Hoopes Reunions

Oh we were so reunioned out by the end of August!  I though my mind was going to explode if I even hear the word again!  But back in June we had on of the first with Moms family the Hoopes'.  Mom was in charge this year and we had a lot of fun seein everyone and visiting.  Again Steve was gone working, I'm starting to think he doesn't like reunions and avoids them at all cost!  Linda took all the pictures and just got the CD to mom, we had both forgot our cameras so thanks Linda.


Here's Mom and me

Mom planned lots of games for the kids and they had a blast playing all of them

Seth was most excited about the sack races, he hadn't done it before and thought it sounded like tons of fun.  I think his smile shows what he thought of it

 

Tug of war

Grandpa tried to throw Damen into the water....

But he jumped over it instead, look at that straddle

 

 

 

 

Other kids just couldn't avoid the water and sought it out.  There's little Cam dumping water on his own head.  He's such a water boy!

And once again we got some good use out of our rocket launcher

 

The four sisters, Mom, Judy, Sharon, Helen

The cousins who came:  front, Ben, Me, Jen, Megan
Back:  Darci, Cynthia, Michele, Spence, Clark

My cute Railey

This was just too cute to not post, even though none of them are mine.  Look how these three little boys were just drawn to that puddle of water and are loving every minute of it before their parents find out!

I think that's the end of the summer of reunions.  I think though that Steve's family-The Rays- had one that we didn't go to because he was gone and I was sick.  Too bad we could have even more pictures of reunions!!!

James Family Reunion

We had another great James Reunion in August.  Oh boy was August busy.  We need to make sure that doesn't happen again, there was barely time to go school shopping!  But we headed up Hobble Creek Canyon to a park up there and the kids had a great time.  The little ones played on the playground most of the time while the older ones played in the stream.  I pretty much only had to keep my eyes on the girls since the boys were to busy with cousins.  Steve came and dropped us off but then had to head back to soccer practice and work the next day so it was basically the kids an me again.  Oh well, he was back in time for dinner and to take us home!

 

I didn't know there was going to be water to play in so I didn't even think to bring swimsuits.  Oh well the boys got by and the girls are still small enough that they can run around in their underwear.

 

 

 

 

I love this picture.  I believe it's Damen, Zac, and Seth

More playground pictures.  Railey was so proud of herself for climbing to the top!

Although I complained a lot about going camping for one night (because I think it's easier to go camping for 5 nights than just for 1- it takes the same amount of packing and prep time) we did have a lot of fun and it was good to see everyone again.  Thanks Ben and MaryAnn for planning all of it!

Randomness

The kids have had a teacher that would give them sunflowers to plan every year to give to their moms for Mother's Day.  Well now it's tradition and the kids just love doing it.  This year we had some volunteers from last year, but we also planted a couple. This one by far was the biggest we had ever seen/grown.  It was beautiful unitl it all flopped over and you couldn't see it anymore unless you got right under it and looked up.  But I'm glad we got a couple of shots before it did that.

 

 

More randomness.  Seth put jerseys on all the girls when they were playing one day.  They were so proud to be wearing them for about 10 minutes and then they were done and ready to get back into the princess dress ups.

Seth, Kenna, Kate, Railey

We sold our tent trailer towards the end of August.  The money was nice but we also have Mom and Dads that they haven't used much over the past few years so we figured we'd get rid of ours and use theirs.

We also sold Steve's motorcycle.  He hadn't ridden it in over two years and it was just taking up space in the garage.  I think he was a little sad to see it go but like he said, "I'm done with my mid life crisis, it's time to move on."

Big Bailey Reunion

I took the kids and we left Steve home to work and we headed up towards Liberty and Eden for the Big Bailey Reunion.  Oh my goodness is it beautiful up there.  I  could easily live up there, just gorgeous!  Anyway we had rented a big lodge that is used for girls camps and though we camped outside in camp sites we had the lodge to gather in and eat in.  It was perfect.  The kids loved wandering all over, playing games, and playing ball most of the time.  Others brought crafts and other fun things for the kids.  I was just in survival mode at this point so I had brought nothing.  It was a week after our cruse and a couple days before the James reunion and I was just feeling completely overwhelmed with life and pregnancy and just not feeling too hot so I let others provide the entertainment.


One of the things the kids did was make rockets and then shoot them off by jumping on a pop bottle.  Man those things would fly.  It worked just as great as our launcher and you didn't have to use a noisy compressor the whole time (just a bunch of hot air and some jumping skills)

 

There's Railey mid jump

There's Damen just landing

These two built a rocket together

Standing in line for their turn to launch again.  Probably the 100th time.

The next day Aunt Kathy had a bunch or relay games for the kids.  They had a great time playing.  Especially Railey, she was always first because she was the youngest in her group but that girl never fails with her smiling face.

 

Kenna stayed by me and just smiled for the camera, that's a change.

Carrying a marshmallow on a spoon.

It really was a lot of fun and even more fun to spend time with all the cousins that we don't get to see very often.  Railey made friends the fastest with all her cousins and is still asking about them and making sure they are still her cousins.  In fact the other day she got to see Benji and was so excited that he was still her cousin and they got to play together.  The boys even made some friends with some of my cousins kids by the end of camp and everyone involved had a great time.  I'm so glad we make the time to still get together with everyone!

The Cruise

After many years of talking about it.  We finally decided to go and do it.  We went on a cruise this summer.  Mom and Dad, Ben and Nat and Grandma came along as well.  We were so lucky to have Grandma James watch the kiddos for us while we were gone for 9 days.  Oh but it was just so nice to get away just the two of us (even though there were 5 others).  We had a great time just relaxing and spending time together.  We drove down to St. George on Saturday night and spent the night then woke up early and made it to Los Angeles in time to board at 1:00.  I have other pictures of us boarding the ship but I think they are on Steve's phone.

We spent the first day and a half at sea and then finally made it to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and spent two days there.  The first day we just walked around and went to this little place to eat.  The second day some snorkeled, and some of us just spent the day on the beach.  But both had a great time

 

 

We thought this sign was hilarious.  I still have to show the doctor.  I keep forgetting.

This is off the point of the peninsula.  When we were done snorkeling the took us on a little boat ride around the end of the peninsula and this is some of what we saw.

 

 

 

After two days there we went to Puerta Vallarta.  It was completely different, in many ways but still the vendors there trying to get you to buy there stuff.  Oh can I just say ANNOYING.  I hated it.  I would only go to the people that wouldn't bug me.  If they tried I would just keep walking!  But it was here that we went on a tour of the city.  We hired a guy to drive us around and he did.  We went everywhere.  We saw how tequila was made, we went into a drug store to buy Mom some Penicillin, we went to parts that I'm sure the government wouldn't have wanted us to see how run down and trashed it was.  We saw all the beautiful motels and resorts.  Basically all spectrum's of the place.  Our guide was so nice and such a gentleman with all of us especially Grandma.  It was a fun day but I was definitely worn out by the time we got back to the boat.

 

Ben, Nat, and Steve weren't tired though and were bound and determined to find a beach.  So they went through this motel and walked out the other doors onto a nice beach and had fun swimming a long for a while.

The boat itself was ok.  I got tired of it by the end.  I stayed up on my meds so I really never got too sick but the environment and decor of the boat really played on me.  I felt like we were in a casino the whole time and really didn't like that.  But we had fun hanging out, eating way to much foo (don't ask how much weight we gained), going to shows, playing games and eating more and more food.  And every night when we would come back to our room we would find some little animal made out of towels.  Some were dogs, monkeys, sting rays, hearts, frogs, and more.  They really were quite clever.

We had a great time.  I just wish I had remembered to clear my memory card on my camera before we left because I couldn't take too many pictures.  That's why there are more on Steve's phone.  When I download them I will upload them here.  But it was so nice to just get away.  It's been about 7 years since we had done that just the two of us and I must say it was very much needed.  We came home with new resolves and more determination to show our love to each other as well as to our kids.