Family Reunion - Montana

This past week we were able to go to my family reunion in Montana.  I'm not from Montana nor is anyone in my family from Montana, but my dad is from Canada which is near Montana :).  It was nice having the reunion in Montana because it was far enough away that everyone had to drive to get there.  You couldn't just hang out for the day and go back home to sleep.  The camping reunions are such a bonding experience.  I just love sitting around the campfire, laughing at silly things that happened that day and hearing about other people's lives.

Both our kids did really well.  Bob gets stressed not knowing where the boys were every minute, but I kept my eye on them.  And there was a lot of Adults that knew where the kids were at all time as well.

It was a little stressful being near a river and the lake but for the most part the boys stayed nearby.  There was the few times we'd catch Zack sneaking over to the river to throw rocks or Gavin following people who were heading down to the lake.  But they are boys!

The beautiful lake we were near (picture by Janae Smith)

We tried to leave Thursday afternoon/Evening.  Bob got home about 2:30-3:00.  By the time we got everything packed, rearranged and picked up my dad; I think it was close to 5 or 5:30 before we were on the road.  We stopped at a Rest Stop near Brigham City because Zack said he had to go potty.  False Alarm.  When we headed back out on the road our car started to act up.  It would loose power but not die completely.  But by the time we made it to Tremonton, UT it was doing it on a regular basis.  We made the decision to head home and borrow someone's car.  We finally decided to borrow my Mom's car and had her meet us in Roy, UT.  When we got off the off ramp our car completely died at the light.  We barely made it to Arby's.  It just kept dying.  My mom met us and our car was finally not dying every time we turned it on.  But we had a roof rack on our car and it didn't fit on my Mom's car.  So it didn't work to use her car right then.  We made the decision just to head all the way home and get things so we could put the rack on my mom's car and unload everything and reload into her car.  And it was a good decision because our car would not hold the power.  Bob figured it out so when it did die we were able to get it started quickly and finally got home.  So we didn't leave for Montana until 3:00AM the next morning.

It was a good drive.  The boys slept most of the morning.  We stopped in Butte, MT to let the kids out of the car for little bit and have breakfast.  We then drove to Lakeside, MT and had lunch.  FYI, Flathead Lake is Beautiful!

We got to Whitefish about 4 or 5:00.  We quickly found a spot to set up camp and unloaded.  The day was spent catching up with family, and just hanging out.  My Dad and Kelly got lost trying to get back to camp when they went into Whitefish, MT.  Deanna and I were starting to freak out a bit.  Plus they had all the food for dinner and we were getting hungry.  Luckily they made it back safe and sound.  Our dinner may have been late, but it was yummy!  And we feed a lot of people.  And Deanna made Cobbler which was delicious!

Saturday was a very busy day.  We started the day with Breakfast. 
Volleyball Tournament
Lunch
Amazing Race
Swimming at the Lake
Dinner
Minute to Win it Game (which Deanna and I did)
and Campfire fun.

Everyone joining together to watch the Volleyball Tournament

2 of the Teams that played each other.  I think Bob was on the other side of the net
(Picture from Janae Smith's facebook album)

Minute To Win it Games - Chocolate Unicorn

Minute to Win it Game - Hanky Panky

It was so much fun watching Zack playing with his cousins.  They all got a long so well.  Of course there was never enough Volleyballs or spray guns for everyone but as a whole they did really well together.  Gavin also did well with his cousins, he just mostly watched.  But a few times he had to fight for the ball he was playing with. 

Saturday - Sunday night a wicked thunder/lighting storm rolled in.  It was amazing at how quickly it started and how fast it moved on.  At one point the lightning and thunder went at the exact same time.  Which means it was pretty close.  My Uncle Reed actually was watching the storm and said the lightning hit the mountain we were pretty close to.  SCARY!

Sunday we had a meeting with the family since we weren't able to make it to church.  We had most of the past missionaries share a missionary moment they had.  It was fun to hear all the places people in our family have served and a memory that stood out to them.  After our meeting a few people had to leave.  We had quite a few goodbyes.  But there was still a good amount of people who stuck around.  We had potluck lunch and Dinner.  It was nice knowing we had gotten ride of a lot of food!  We played/watched Kubb and  then sat around the fire and roasted marshmellows.  Again it was a wonderful night to just relax and hang out with family. 

The next morning we pack up camp and was on the road by 10:00.  We got home about 10:30pm.

The boys did amazing there and back.  I was really worried about them, but they were troopers.  We had so much fun at the reunion and can't wait until the next one in 2 years.  I loved that so many family members were able to attend.  I'm not sure on the exact numbers of people there but I think it was more then 150 people (I could be way off).  Oh yeah Gavin won a quilt in the Raffle.  It was so cute because when they called his name I took him up to get his quilt and he grabbed it right away.  He totally knew that it was his blanket.  And got mad if anyone tried using it.

Thanks to my Aunt Andrea for her hard work in putting together such a great reunion.  It was so much fun!  The place was beautiful even if we got eaten by misquito's.