Goodman Family Reunion and October happenings

It's 10:00pm, I'm dead tired, my back hurts, I should be in bed, but all I want to do is spend some time by myself. So I guess I'll blog! Warning: this is a long post.

Last Monday we took the kids to Wally world for FHE and picked out a couple of pumpkins. The kids are so excited to carve them and hopefully we will get it done tomorrow before Halloween is over. Sweet Lilly left a little note and picture next to her pumpkin. They are already mapping out how their pumpkins are going to look. I guess it's instinct because I remember planning that as a kid too.

Ezra has been smiling since a month old and I never get pictures of him. So here is our little man sticking his tongue out and smiling away.

Ivy loves to suck her thumb and rub anyone's head. She will see us sitting at the computer and jumps behind us to lay her head on our back and then proceed to stick her little fingers in our hair and play with it. Sometimes it's sweet and sometimes I have spent a really long time fixing my hair and I don't want her near it.

My friend Sarah is doing a preschool out of her home and Anders absolutely loves it. He feels so special just like Lilly getting to go to school. He even dressed up in a uniform like Lilly's his first day. They had a little Halloween party and had so much fun.

4 Generations

Okay onto the reunion. My uncle Pierce and his family planned and took charge of this Goodman reunion. We have not had one in YEARS. He has been building the FRC (family recreation center) for over 12 years now. I remember back in high school coming out and looking at the land and he offered a prayer about where to put the structure. So finally after so many years of hard work we came to enjoy the FRC with them. It was really awesome and so cozy inside. It is 2 stories with 9 bedrooms and a huge living area. I can't wait to go back!

They had a little store for the grand kids to spend their tickets at for good behavior. This was a highlight for the kids. They all tried to be caught being good so they could earn and go spend their tickets.

Lilly and Uncle Tony

You had the option of staying Thurs til Sunday. We decided to go Friday and stay til Saturday evening. We were the first cousins there and it was so fun because we got Tony, Julie, Barbara and Pierce all to ourselves. I have some really fun Aunts and Uncles. They just made me laugh the whole time and it was nice to catch up. My Aunt Julie is an open book and will talk about anything and tell you the truth about anyone. She is hilarious and I love talking to her.

Anders and Lilly playing with their spoils. The kids loved being there!

My dad brought a minute to win it game and I love how simple and fun those games are. You'd think our Whetton family cheated because we won the game!

My cousin Stephanie and I talked about making paracord bracelets at the reunion. She bought all the material and I taught everyone how to make them. They were a hit and before we knew it all the buckles were gone. Kimber even made Ezra one!

They had quads there with a wagon hooked up behind. I think the kids would sit in the wagon waiting for someone to take them. In the beginning there were only 3 cousins and out of 12 kids there were 9 girls and 3 boys. The boys being Anders and 2 babies. Those girls were hilarious sitting in the wagon chanting to all the places they wanted to go. They would chant "fire", fire!" and want to go see the trash burning. Then they would chant, "dead snake!, dead snake!" to go see the dead snake in the road. And then finally chant, "longer!, longer!" and try to get Aaron to give them a longer quad ride. They were cracking me up!

Julie brought some fun craft for the kids. Anders desperately needs a hair cut!

Okay onto our nights stay. This picture pretty much sums up how we all felt after that night. The floors were all concrete but had tons of drywall dust on them, and it covered everything you put on the floor. I found Elsie hanging out of her sleeping bag and then sliding all over it throwing a fit when she woke up.

Ezra and Ivy both started coughing the day before we left and they were pretty miserable that night with slight fevers and barking coughs. Aaron ended up sleeping on a recliner couch with Ivy next to him. I kept waking up to her falling off all night, hearing the recliner kick down so Aaron could pick her up and then she would cry back to sleep. I didn't sleep all night because I was worried about Ezra in the beginning and then he kept waking up from 2am on. Oh and other kids didn't go to sleep til late and all we could hear were little pounding feet above our heads. There was a hammock parked right next to Aaron's head by the couch. I got up about midnight and walked out to see glow sticks flapping everywhere and hitting the hammock poles. Apparently there were some girls still up. I think they went to bed after they saw me. Looking back I think it was pretty comical. But it was a rough night all together and it made the weekend feel kind of long.

I wish my parents and sisters would have came the night before with us but I am so glad they at least came for the day on Saturday. I missed that they weren't there with us. I was so grateful when my mom got there and immediately offered to take Ezra. I really needed a break from him and she would get him to sleep for me! And yes, I cut my hair short recently. But that's anther story.

I just like this picture of Kimberlee that I caught . It looks like she's dancing. Some other activities they had were get to know you games, shooting ( I shot my shotgun for the first and last time, JK Aaron:) and an auction. It was fun watching Aaron hit clay pigeons with his shotgun. I think it is so manly and I'm disappointed I didn't get any pictures! They also had a devotional and a trick or treat for the kids that night. My dad even got on his stilts with his skeleton mask. I didn't get one picture though because we were packing up and busy with kids.

Cousins!

I know this isn't a great picture but this is Pierce and Barbara who have worked so hard on the FRC. This is such a typical picture of Pierce rigging something up to work. We kept smelling something burning and realized the motor had burnt up on the ice cream maker. So what does Pierce do? He gets his drill gun and manually stirs that ice cream. And I am saying this in a complimentary way. He is by far one of my favorite uncles.

Some of my favorite memories are lake trips with my cousins. My parents were always taking us and we had so much fun tubing, cliff jumping, skiing, and swimming. One of my best friends was his daughter Aubrey. Me, Lindsay and Aubrey were glued together when we were kids. One of the things Uncle Pierce had was a para sail that he would take to Lake Powell. We had a blast camping on the beach! He would rig that para sail to the boat and us kids would stand hooked up to it 50 feet or so away. Three people would hold the sail in the back so it would catch the air and when they said "go" that boat would take off full speed and you had to run for dear life and pray that the people holding the sail liked you and opened it up for you. And everyone would try it from little kids all the way up to my Grandma Goodman! I think we were all dragged at least once. I look back and can't believe they let us do that! But it was so fun and we just love our Uncle Pierce! I hope we can be as fun and adventurous as our parents were.

So that was our reunion. I feel like I have been nonstop since Thursday. The kids were a lot of work but is was worth it. We got back late Saturday night and then I had a meeting early Sunday morning, and Ezra's been sick and I am so tired! Now its Halloween tomorrow and I'm helping with Lilly's school party, then we have to carve pumpkins and trick or treat!

Happy Halloween!