Thanksgiving Family Reunion 2009

Every 3 years Dana's family has a reunion out here in AZ. His dad is one of 7 kids and they all had many kids (between 4-10). He has many, many cousins. The cool thing is, they have all remained pretty close over the years. We used to have Thanksgiving dinner at a cultural hall but it became so much work that now we have individual family Thanksgivings in different homes and then get together for lots of activities over the weekend. We are the only ones in Dana's immediate family out here, so we get to have it here. It was a lot of fun and everyone helped out. Especially my MIL who took on the turkey, stuffing, and gravy. All of which deserve rave reviews! We put all the sweet kids in the backyard. Sometimes our Thanksgivings can be chilly but it was quite perfect this year. No sweaters needed.

I was in charge of the missionary wall. I collected photos from every missionary in the family and attempted to place them on a world map where their mission was. As you can see the photos kind of overtook the map. All the many pictures on the left side are the US missions. Everyone really liked seeing all the old pictures and I felt good about the project even though it turned out differently than I expected.

This little girl kept coming up to me and asking if she could hold my "baby". I loved the way Sadie almost touched the floor as she carried her around. Sadie loved it though!

On Friday there was a fun day at the park planned with lunch and TONS of fun stuff for kids. Of course the favorite among our kids was the petting zoo.

Not so sure about the goose...smart girl.

Little piglet- who was plagued by "swine flu" jokes.

Emma's favorite :)

She was the biggest girl in there and was so excited to get to help put the animals back in the trailer.

At least she'll be a cute FFA nerd in high school :)

Em with some cousins.

They had Babe Ruth's limo there that a guy in someone's ward owns. The kids had a great time sitting inside and checking it out.

hi!

There were over 300 there and not everyone was able to come. Pretty amazing what 2 good and faithful people can create. We had a slideshow and memories of the 2 that began it all that were very touching. Maybe pregnancy didn't help, but I was pretty emotional.

And I felt like a big goober taking this picture in front of everyone. But it's fun to see now! I feel like such a lucky girl to be married into such a fabulous family :)