly made my way back to shore. Getting OUT of the raft proved almost more difficult than the rest of the experience. At least everyone got a good laugh ;)
• Bryan did a family night on testimonies, and after a little object lesson, he opened it up for Grandma to pick kids to share their testimonies. It was so sweet to see how eager they all were to share their testimonies. It is funny how kids get the concept of what a testimony is and what it should involve better than most adults. It was a neat night.
  
• Danelle taught us how to play Speed Scrabble...my new favorite game. You don't play with a board, each player gets 3 tiles, and you all build your own word/crossword puzzles at the same time. As soon as someone makes a word, they yell "go" and everyone draws a tile. There are no turns, so it's just kind of a mad dash to build words until all the tiles were gone.
• Marne, Alex and Danelle took all the kids (yes, that's right ALL) on a hike up to a little pond. My nephew, David, came back bragging about his PERFECT skipping stone. He kept it, because it was too perfect to waste on skipping.
• Ate some more!

It was a fun few days...the kids are already talking about next year.