On our first night in Texas we stopped in at Lenora's house where we met up with all the family. We make up a LOUD crowd! But it was super fun. It took a bit of time for my travel worn children to open up with their cousins and to follow the several different conversations going on during dinner but as soon as Rock Band was pulled out they were fast friends.
Nathan took all of the pictures in this collage. He thought he should have the guitar or drums the whole time and that wouldn't work with the number of kids that wanted to play so his feelings were hurt. I recognized the little-kid-stuck-in-a-big-kid-world look and went to get the camera for him. He felt very important taking pictures.
The Edards Reunion took place at a lake. When I heard that we were going to be outdoors all day long I thought we would all suffocate and fry to death in the humidity and heat. Luckily, the day was only in the mid 90's and I don't know what the humidity was but it was bearable. It helped to have a few clouds now and then. Levi didn't ever swim but spent the day shirtless working on his hot tan and he ate and chatted the day away with his cousins, Jarlath, Heaven, and Danielle. Erika and the other boys all swam off and on when they needed to cool down. Derek and Lilli spent nearly 5 hours in the water together and despite all that sunscreen Derek was burnt to a blistering, bubbly, red, sore, scream-when-touched sunburn.
It was so great that there was a full playground for Nathan and Hyrum (and Justin, Derek and Lilli). It had a fun climbing wall, little mini tree houses, slides and oodles of things to climb on. With the mixture of the heat and the playground workout, Nathan and Hyrum and I zonked for a while in the air conditioned camper (THANK YOU Scott and Lenora!!) which re-energized us for more fun.
It wouldn't be a complete reunion without food. Lenora and Amy planned everything (which was soooo nice!) and we all had plenty throughout the whole day. Somehow, the food seems to bring everyone together for reconnecting and a day full of chatter. It's not just for nourishment but a vital part of a true "reunion". Oh, and that big picture of Papa . . . my kids call that him "Cool Papa".
And of course there must be family pictures. We snagged a couple of strangers to take our big group picture and then we all took our turns taking each others family pictures with Papa and Grandma Cynthia.
The grandkids with Papa
One of my favorite memories from the lake is playing horse shoes with Robin. The guys had set up a whole tournament and we were stuck in there for a comedy round. We had some pretty wild tosses but in the end we did find all of our horse shoes and no one in the crowd was injured by a misguided throw. It was a long and close game (even though we only went to 7 points) but Robin won in the end. Great laughs!
My other favorite thing from the trip is Hyrum's love for his "Papa". He gets so excited when he sees his picture and every once in a while he will say "Go, Papa" or "where Papa". It will be a long time before he sees his Papa again but hopefully we can keep that love alive in the pictures and phone calls.
1 comment:
Oh my Gosh! I was scanning through the pictures and saw the one of Levi sitting shirtless at the table and stopped immediately. I couldn't believe how much that picture reminded me of LeRoy telling us about the picture of his "evil twin" with long hair. He looks so much like his dad!
It looks like you guys had fun. What a cool reunion. (Hyrum looks cute with his Papa)
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