Family Reunion 2009

(Disclaimer: This is the longest post in the history of this blog. I didn't hold back on pictures because I want these all in my blurb book. Continue at your own risk.)

We had the opportunity to go up to Washington this past week to spend some quality time with my entire immediate family...including my parents, all 8 siblings, the 3 spouses of us married kids, and all 8 (with on on the way) grandkids. It was fabulous! My parents have 3 very fruitful blueberry bushes and we picked thousands of blueberries and didn't even make a dent. The kids all ate more blueberries than their little bodies could handle but they enjoyed every minute of it, and kept asking for more. On Monday, I met up with my longest and dearest friend, Jessi, and we went trailriding. It felt SO good to get back on a horse. We were gone for about 2 hours. While riding through the trees, creeks and spiderwebs, we got to chat and catch up. I hadn't seen her in awhile but she just moved back from Nebraska! It was so fun hanging out with her again! Thanks Jess! We'll definitely have to do that again sometime soon.

A few months ago, my brother got 6 chickens. When you buy chickens however, it isn't possible to tell which are male and which are female...they can only guarantee a 75% female rate. Well, out of the 6 that Keith got, there was one rooster. My mom didn't want the rooster around (since they're obnoxious) but she had been unsuccessful in finding a home for it. She did however give Sean permission to "dispose" of it however he wanted. She didn't really think anything would come of it. But Sean took her very seriously. So while I was out trailriding, Sean and my brothers decided they wanted rooster for dinner. After talking to my dad about the details of it, they went for it. Due to the graphic nature of the photos, I won't be posting them...but my brother took full advantage of my camera to document the event. Lucky me.

On Tuesday, we loaded up the car again and all 22 of us (plus my aunt and my sister's boyfriend Troy) headed off to Ocean Shores.

Ocean Shores is where we went on vacation to every summer. We'd rent a little cabin for the week and play at the beach all week long. It isn't a beach like Seaside or Cannon Beach. Ocean Shores is completely different. It isn't overly populated by tourists. It has a couple shops that cater to out-of-towners but for the most part, it is just locals that are there. You drive directly onto the sand, and most of the time we were there, we had the entire beach to ourselves. The waves are awesome, and people do travel to the beach by the jetty to get good surfing waves. You'll notice the awesome waves in some of the pictures that follow!

Right after we got to the beach, my niece Kayla said she had to go to the bathroom. I walked her to the grassy dunes since there is no facility within walking distance. On our walk back I took the following picture.
She looked at the picture and said "I thought you were going to take one of just my head so it looked like I'm on the news." So of course, I had to take another one.

Stephen and Keith jumping the waves

and showing off

I thought Brayden was going to be grumpy about the cold water. I was wrong. Thank goodness! He LOVED it! It was really hard to get him out of the water...and sand for that matter.

We rented a beach house for the 2 nights we were there. It was really nice and suprisingly, with the help of my parents travel trailer, we all fit rather comfortably. The master shower had 1 main showerhead and 4 little shower heads on each side. The little ones shot straight out and it was awesome. That was the first thing my brothers experienced when they got there.

We had several of these little visitors several times a day.

The girls made tacos for dinner one night, and the boys cleaned up. I had to get it on camera to prove that they did in fact help!! Thanks Brothers!

The sunsets were AMAZING. This is William, flying the kite he made himself.

My mom flying Will's kite and Stephen flying his stunt kite...coming in for the kill.

The house had cable...which is something that my brother and I don't have. It was kind of nice turning it on in the morning and having the kids completely content for awhile!

Every year we go to the beach, we make a massive sand castle. One year we made a Sphinx with pyramids. It was actually quite impressive. This year we decided we wanted to attempt the Black Pearl getting attacked by a kraken. It was so fun!

It's tradition in our family that the second you drive onto the beach, you pull a few donuts in the sand. Well, right at the beginning of Kyle's first donut, he got his car stuck in the soft sand.

But having the (lack of) experience of driving in the sand we've gotten stuck a lot. Stephen, Sean and Kyle had that thing unstuck about as fast as Kyle got it stuck. It was quite impressive!

The sailboat kite that I thought was pretty rad. Keith was flying it...

Kayla and Hailey playing in the sand. They are inseperable.

Asher staying warm in the truck with Grandpa

The completed sand castle

A kraken is a huge, fictional sea monster, made famous by the Pirates of the Carribbean movies. You can see the kraken in the front of this picture. It has tentacles that are coming out of the water, about to engulf the Black Pearl.

Waiting for the tide to come wash away our masterpiece

Stephen was the self-proclaimed captain of the ship

Aunt Beth taking a walk in the water

Keith boogy-boarding

Scott

Garrett

This was right after we got there. Nat wasn't in her swimming suit yet and she didn't want to wait to change!

Tycen, being king of the mountain!

Yancey. We couldn't keep this kid out of the sand!

Mom, Natalie and Tycen...watching the Black Pearl get washed out to sea

This is what Mom's hair looked like after a day in the wind, sand, and salt. It was so awesome we had to take a picture.

Stephen and Jenny brought Xbox. This everyone watching Tycen (hidden behind Scott) play. Apparently he was pretty entertaining!

Our family loves puzzles. Keith and I worked on this one a lot, but never did quite get it finished unfortunately!

Another amazing sunset. The sun was blood red and ducking behind the clouds insanely fast. It was crazy to watch it sink before our eyes.

Kyle, trying on Natalie's Rash Guard. Fortunately, we didn't have to see him wear this on the beach. He went and bought his own.

Natalie: the queen of weird poses.

Jenny suiting up, despite the rain, to go surfing.

And suit #2

Kyle, Jenny, Will

Brayden, hoping for a ride on the wagon.

We got home from Ocean Shores Thursday evening. It was a BLAST. It was so fun hanging out with the ENTIRE family for a few days. Fortunately, the end of the beach trip didn't mean the end of our time together as a family. Sean and I were the first ones to leave and we didn't leave until Sunday around noon. Friday we went to Folk's and went riding in the arena. It was so fun seeing the little kids on the huge horses. We taught Jenny how to canter and she had a blast. She did great! Unfortunately my camera batteries died before any pictures were even shot, so I'll have to wait on those from my sibs. After riding, Mom, Lisa, Jenny, Natalie and I all went out to Cafe Panini (the best and most amazing restaurant in Enumclaw) for Jenny's birthday lunch. It was fabulous!! We had SO much fun :)

Lisa and Quinn's anniversary is tomorrow (Tuesday) and Sean's and mine is Wednesday. We wanted to go out on an "anniversary date" while we had free babysitters (thanks brothers!) Originally it was going to just be the 4 of us, but it ended up being Mom, Dad, Stephen, Jenny, Lisa, Quinn, Kyle, Sean, Me, Natalie, Heather and Troy. We went to the Cheesecake factory and it was TO DIE FOR. There were 12 of us, and 8 different dishes ordered. We all took one or two bites of our own entree then we passed every dish around the table several times, so everyone got to try everything. By the time we got our own dishes back, we were stuffed! It was so fun though. Also within the month of August it is Jenny's, Quinn's and Kyle's and my birthday. They brought out tiny ice cream sundaes for those of us having birthdays. THEN we all wanted cheesecake and we all wanted the special. It won a competition and it was called "The Stephanie." Anyway, it was cheaper to buy the entire cake than to buy individual pieces, so we took a $50 cheesecake home to devour in front of the tv. YUMMY!!!! Overall it was a super fun night. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind for our "anniversary dinner" but I wouldn't change anything about it. It was perfect!

5 of the 8 grandkids at the dinner table the night we got home from the beach.

Before we went out to dinner on Saturday night, Quinn, Sean, Tycen, Garrett and I went geocaching. Quinn is doing a 60 day challenge where he has to get 1 new cache a day. We went to Flaming Geyser State Park and got the virtual cach at the actual geyser, then we found found another actual cach right outside of the park. We attempted to find a third cache that was on our way home but after hiking through underbrush and "forest" for an hour and STILL not finding the location (previous cachers said the coordinates were over 50 ft off and we didn't have that kind of time) we decided it wasn't worth it. It was still fun though!

Tyce

Flaming Geyser (a lot of hype for a tiny flame. Still cool though.)

Garrett, Quinn, and Tyce

Seany and Me

Me in charge of the GPS. Th