Lotta Family Time!

We had so much fun at my family reunion! The reunion has always been in Utah, so it was nice to have it out here. Something about my family is we are always running late- I swear it's in the genes. I think Darrell has a new appreciation for the fact that I'm usually only about 10 minutes late- some of my family struggle more then that.:)

Friday night we went to a Japanese restaurant called Gojo's. It was fun, we've never eaten at a place where they cook the food at your table. The chef was really funny, we ate with Ben and his family. Baylee was very overwhelmed by it, it was really hot, the fire freaked her out, and then she threw up. As long as we kept her back from the table she was ok. Lexi, Ashlee, and Carly tasted shrimp and liked it. Lexi was able to sit with her cousin Abbey- those two can never have enough time together! I had a few more pictures on my phone but Miss Baylee has deleted them.

Saturday Darrell took the older girl's to World's of Fun and Ocean's of Fun. They hung out with Jeff's family most of the day. I stayed home with Baylee and my Mom. We went grocery shopping for our meals we were assigned, and then spent the rest of the afternoon chatting. I love having activities at our reunions, but I also love just hanging out. Baylee had lots of fun with Grandma- she was quite the show off to her.

Sunday we went to Kevin and Amy's ward, it's also the same ward we grew up in so mom was able to see some of her old friends. After church we started sight seeing some church history sites.

We toured the Liberty Jail. The kids did so good to sit and listen, well except Baylee- she had an emergency exit....

We went to Richmond Missouri next. Lexi and her Uncle Kevin were goofing around, Lexi tripped and had a nasty cut on her knee. Uncle Kyle was there with his first aid kit and cleaned and patched her right up- always good to have a paramedic firefighter in the family!

Baby Rebecca - or as Baylee would say, "wecabah" was always loved by all the cousins. I don't think that poor baby had a moment of peace the entire weekend!

We also visited Oliver Cowdry's grave. There were so many headstones that were found years later that the church put back together the best they could- a lot had eroded to the point you couldn't read them anymore.

We were able to stop and see the Kansas City Temple- we can't wait until it's completed!

As I said before, there was a lot of waiting for families to catch up, some were behind or lost- so LOT'S of waiting time. Darrell and I decided we needed a picture of us.

We got to the Independence Visitor Center shortly before it closed. It was a little frustrating because I wanted my kids to spend the most time there- it's incredible. But with all the waiting we were only able to see a few things. We were able to have prayer with all the Missionaries there- there was such a special spirit there. We asked a few of the missionaries to snap pictures of our group.

Monday we headed out to Adam-Ondi-Ahmen. To be honest I never knew the whole story of why it's so important. It was nice to learn that- guess I should have paid attention YEARS ago! It looks so different now then when I was little and would go with my family.

And then we had lot's of sleeping time while we drove from Gallatin to Haun's Mill, to Far West.

Funny story of going to Haun's Mill- we only had the coordinates to put in our GPS. We didn't know there was a really nice memorial with a grass area- we went to the REAL Haun's Mill I guess. There was swamps around us and a whole lotta dirt roads!

It was such a fun trip! We missed Larae Dustin and kids, Kymber and Christian, James and Alycia, Marie, Kyle, Tara, David Shanae and kids. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone- we don't get to see family enough living so far from everyone. But we sure love the time we get with them!