Stella loves to be a little mommy with Alyvia.
The newlyweds. Poor souls had to sleep in the living room where everyone wanted to stay up late, eat, and talk. Gee, I hope they got to sleep a little bit.
A new, yet hilarious, game. The point is to try to wrap your nylon weighed down with a tennis ball to wrap around your opponents and rip the nylon off of their head without whacking yourself in the face with the tennis ball. Facial hair is a bonus for this game.
"Boy, you've got a panty on your head." - Who knows what movie that quote is from?
More stretchy material games.
Tater-Tomater
Several hours of volleyball. I never realized how competitive and athletic my family is.
The kids kept occupied by the giant parachute.
My cousins wife Nancy was entertaining the little girls under the shade of a tree by making them necklaces and animals out of the lush leaves.
My niece Kaiah and my cousin's daughter Sienna with the butterfly.
Stella with the cool necklace.
I was the recipient of their gifts.
However, I saw Denica eyeing it, so I gave it to her.
Sweet Alyvia
My brother Adam was always laughing at something.
The water balloon toss & relay. Some of the kids' balloons were filled TOO full, I was just waiting for it to bust!
My cousin's daughter Meghan staged a water attack on Elliot.
He was pleasantly surprised.
Cutest kids on earth!
Mike and Rose Rowley family
And the game that beats every other one to crap . . . I can't even explain it because it's too confusing, yet totally hilarious and WORTH IT! Natalie and Adam were making it up that morning, using me as their guinea pig. Here are the directions as I remember them, yes totally confusing, but you might get it from the pictures:
1. Lay down with the pitcher on your head.
2. Other members of your team pour cups of water in the pitcher without using their hands.
3. When the water gets to the line, run it under the volleyball net to the next persons on your team.
4. Squish the pitcher between you and walk to the next cone. Pass it off.
5. Squish the pitcher between you and walk to the next cone. Pass it off.
6. Put the pitcher on your head and hop to the innocent bystanders who are holding tiny Dixie cups.
7. Pour water into 3 cups and RUN back to start all over again.
8. The Dixie cup holders go to the table, draw a paper from the bowl which will tell them either which teams bottle to pour their water in, or to throw the water behind them. (My Dad got doused)
9. Just keep going until your bottle of water runs over!
Elliot looking for somone good to throw this last water balloon at.
Oh, there's a good team to get wet.
The siblings in order of birth (Aunt Linda, Aunt Loretta, My Dad Marc, Uncle Ned, Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Bruce, Uncle Kim)
. . . and an exhausted girl. We didn't really put her to bed. She was eating ice cream in the kitchen one minute and then the next she was upstairs by herself and asleep on the bed with chocolate all over her face.
We woke up really early to drive back to Arizona (took us 11 hours) and Stella slept until Panguitch. She's a really good traveler even if she did ask over 20 times "are we there yet." Seriously.
I'm so glad that we went to Utah for this family reunion! My Uncle Kim and my cousins Heather and Eric planned the whole thing and it was TOTALLY successful! Thank you Kim, Heather & Eric! I love my family!
She's 5. I was watching Stella sleep the other night all sprawled out on her bed and thinking how big she is now that she takes up half of the bed. She used to be so tiny in it. Then I think back about 5 years ago around this time and discussing with Elliot if we should name our first born after the anesthesiologist, my new favorite person. Ahh, our baby isn't a baby anymore. Happy #5 Birthday Stella!
This morning I told Stella that I'd give $1 to her if she'd 1) Let me take her picture, 2) Let me fix her hair how I wanted, and 3) Let me pick out what she'd wear. She thought for a second and said, "How 'bout $3."
