Impromptu Reunion

So Emily was planning to come down to visit and Tisha was planning to come up to visit so I suggested they should try and coordinate their visits.  And of course that sounded like so much fun that Sara decided to come, too!  In a nutshell.  So we all got together except for Adam and his family. : (  Oh, and Dan and Jared didn't make it, either.  

Sara & Caroline face timing with Jared.

Cousins swimming in the "pool" and doing the slip in slide

4th of July hair do for Rylee

Cousins watching pbskids.org

For the 4th of July, Sara used her recreational management major to good use and planned us some super fun games.  Here we are gathering... 

**There a ton of videos and I only posted about half.  And most of the ones I did post are edited down to much shorter than they actually are.**

Emily: "Wait! Take another one without me texting!"  haha  She WAS texting Dan who couldn't come...he was rubbing it in that he had the windows open and it was in the mid 60's up in New York.

So the cousins were swinging and Dustin hit Derek when he was swinging.  Mom almost got it on video...but she accidentally stopped the video right before the very loud impact.  She probably couldn't have come nearly this close to missing the impact if she had actually tried. lol

Before:

After:

So irresistible...there's a reason he spent most of the festivities in the stroller.  If he wasn't trying to get balloons he was headed back to the field.

Getting ready to do a water balloon toss

Next was tossing the water balloons with towels

Okay, I have no idea the explanation behind this video, but it makes me laugh every time...I'm guessing that Emily was demonstrating how durable the water balloons were...but then weren't after all.

And then we had a water relay

Lining up

(I didn't shorten these too much because I liked them all so much : )

Of course it all ended in a big water fight...

And some played corn hole after the water fight.

Aren't they the cutest?  It's Eric & Rylee

That night we did fireworks. Rylee was not a fan and was really sleepy which didn't help.  She's not actually sleeping in this picture despite how it looks.  Well, she might have been, but once the fireworks started she just wanted to go in the house.  Grandpa finally took her in and she quickly fell asleep on the couch. 

The weather could not have been better...coolish temps, cool breeze, low humidity, clear skies.  It was awesome! : )

Here are some random pictures from the rest of the Shield's portion of the visit...the main reason they came up was to get a rabbit ("Pepper") from Nate and Geri

 Grandpa eventually made a cover for this wagon for shade, but I don't think we got a picture of that.

I did Caitlyn's hair one day. 

Okay, so the morning that the Shields left we really hadn't intended on seeing them off (we said our good byes the night before), but they called to say they wanted to do pictures so this was right after I rolled out of bed and Emily had just gone jogging...the 'real' us! ; )

Traditional cousins pictures...

Kaylee is 2 months older than Brian.  They are 13.

(For kicks and giggles...here's a picture Thelma posted on facebook of Brian & Kaylee)

Jeffrey and Kate.  They are both 9 and Kate is about 8 months older than Jeffrey

Derek (18), Justin (17), Dustin (16)...Bitter sweet pictures because Derek is reporting to the MTC for his mission August 6th (Provo Utah Mission) 

After the Shields left we went to Ottercreek Water Park and thoroughly wore the kids out

More pbskids.org...They're not addicted.  They can stop anytime. ; )

Corben (14 months) and Caroline (12 months)

Family Home Evening...Word Warrior I think it was called.  It was a lot of fun...a game Sara plays in music time out in Utah.

And last, but not least...I did Sara's hair one night, too. (This is the one I tried on Rylee's a while back, but hers was too thin and short)