Monk Family Reunion 2012

Most of my favorite childhood memories come from family vacations. That's why our family is so close: we spent hours stuffed in the vanagan, driving across the country to visit cousins, and playing cards and eating Starbursts and peanut M&Ms in hotel rooms and next to beaches and pools. I hope to create fun memories like that for my kids. 

And this reunion was a good start. Steve and his family came up a week early so he could go fishing with my dad, so Cami, her kids, and my mom and I had fun hanging out before everyone else got here. The kids played outside in a tent that Grandma made for them, and we took them to Rigby Lake one afternoon. It was stinkin hot though. They couldn't play on the playground because the slides were all made of metal, and you'd burn your feet just on the sand trying to get to the slides.

Oh, and just so you know, this hunky guy, my brother, just got back from a year at Oxford University in England. Yes, that's right. He completed his Masters there. He's pretty smart.

We played our usual croquet games. My Dad and brothers also laid out a sweet volleyball court  for a couple days, and we all played volleyball for hours. It was awesome.

 And since the Olympics were going on, we had our own olympic games with the kids, complete with official olympic music playing in the background. They all had a turn at the high jump, a long jump, and they did some relays and hoola hooping. Oh and kicking a kickball. Yeah that was funny to watch. But not as funny as when us girls tried to show our kids how kicking a ball is really done, and we stunk it up even more. We laughed pretty hard.

Grandpa also took the kids on a ride down the street on the four-wheeler. They loved it. Except Benji. It freaked him out.

Since we were all together so close to my Dad's birthday (which is at the end of August) we threw a surprise birthday party for him.

I don't have any pictures of our camping trip so I have to wait to get some from my siblings. So more pictures to come ... but for now, just know that we had such a fun week. I can't wait until next year!