Petersen Family Olympics

We have been waiting all summer for the Petersen Family Reunion and it finally came!  Grandma and Aunt Sarah worked so hard to make it special and the theme was "Olympics".  We started the fun with a boy's outing - shooting.  They got rained out and ended up in our living room playing the old Super Mario Brothers game.  What fun guys, and nice to have a whole room full.  

The second day we headed up the mountain to enjoy some good old dirty camping fun.  The rain clouds were ominous, but it was nice the whole day - cool and beautiful and we had a great time.

Here's Leisl - playing in the dirt.  

Ayvri and Audrey are best buddies - they really do play so very well together and I don't think they had a single spat the whole weekend and were inseparable (again!)

Darla stuck pretty close to the food table and was quite content to do so.

Ksenya was running wild all over with her new buddy Logan - they really hit it off this time and had a ball together, sleeping out in the trailer and playing on the trampoline and even babysitting together for a few hours on Saturday.

Here's the cutie patootie, Tayton.  He is such an adorable little guy and got carted around by pretty much everyone.

Look - Leisl found some food too (with a little dirt for added protein).

My "girls" (the little ones) are such funnies.  They love to find laps to sit in and neither is at all afraid of climbing up with Grandma and Grandpa.  Spoiled babies.

Ksenya enjoyed the snakes that they found (so not like me) and everyone thought it was pretty fun to tease Grandma with them.

We had to play "Brave" and shoot the Bow & Arrows.  It was a lot more fun than I anticipated and I now want to build a practice target at home so I can shoot off some steam.  

 Later that day the rain threatened and scared us off the mountain so we came home.  What had only threatened the rest of the day hit with a vengeance right after we got dinner set up in the yard and we ended up pulling inside to eat and visit for the rest of the night.  The kids thought it was fun to play in the rain and the mud and trickled into the house in groups of 2 or 3 to jump in the shower.

It's amazing how many people we fit into our tiny house and were just as comfy as can be - we had a great night of visiting together and stayed up too too too late every night.

Leisl really latched on to Uncle Robert and every time he arrived she'd climb right up on his lap and just stick to him like glue.  It was funny to watch since most of my kids as babies have been scared of Uncle Robert (it's the beard I think) :)  Not Leisl, she was his biggest fan and it was fun watching them together.

I helped Grandma to make these fun shirts for each grandkid with their number (birth order) on it, starting with Emilie at #1 all the way down to Leisl at #35.  Can't believe they have that many but it sure was fun to have more than half of them here!

Here's my little orange family in their numbers.

Getting ready for the opening ceremonies for the family olympics.

They had to run the torch from the end of the road back down to the house (like a relay).  The kids loved this part and it was pretty amazing to see so many of them running together by the end.

Here's Darlin' holding the torch Grandma made.

The games were so much fun.  I loved that Grandma had all the guys running the games so the Mom's could watch and take pictures.  I laughed to see 4-5 of us Mom's with our cameras working double time.  Ayvri and Kabe are trying the balloon race.

Ayvri was working at the Hammer Throw.  Poor Grandpa got hit quite a few times with this one and I think we were all glad it was just paper.

Brigham was trying so hard to keep that balloon between his legs.

Here's Ksenya - hair flying as she flew down the lawn.  

Leisl trying out the balance beam.  Tyler was in charge of this one and climbed up on it to try it out before we began.  He broke the board so the balance beam was a little shorter than intended.

After the games they got out some water and sponges for a fun water fight.  None of us expected Grandpa to be the ring leader but he jumped in and headed up the show.  I love this picture!  Tyler and his Dad have such a great relationship and I am so glad that we are able to live here close to his parents!  If only we could get a few more siblings here (hint, hint).

In all we had a great time!  I was so glad that the Kenneys were able to stay with us and for the late night visits and silly youtube viewing.  And can I say my nieces and nephews ROCK!  They are the coolest people and it was so fun getting to hang out with them and know them a little better. I guess the highest compliment I can pay is that I want to parent more like his siblings because I want my kids to be like theirs!

Mostly I'm so thankful to know that Families can be together forever!  I'm thankful for the covenants that we've made and that even though occasionally families are a major drama-fest, most of the time family for me is fun!  It's people we share our history with and build our futures for.  Yay for Family Reunion!