The Reunion

It's been two years since our last reunion with my family, and it was so good to be together. I've seen most of them a few times these past few years, but my sister Rachel and her family have been living in Germany, so it's been tougher to see them very much! (I keep hoping one of these years we'll make it out to see them...timing is a tricky thing with little kids though for that type of travel.) The only one we were missing was my brother Byran, who is stuck in Afghanistan for a few more months! His wife Jeni (hero of the year!) and their four kids were with us, and she did a great job keeping him "there" with us for a lot of the time through Skype chats on her phone.  We rented a big cabin near the western border of Yellowstone to share. There was a great play room for the kids, a hot tub, a pool table, and lots of woods to explore. There was a fun basketball court and a fire ring, and course our family's traditional homemade root beer. We saw Yellowstone Park and took a rafting trip, but mostly just enjoyed being together and growing closer as a family. It was perfect. I was given the task of making t-shirts for everyone, and had a lot of fun designing them. I have to say, it was really rewarding to see the whole group unified like that, and the kids begging to wear them, even if they smelled like a campfire!
Each of the families also had an assignment to make a movie to share at the reunion. Everyone's was so clever! It was like having our own little film festival. So fun! This was our movie that we made for it.

I know I've said it a thousand times here before, but I'm so grateful for family!