Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Let's Break It Down...

I want to share with you all the fun we had at our recent family reunion held here in the great city of Denver, CO. I shall do this one day at a time so you get the full effect. It was the first official reunion my siblings have had and, if I may be so bold, it won't be the last. Sure we have the big reoon every other year with all my dad's siblings' families, but there is something special about just being with your own brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.

We laughed. We teased. We made memories. We bonded. Plain & simple.

DAY ONE

First of all, when scheduling this reunion (I was the host, btw), I didn't even THINK to check my kids' school schedule. "There is no WAY my kids start school as early as August 5th," I thought to myself. "NO. WAY." So we scheduled the reunion to be from Aug. 5-8th. At some point I find myself looking at the school schedge and whaddayaknow? My kids start school on August 5th. Freakin A. Luckily everyone was driving in on the 5th and would be arriving around dinner time. So the boys got up and had a full day of school that day. They had half days the rest of the week so they could be involved in most of the family reunion activities.

Here are the two yahoos on their first days of 4th and 2nd grade. I think TBone's "2 Cool 4 School" tshirt was a nice touch. His teacher needs to know what she's in for early on. Foreshadowing, if you will. It's a classic literary device.



Everyone then arrived just before dinner time and the partying began. On the agenda for Day One?

1) Eat.



2) Hang Out With Cousins




3) Celebrate the fact that August 5th is Dave & Tonya's 20th Wedding Anniversary!



4) Get everyone settled in rooms/hotels.

So yeah, Day One went down in the record books as a success. Never before had a family been so well fed, hung out with cousins so much or celebrated an anniversary so much (that literally might have been the yummiest cake I've ever eaten).

Next up?

You guessed it. Day Two.

8 comments:

Flem said...

Did you make that cake? Looks yum.

And can you give us a code of whose kid is whose? Cuz that blonde kid giving the peace sign looks a lot like one of your bros but I don't want to have to keep guessing like that.

Hosting your sibs is right up your alley btw. Can we get links to their blogs so we can read about it from the visitor perspective?

Memzy said...

1. Second pic from the bottom. That kid on the right looks freakishly like Tonya.

2. I can't wait to see where everyone slept. Hopefully with pictures.

Elder Jack Anderson said...

The blond kid with "one hand in his pocket and the other one giving the peace siiiign" ::sung like alanis:: is Dave's kid... I bet you were thinking Scott weren't ya. Haha! Gotcha!

The two girls together...blonde, scott's youngest. Other, Dave's youngest girl.

The kids lined up on the wall... mine, daves, scotts, mine, scotts, daves.

None of Nathan's are pictured on this post... hmmmm...this will be rectified in the next post.

Carol said...

The food looked yummers. To whom may we give credit? You and/or Grampa Jack? The cake is beautiful but alas, not as pretty as mine. And how did your house fare? Any broken windows (Bil's house circa 1970 something) or food fights (Jim's house circa 1970 something)? I'm sure your sibs are much more mature.

ManicMandee said...

Love reunions. Especially the ones with sibs and their kids. Looks like it was a hit.

eekareek said...

August 5th!!!! Seriously!!! That is way too early to go back to school!!! Is it year round or something? I may be moving to Denver...

E said...

Oh man, all this LBJ stuff is killin me. Request for part two: Tell us who everyone is and how they are related to you. I'm gonna figure these Jetsons out if it's the last thing I do!

Elder Jack Anderson said...

The food was a collaborative effort by my dad, mom and myself. All the rest of 'em just drove 12 hours and ate it! The nerve... and the cake was from a yummy bakery here that Nathan & Annalisa love. They were in charge of ordering it and they came through.

My dad's theory was we feed them well on the first night then we could feed them crap the rest of the time and they would still always remember that first meal. He's genius.