Loveless Family Reunion 2018

My family was able to have a reunion from July 10th to the 15th(ish).  This reunion was very important. We haven't been together since December 2015. That was before my parents went on their almost-two year mission to Brazil and before Hillary and Joe were even engaged.  Four nieces and nephews were born since the last time we were together as a group. 

My parents came home from Brazil in October and spent time wandering around the country visiting their children.  We talked about having a reunion in December, but that didn't work very well for everyone's schedules.  So we decided to have a reunion in the summer.  

My sister Emily was the one who really took over the planning of this reunion. Everyone gave her a list of dates that worked for them and she did her best to pick a week that we all were free.  That was no small task since Brandon and I weren't really sure when his summer semester ended, Billy and Becca didn't know what his summer plans would be, and Emily and David themselves were planning to finish his Doctorate and move during the summer.  

Emily and David did know that they wanted to go on a big road trip after David was done with school.  They've been in Greenville, North Carolina for 3 years.  And for the past year they've been so busy with David's doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy that they hadn't really left the city.  

They were hoping to get a job out west and then their road trip would also be a moving trip. So Emily planned our reunion to happen in Utah and Idaho.  David's family once had a reunion in Lava Hot Springs and they had loved the area, so Emily wanted to do part of our reunion there too.  

That means that my sister Emily planned a reunion that she would have to drive over 2000 miles to attend.  Meanwhile it was only a 34 mile drive for me.  Brandon and I promised to help out a lot once everyone got here to make up for the fact that we didn't have to drive very far at all.

Emily did such a great job planning the reunion and we all had a great time.  Here's a group picture we took on Sunday.  Unfortunately we were missing my brother Billy and his wife Becca as well as Lindsey's husband John.  Even though we were missing three people this picture is still a success because we had 22 people from four states all together in one place wearing color coordinated outfits. That is no small feat.

So let's talk about the reunion.  First we have the prep.  

I knew Derrick would have a hard time with the different schedule for the week so I sat down with him and drew out the schedule for the week of the reunion.  He does really well with these picture schedules.  And he doesn't mind my stick figure drawings. 

Brandon finished his summer semester of school on Friday July 6th. (He earned another round of straight A's).  He didn't have much down time though because right away he started sorting through our camping stuff and getting it ready to go.

I spent Saturday packing with the kids.  I still hate packing, but a lot of the anxiety has gone away now that I make the kids help me. I sit on the floor in the girls' room, and I tell the kids to find clothes for a certain day. After they bring me the clothes I put all the outfits for one day into a grocery bag and label it with the date. Then I tell them the next day that I need clothes for.  We also laid out the clothes they would wear the day after we came back from the reunion.  I put all the underwear and socks into the mesh part of the suitcase and all the pajamas went into a large plastic bag.  It was still a big job to get everything packed, but since the kids picked everything out I didn't have to worry about matching clothes into outfits or anything like that.

I also did a lot of prep for the meals we were in charge of.  I went grocery shopping and Brandon helped me make the meals.  We stayed up late making breakfast burritos for everyone. 

I also put together little snack packs of home made granola to go into the community snack bucket.

My sister Emily planned to stay in Rock Springs Wyoming on Monday night and then arrive in Idaho sometime on Tuesday.  She would come to Pocatello for some real quick grocery shopping before checking in at our Campsite in Lava at 4:00.  But on Monday she told me that they were thinking about driving the extra 4 hours to my house that day.  I was so excited and hoped that they would do it.

At 7:30 that night she texted me and said they were going to keep going and would be at our house around 11:00.  Brandon and I passed the time by packing our clothes and loading up the jeep and the Honda.  Due to our schedules on Tuesday we realized it would be easier to take both cars to Lava.  We used that to our advantage and packed as much stuff as we could into each car.

True to her word Emily and Co pulled up in front of our house a little after 11:00.  I met her at her car and greeted her, David, and their FIVE children. Emily had her fifth baby, Vance, about 3 months ago.  So I met him for the first time. Emily had been pregnant with Hazel at our reunion in Alabama and so I met her for the first time too. I also said hi to Emily's other three boys, Asher, Bridger, and Titus.  Emily's van seemed full of kids.

We had an air mattress and the futon waiting for Emily's family so soon everyone was settled down for bed.  

Tuesday July 10th

In the morning our kids were so excited to wake up and see their cousins.  I hadn't told them they were coming because I didn't want to get their hopes up.   Derrick was so excited to hold baby Vance. 

We all would have loved to stay home and hang out with Emily and her family all day, but we all had things we had to get to.  I had to work this Tuesday to make up for the time I was taking off later the week.  Since I was working, and Brandon was out of school, he was going with the Adventure Camp kids on their weekly field trip. The field trip for the week was to an area a little east of Lava Hot Springs.  They went to Niter Cave, the Soda Springs Geyser, and Hooper Springs.  When the field trip was over Brandon signed the kids out and they drove straight to the campground near Lava Hot Springs.

I had a fun day too, but in a different way.  The department in charge of the concessions for the County's 4th of July activities turned back in their change and I got to count it.  I don't usually get to count a lot of coin or 1 dollar bills in this job, so it was fun to do that.  Whenever I count lots of $1's it always reminds me of the Bryan Regan bit where he talks about good reasons a plane could be delayed.  It was one of those days where piles were threatening to topple over and rubber bands were breaking.

After work I went home to change, grabbed the food out of the fridge and freezer, and then drove down to the campground.  When I arrived everyone already had the tents up and they were saying the blessing on the food.  We were staying at Crystal Springs Campground about 10 miles west of Lava Hot Springs. Emily found this place online and took care of booking it.  She did a great job.

Technically my parents were in charge of the meals for this day, but they'd hired my sister Hillary to cater the meal.  She'd made Tuscan Chicken.  It was sooooooo good.  In addition to the food being good, it was GREAT to see my sisters.  Here are Hillary and Emily holding each other's baby boys. These boys don't know it yet, but they are going to be buddies for life.

Lydia wanted me to get the guitar out and she played us a song, but no one was really listening.

Most of the kids went on a walk to the swimming hole. This turned into playing in the water.

After everyone came back up and changed into dry clothes we had a little campfire program.  But due to heat and little toddlers we opted not to actually light the fire.  My dad formally welcomed everyone to the reunion.  He wanted the grandkids to sing a song at our family talent show later in the week so he taught everyone the words.  He said that me and my sisters sang this at a stake event when we were children, but I have absolutely no memory of this.  When he started singing I was like, "I have no idea what this song is."  It went.

Mommy told me something
A little child should know
It is all about the Devil 
And to learn to hate him so

She says he causes trouble 
if you let him in the room
He will never, never leave you 
If you heart is filled with Gloom.

And then he sang the chorus and I suddenly realized I do know this song.  But I still have no memory of singing it publicly.

So let the sun shine in 
Face it with a grin 
Smilers never loose 
and frowners never win. 
So let the sun shine in 
face it with a grin 
open up your heart 
and let the sun shine in.  

[Edit: this is what I wrote for the chorus first. But Lindsey corrected me. I had this stuck in my head at church today.

Scatter sun shine 
All along the way
Cheer and Bless and Brighten
Every passing day]

My dad had the kids try to sing it a few times, but mostly everyone just mumbled it.  I figured we were headed for a disaster at the talent show.  My dad said the kids should practice it every night.

Soon after the program was over my Mom and Dad left to go check into their motel in Lava.

Our campsite was perfect for many reasons.  On was because it was across the river from a busy rail line.  Derrick was spellbound every time a train went by.  He could hear the whistle from miles away and would wait patiently until the train arrived and went passed the campsite.  He was in heaven.  Charlotte kept track of how many trains we saw during our three days there.  I think her final total was something like 28.

We put the kids to bed and then stayed up talking for a long time.  Derrick had a hard time falling asleep (probably due to the trains) so I let him sit on my lap while we stayed up late.  He fell asleep on me and it was so nice to snuggle with my big baby.

Wednesday July 11, 2018.

Brandon and I were in charge of the food all day on Wednesday.  We heated up the breakfast burritos, and cooked eggs and store bought hash brown patties. I hadn't realized that Lindsey's husband John wasn't going to be there, and I'd forgot that Hillary's husband Joe wouldn't come until Thursday evening so we WAY over estimated how much food we would need. But hey, at least no one was starving.

Our plan for the day was to go swimming at the pool in Lava Hot Springs.  So we got all the kids dressed in their swimming suits.  The pool didn't open until 11:00 so Lindsey put together a treasure hunt for the kids.  We had fun running around looking for clues.

The treasure was some candy that we divided up among everyone.

Our campsite had great shade in the evening, but little shade in the morning.  We made the best of what we had and found places for the babies to take naps.

Emily had the idea to have a communal snack bucket (it was really a laundry basket) Everyone brought snacks for it and we'd get it out and let the kids pick out what they wanted.  It was a great success.

Finally it was close enough to 11:00 that we could head to the pool.  I'm so glad the kids and I had been to the Lava pool the week before.  I knew exactly what to expect.  For example, I knew we could bring a canopy in and set that up for shade.  I also knew we could bring in coolers of food.  Knowing those two things helped us prepare for a DAY at the pool rather than just a few hours. My parents provided the canopy and Brandon and I took care of getting it set up.  It made an excellent base of operations for everyone. 

  It was also a great place for naps.

I don't know what we would have done if we didn't have this shade.

The pool itself was so much fun of course. We all had a good time in the water.  It was the perfect way to spend a hot July day.

Here's a picture of my dad playing in the water with his grandkids.  My kids are so lucky to have memories like this.  I never went swimming with my grandparents.

Derrick headed right for the slides and was so good at waiting in line for his turn.  I went with him a few times and ended up riding on every slide one time.  My favorite was the green twirly slide.  Veronica liked the little grey slide and went down it something like a 1000 times.

We had lunch around 3:00 because I told everyone I wanted the kids to be begging for lunch rather than us having to pull them out of the water.  When I came to the pool with Adventure Camp the week before the day care had packed a really yummy veggie pasta salad.  They kids hadn't liked it, but the adults couldn't get enough of it.  I decided that's what we should have on this pool trip.  I'd chopped up broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots on Saturday and had frozen them. They'd thawed out by Wednesday morning when I mixed them with sliced olives and added Italian dressing. I'd brought noodles to cook on Wednesday, but there were enough left over from Hillary's dinner that we just used those.  We also had cheese sticks and gold fish crackers.  The meal was a huge success.

After lunch we went back to playing.  I took the kids to the indoor area so we wouldn't be in the sun, plus it was fun in there.  I forgot to take pictures but Veronica played on the slide in there just as much as she had out doors.

Around 5:00 it was time to face the facts that we probably should be heading back to camp.  The adults were starting to wear out.  I took the girls into the bathroom to change and when we came back out the canopy was already down.

Back at camp we built a fire and roasted hot dogs for dinner.  I knew we wouldn't want to do anything fancy after a day in the sun and water.  Veronica's stick couldn't reach the fire so one of her cousins roasted her hot dog for her.  She kept saying, "He's helping me."

Here are all of our swimming suits hanging up to dry.

And here are our cars lined up in a row.

And here's our campsite.  We were so lucky to have such a large area all to ourselves.  We got some neighbors the next night, but even then they were in different areas than us and we never felt crowded.

Here are some of the kids eating together.  Charlotte was so happy to help feed Walter.

Brandon also made a peach cobbler that we had a little later.  It was really yummy.

That evening Emily led all the kids in Yoga.  Then they got into pajamas and went to bed so easily.

My mom and dad stayed up talking with us at the campground so my dad could see the Milky Way Galaxy.  The stars were so bright each night. 

Thursday July 12, 2018

In the morning Brandon set up the canopy and we used that for shade.  Everyone was super low energy this morning.  The kids were especially low key.  Swimming on the first day had been an excellent idea. Emily's family was in charge and they made crepes for us all.  I held Vance while Emily cooked.  It's so nice that I can hold babies now that my babies have grown up a bit.

We knew we needed something to do for the day and so we decided to repeat part of the kids' field trip from Tuesday.  We'd skip Niter Cave, but would go to the Soda Springs for the Geyser and Hooper Springs.  So we got in the cars and drove the 20 or so miles east.

Now I NEVER would have done this if I Brandon and the kids hadn't already been to the geyser, but apparently it's totally cool to walk on the travertine created by this geyser.  Brandon had said that he wasn't sure about this either when he first got there on Tuesday, but everyone else had been doing it.

The Soda Springs Geyser is a bit of a mistake.  Over 100 years ago settlers were trying to drill in this area to tap water to divert to a bath house when they inadvertently set off this geyser. It's pressure comes from carbon dioxide rather than heat so it's a cold water geyser that is perfectly safe to play in. It started erupting and basically never stopped.  The town put a timer on the geyser and now it erupts every hour on the hour.  Since it's not a "natural" geyser there aren't any real concerns about preserving it.  About the only rule in the area is to not put objects down the geyser spout.

And playing in the run off is perfectly fine.

Right on time the geyser erupted.  The kids happily played in it's spray.

I'm not sure if Old Faithful will ever be as cool to the kids now that they've seen this geyser.

Here I am getting cooled off by the geyser.  This was another activity that was perfect for a hot day.

I thought this was really pretty.

The eruption lasted about 5 minutes and we were all sad when it was over. We went down to where my parents were watching the eruption down at some picnic tables.  A few minutes later we saw the kids Day Care bus pull up.  I had completely lost track of the days and so I didn't realized that the Thursday group would be showing up.  Derrick proudly introduced his teacher to my dad by saying, "His name Grandpa."  A few minutes later Derrick wanted to hold Vance and we all laughed at the fact they were wearing matching pants.

We got back into our cars and drove a few miles to a park where Hooper Springs was located.

This is a naturally carbonated spring. 

It's also really pretty.

Brandon brought a package of drink mix and added it to a pitcher of the water.  Everyone tried out the "Orange Soda."  It tasted alright.

I just love this picture.

Emily set out hoaggie sandwiches at a picnic table and everyone ate those.  Then we walked over to a fun playground.

After a little while we decided to go back to camp.  It was our turn for the activity.  Derrick has really wanted "a water gun" for a long time and had told me in detail about how he wanted four so "Charlotte can have one, and Lydia can have one, and Derrick can have one, and Veronica can have one." I'd finally bought the water canons at the dollar store on Friday.  The kids had had so much fun with them that I went back and bought six more so we could use them at the family reunion.  At first I thought we'd have water in a bucket that the kids could use, but it made more sense just to do the water fight at the river.  Derrick had been asking about it all week and was so happy to finally play with his water gun.

I was feeling really tired so I stayed up at camp while Brandon and David took the kids down and played with them.

Later, Brandon had to leave for a rock climbing class in Pocatello so I went down and watched the kids. Lydia was using her canon to make a tunnel though this sand bar.

Everyone started getting cold so we went back up to camp and got everyone into dry clothes (again).  Then we had navajo tacos for dinner.  So yummy.

After dinner we built up the fire and then let it die down to be a perfect marshmallow roasting fire.

I'd brought things for s'mores, but Emily did me one better.  She brought sugar cones, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips so we could make ice cream cone s'more's.  These were really yummy - even though we did have some burning issues.

Everyone was very happy.  Hillary's husband Joe made it up from work and we were happy to see him.

All week long the kids had been playing some elaborate stick sword fighting game. It was fun to watch then play together.

Lydia got out her guitar and everyone listened to her play her song "St Lewis."

My dad wanted a recording of me and my sisters singing a song. We decided to do Lead Kindly Light. We did fine when we practiced it, but as soon as he started recording we got a serious case of the giggles.  Take after take was ruined by one of another of us bursting out laughing.  Finally Emily suggested we sing it through twice, the first one would be the crap version but by the second time through we should have a handle on things.  That worked out perfectly.

Brandon came back and I gave him the dinner and the s'more cone I'd saved for him.  He'd LOVED his rock climbing class.  It's a three week course that's done through the city's parks and rec department.  It's taught at the lava cliffs at Ross Park.  I'd bought the lessons as a father's day present for Brandon.  He spent the rest of the evening flexing his fingers trying to build up the muscles in his fingers.  He even did one or two finger tip push ups.

We put the kids to bed and then stayed up late playing Mafia.  My parents stuck around for this and it was so much fun!  The first time my mom was the murder and the second time it was my dad.  We all laughed really hard.

Friday July 13, 2018

In the morning it was time to started packing up and getting ready to move onto the Utah phase of the reunion.  We were in charge of breakfast again so we'd just planned cereal and milk.  But we also had leftover burritos and hash browns.  So we had those too.

My dad had asked for a picture of all the grandkids sitting on a low hanging tree branch.  But right before we got the kids ready, Rocky, who is the oldest grandchild slipped off.  We figured if he didn't have good balance in the tree than none of the kids should be in the tree.  So we sat them all on the hill and took the picture.

Brandon and I didn't want to drive to vehicles down to Salt Lake so we'd planned to drive the jeep back up to Pocatello before heading down to Utah in the Honda.  We figured this was a good time to jettison the camping stuff anyway.  So we put the tent and other camping gear into the jeep. Lindsey wanted to see my house so we decided that she would follow me up to Pocatello in her van and then I'd ride down to Utah with her.  Brandon and the kids would meet up with us somewhere.

So Lindsey and I were the first to leave. (Oh wait, actually it was Hillary because we planned to meet up at her house and she needed a chance to clean it.) When we got to my house Lindsey took a shower while I unloaded the jeep.  Then I took a shower.  Her boys were watching a movie on my TV so I let them bring the DVD and finish the movie on the way down to Utah.

We had a great time talking on the way down, and completely missed texts from Brandon saying that he, Emily, and my parents were meeting up at the Malad rest stop for Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches for lunch.

We were going to stay the next few nights at a vacation home in Murray, but we couldn't check in until 4:00 so Hillary's home became the temporary meeting place.  This suited everyone just fine since she has Super Smash Brothers.

At four we went to the vacation home.  The original plan had been to go to a home on the Pine View Reservoir in Eden, Utah.  (Yes the same Eden where my In-laws live) but about two weeks earlier the people in charge of that home contacted Emily and said that they had a septic emergency and had to cancel.  So Emily and David hurried and found us this place in Murray.

From the outside it didn't look like much.

But the inside was AMAZING.  There was a large living room.

An open kitchen/dinning room.

A nice outdoor deck.

A family room with a foose-ball table.

And four bedrooms.  Three of the bedrooms had either king or queen beds.  And the fourth had bunk beds.  All of the couches had couch beds.  Emily and I went around and decided who should sleep well.  We decided the older cousins would have the bunk bed room.  My mom and dad got the other up stairs bed room.  Emily and Hillary had the youngest babies so they got the two down stairs bed rooms.  Brandon and I didn't have any babies so we'd have the family room since we didn't need to worry about putting anyone down for a nap.  We would sleep on one couch bed and Derrick and Veronica would share the other one. And Lindsey would get the living room and we'd just have to figure out a room for Eliza to sleep in depending on the time of day.  Overall the house fit us all really well, though I wish Lindsey could have had a real room.

It was so nice to have a chance to give my kids baths.  They had had baths the previous Saturday and in the mean time they'd had swimming lessons, played in the geyser, went swimming at Lava Hot Springs, played in the geyser again, and had been camping for three nights.  They were ready for baths!

There was only one down side to the house, the kids had less places to play.  The wide open spaces of the campground were now traded for sitting in front of the TV.

But we were all pretty camped out, so that was okay.

Lindsey was in charge of dinner that night and all the meals the next day so she went to Costco and picked up a bunch of stuff.  She also ordered pizza from Pizza Hut. That was a great idea. 

 When it was time for the older cousins to go to bed I had them all pick a sleeping buddy and then we drew names out of a cup to see who got what bunk.  Charlotte and Lydia shared a top bunk, and Titus and Knoxx shared the other.  Rocky and Asher were supposed to share a bottom bunk, but Bridge was so sad that he didn't have a buddy that Rocky went and shared with him.  I told the kids, "The life story of Valerie Illguth" for their bed time story and eventually they all went to sleep.

After the kids were in bed we stayed up late playing Malarkey. Again there was a lot of laughter.

Saturday July 14, 2018

In the morning we got up and Lindsey made us toast with avocado, hard boiled egg, and mustard on top.  We could also have yogurt. Then the adults got dressed in Sunday clothes and the kids got dressed in regular clothes.

One thing my dad had really wanted to do during this reunion was to have all of us go to the temple together.  He was so insistent on this that he even planned to pay for our temple clothing rental and our babysitter.

The original plan had been to do sealings in the Ogden Temple and have my aunt Cheryl and some of my cousins watch all 13 kids, but that changed when the Eden house fell though.  So then we switched to the Jordan River Temple.  But we realized that Cheryl was still the best babysitter so we decided to still take the kids there and then go to the Bountiful Temple.  So that is what we did.

We didn't take any pictures outside the temple since we were on the clock with a babysitter and small babies, and we couldn't take any pictures inside the temple since that's not allowed.  But we had a great time.  I did take a mental picture of me and my sisters all dressed in white looking into a mirror together.  My sisters looked like angels.

Doing the sealings was really special.  I think the best part was when Hillary and Joe had a chance to be sealed as proxy for a real couple. My parents had just arrived in Brazil when Hillary and Joe got married so they didn't get to go to their wedding.  It was really special for them to see Hillary and Joe at the alter. I hadn't been at there wedding either since I was in Alabama and Brandon was in flight school so I was glad I could see them there too.

When we were done we rushed back to Cheryl's to rescue the kids from the babysitters (or maybe it was the other way around.)  My uncle Johnny gave us a tour of his fabulous garden.  His berry patch is what dreams are made of.  We all helped ourselves to plenty of raspberries. 

Lindsey had packed chicken salad sandwiches and so we went to a nearby park and had those while the kids played.

Then it was back to the house for more lounging around.

We'd kicked around ideas of going to see a movie, and later we realized we all should have gone to get pedicures and our favorite nail salon/school.  But none of those ideas came up.  I think we were so tired we just forgot. The kids watched TV.

And the mom's napped.

I played with Walter for a little bit.  He is so smiley!

When Emily woke up she got out her activity for the day.  She'd made a matching game with everyone's pictures.  Derrick LOVED it.

She'd also made a bingo game out of the pictures.  Derrick also loved this.

She gave out candy and faux mustaches for prizes.  The mustaches were a huge hit.

It was a running joke that Vance looked like a Julio and when we put the mustache on him he REALLY looked like a Julio.

Like mother like son.

Someone decide that we needed to do a spelling test.  My mom is the only one in my family that can spell.  She gave up on us kids long ago.  Brandon, David, and Joe decided they should be the ones to come up with the words on the test.  They went in the basement and conferred and giggled for a long time.  Then they came upstairs and made me, Lindsey, Emily, and Hillary take the test.

Lindsey and I tied for the high score of 10 out of 22. A lot of the words gave me flashbacks to stressful times in 4th and 5th grade.

Here are all of our tests.

Us sad little spelling dunces.

Later we came up with a "Family History Quiz" for the boys to take.  It had questions like, "what state was Rhonda born in? and name one teacher any of us had in school."

Lindsey made us Imitation Costa Vita pulled pork taco salad for dinner.  Again, super yummy.  We ate so well on this reunion.  The kids had all been dying for a chance to get in the hot tub so we pulled out the suits and let them play.  If you think the tub looks crowded in this picture.

You should see this one.  11 out of the 13 grandkids were in the hot tub together.

They had contests to see who could hold their breath the longest and they played when the bubbles came on.

We got the kids out of the tub, put them to bed, and then the parents took a turn in the tub.  We had fun joking and laughing in there for a while. Then we went inside and joked and laughed some more.  We stayed up until midnight so we could which Lindsey happy birthday.

Sunday July 15, 2018

We had cereal for breakfast again on Sunday morning.

Then everyone got ready for church.  We'd figured this would be our best chance to take family pictures.  We decided rather than coordinate specific colors we'd just do our best to dress in blue and white.  Hillary set up her DSLR camera in the back yard.  As she started telling all the kids where to go she told them, "who ever smiles and stays where I tell them to gets a dollar."  Instantly she had all those kids in the palm of her hand.  Even Derrick was motivated by the promise of a dollar.   The result was the BEST family pictures we've ever taken.

Here are my parents surrounded by their 13 grandchildren.

 Hillary, Joe, and Walter.

 All the grand kids on the stairs.

 Emily, David, Asher, Bridge, Titus, Hazel, and Vance.

 Me and my family in the best family picture we've taken since February 2014.

.

 My Mom and Dad

 Lindsey, Rocky, Knoxx, and Eliza.  Eliza is crying because she bit Knoxx.  Knoxx is smiling because Eliza had to give him her dollar as a way to say sorry.

 My parents with their four daughters.

Lindsey had randomly picked an LDS church for us to attend so at 11:00 we went to Sacrament meeting with a ward that was probably wondering where these 22 people came from.  At the end of the meeting the Primary President came up to Emily and asked her if all the kids would be attending primary that day. Emily probably made that lady's day when she told her, "no, we just came for Sacrament Meeting."  The person conducting the meeting had said at the end of the meeting, "all of you who are hear for the ordination of Brother So and So please stay in the chapel.  The bishops office doesn't have room for all of you."  I'm sure he thought we were there visiting family and I'm sure that the bishop and about 5 other people were standing in the chapel saying, "where did that large family go?"

The answer was that we went back to the house and quickly changed our clothes.  During the family pictures the kids had discovered that the backyard was home to lots of snails. Thanks to Hillary's bribe none of the snails made it into the pictures, but the boys were still eager to play with them.  They spent the afternoon playing with the snails. They did races and things like that.

And the boys were not afraid to hold the snails.

David rigged up his laptop to the TV so we were able to look at the family pictures all together.  We oohh'ed and awed at them all.

Everyone else would be staying at the house and extra night, but I had work the next day and the kids had adventure camp so we were heading home that evening.  We gathered and packed everything up.

But the fun wasn't quite over yet.  Hillary had scheduled use of her church cultral hall and we were going to have a dinner and talent show.  We also invited our aunts and uncles and cousins.  My Grandma Mary Ann came too.

I'll admit, I was a tad grumpy by this point.  I think I was sad that our reunion was over, and also a little homesick for my own home and bed. (That couchbed could have used an extra inch or two of padding.) Plus Derrick was acting up.  He'd made it all the way until Saturday before having a melt down.  I'd got him calmed down, but he was back at it at the church.  He couldn't articulate it, but I think he was saying, "why aren't we going home yet?  I saw you pack everything.  What are we doing here?"

Hillary had made curry for us for dinner which was a bold choice considering how many kids we had there.  But she had plain rice which went over well with my kids.

Lydia LOVED the chopsticks and tried eating everything with them. She even put them in my bag so she could use them at home.

After dinner we started into the talent show portion of the evening.  The kids got on stage and sang the best version of Scatter Sunshine we'd heard all week.

Lydia sang us St Lewis.  I love this picture of her singing on a stage. Right now she really just goofs off with the guitar, but I love how confident she is.  I want to get her into lessons eventually.

Emily's family sang a song about North Carolina.  David accepted a job with a University in Raleigh North Carolina so they are going to be calling that state home for a while.  (This was also the real reason we'd brought the guitar along all weekend - so David could use it for this song.)

This was a VERY laid back talent show so when Charlotte decided that she wanted to dance in the program when we showed up at the church it wasn't a problem.  My dad had a bunch of music on his phone so we just picked a song she liked, (Home, by Philip Philips) and played that on the phone while she twirled and hopped.

And what was Derrick's talent.  Well he was taking a nap with Brandon in the foyer.

Emily's kids have all had piano lessons all year and so they played some little songs.  Veronica wanted to do a talent too so she played a song on the piano.  Afterwards she told me we need to find the key to our piano at home so she can play more.  Maybe I'll have to get the kids into Guitar, Dance, Piano, and ABA lessons this fall.

Oh and that's where my pictures end.

The end of the reunion was kind of anti climactic for my family.  We just said goodbye to everyone in the church parking lot and drove off.  It didn't seem real that we were saying goodbye to some of them for what could be years.  Thank goodness for phones and the internet or else I don't think I could stand living so far away from my sisters.

We drove up to Pocatello without stopping and put the kids in bed.  I was so happy that I'd already put the kids changes of clothes into their backpacks for the next day.  They had swimming lessons in the morning and then a trip to the pop corn shop in the afternoon. Brandon spent the day cleaning up all the camping stuff.  I spent the day at work.

My sisters all finished out the reunion with a trip to Lagoon.  All the adults and kids had a great time.  Brandon and I had been invited to bring our kids along, but I didn't want to spend all that money for our kids to just ride a few rides.  When we go to Lagoon we are going to GO TO LAGOON. We'll go when the kids are old enough, and brave enough to ride most of the roller coasters.  Right now the plan is to go when Charlotte and Lydia are 10, Derrick is 9, and Veronica is 8.

And so thus ended the great Loveless Family Reunion of 2018.  All week long we'd been talking about making this an annual thing.  We'd love to meet up somewhere every summer.  So I'll end this post with the phrase that we said a lot this week:

Next year in Nauvoo . . .