MFR '12

March 21-25, 2012
Family Reunion 2012

We headed to Southern California the day after my dad left. Whew! It was a busy March! Luckily the kids were on Spring Break during Grandpa Keith's visit and the family reunion.

Everyone (minus our family and Marc) started the family reunion on Monday, March 19th. We waited until Kevin came home from work on the 21st (Wednesday) and endured a late drive to the beach. We left at 5:30pm and got there at 11:30pm.  The kids had all fallen asleep by the time we arrived.  Amyah, however, woke up as soon as we pulled into the driveway.  It took an hour or so to settle her down.

We had a great time!  Here are a few pictures showing some of the highlights of the reunion:

These gigantic brown pelicans were constantly flying over the beach house and ocean.  They were breathtaking!  And pretty amazing to watch too.  They would dive-bomb into the water at incredibly fast speeds!  The kids loved watching them, and I did too. :)

We stayed right on the beach.  It was wonderfully convenient with kids!  We didn't have to pack our entire house to play in the sand!  And, Amyah was able to nap peacefully in the house while we all played and relaxed outside. 
Every grandkid made one of the awesome t-shirts.  Grandma Janae came up with the fun idea.  We started with basic black t-shirts, decorated them with objects from the beach, and then sprayed them with bleach-water.  We allowed them to dry completely before scooping them up off the ground and washing them.  They were so much fun to make!  And easy too!
Grandma and Grandpa brought a pack of glow-sticks for all the grandkids. They had a great time creating costumes out of the glow-sticks.
The older grandkids... 8 in total. Amyah is still considered one of the babies. Including her, there are 4 baby girls! I love the muscle poses Jackson and Bennett decided to add to the picture!
 There really was endless entertainment at the beach... building sandcastles, collecting seashells (there were so many!), searching for hermit crabs, getting buried in the sand, splashing in the waves, and of course lots of chatting.  We all had a great time!