Skelton Family Reunion 2011

The moment my children have been asking about on average at LEAST once a day for 12 months has come and gone :)  We went to Pineview with Bryan's family for a few days, and it was neat because all of the siblings were there!  Everyone has such crazy schedules that pulling that off can sometimes take an act of Congress almost, but it happened!

We started off with a few of us heading to a baseball game thanks to tickets courtesy of Alex 'n' Danelle.  Bryan took this picture.  I was going to wait to post until he photoshopped it up, but you'll have to settle for my amazing crop job.  Isn't that just the sweetest thing?!

The next evening, we left for the cabin.  We ended up having to take Alex and Shadeau.  I don't know if I've posted about it or not, but Alex seems to be going a little senile.  He used to be really good at staying home and on our yard.  But for the last little while, any time the door would crack he would bolt.  One time he did it in a rainstorm and was lost for over 6 HOURS!  If I'm honest, I thought I would be secretly happy, but I was crying more about it than Bryan :)  The people who helped find him said he was in the middle of a busy street walking in circles.  He took off several more times after that over the next few weeks, and we'd find him a block or two away, but same thing...circles.  So, since getting a fence isn't an option at this point, we've just had to be super careful.  We didn't think he would handle a boarding house very well, and we couldn't see putting that kind of pressure on some poor unsuspecting neighbor kid to handle for that long, so along he (and Shadeau came).  They may drive me crazy, and frustrate me to the brink or beyond of swearing, but I really do love my little odd couple.

My kids now know their aunts are the greatest cooks in the world!  The first night we had yummy nachos, and my kids were all in heaven...except Zerin who was too busy playing to bother to eat...shocker.  Asher, who is going through a phase where he says "I no like [fill in the blank]!" to EVERYTHING, had thirds, so it was quite the success.  Liah told me I need to learn how to cook from Danelle, so be warned, Danelle, I'm coming for cooking lessons! :)

The second night, my other sis-in-law, Marné, wowed us all with her authentic Mexican taquitos and molé

(she just got home from serving in the Louiville Kentucky mission - spanish speaking).  ALL of my kids were chowing down...and picky little Asher had to be stopped after 4!

It was fun to be around my 10 nieces and nephews.  They are all have such different personalities...it's fun how those differences compliment each other so well.  For having 15 kids in the house, there really wasn't hardly any quarreling...they all did great together.  Here are pictures of two of them at least, well 3 if you count Orson in the background :)

This is my niece, Sarah Adelaide (Addie).  I got to meet her for the first time this weekend!  Isn't she squishable?!

This picture of my sweet little nephew, Cardon (who is only about 10 days younger than Addie).  I think he was in a bit of awe over watching everyone eat :) 

On Monday night, Marné gave family home evening for everyone.  I was SHOCKED how attentive all of the kids were.  All minus Bella, but she doesn't count...she's crazy (although somehow, Bryan managed to get a picture of her somewhat sitting down).

This was the pre-family picture family picture.  Our photographer was running a few minutes late, so we were trying to keep the kids entertained and contained (and clean) with a rousing game of simon says.  My sweet wonderful nephews who are 12 and 14 even acted entertained so the youngers would all stay put.  Talk about sweet boys!

I wish we had more pictures of all the siblings, but here's a precious pillowtalk moment for you with Marné, Laura, and Mom.

THE Baseball game.  I think Zerin was probably more excited for this than any other part of the cabin.

Here are a couple plus one more of my kiddies...

Aeden won these beauties at our raffle.  He wouldn't take them off for the rest of the night, and as a result, was sporting a nice little dent in the middle of his forehead when we managed to get them off for bed :)  I love it that his eyebrows are totally dislocated! :)

Our final adventure with the family was a trip to the beach.  The kids all had SO much fun, it was wonderful :) We've had a couple years of not so great beach days due to weather, but this one made up for them all, the kids had a blast :)

 

And after all that fun...this perfectly depicts the ride home :)  What a blessing to be able to get away for a bit, and for family that is willing to do all the work to make it happen!