I can't believe it's already been a month since we came home from my grandparents' lake house for our annual family reunion on my mom's side. Warning: this is going to be a verrry long post, mostly with pictures though ;)
We flew out on the morning of July 16th (Sunday) and literally spent the whole day traveling. We flew out of Phoenix around 11:30 in the morning and didn't get into New York until 11:30 at night. We flew to Minneapolis and had like a 4 hour layover before we headed to New York. The kids seriously did awesome! It helped that my mom was flying with us and helping out ;) In fact, she sat with all 3 kids for much of our first flight!
Beckett Baby grins at everyone, even if they're not actually looking at him :)
Sweet boy!
Getting crazy on that side of the aisle ;)
Aiden held Beckett for a little bit.
Janie didn't even really care about watching a movie, she just wanted to wear the headphones ;)
Happy baby during our layover :)
Since we had a 4 hour layover, we took our time and ate at a sit-down restaurant. We made it onto our next flight from Minneapolis around 8:30.
My mom was worried that Beckett was cold.
Janie was awake the whole day and literally zonked out as we were descending into Rochester.
Almost there!
It took a while to get our rental cars figured out once we landed and we were also waiting on the Utah crew (my sisters and nephews) who made it in just a little after us. And then we had like a 40 minute drive to the hotel (we were in the hotel again this year - the family has outgrown the lake house). Needless to say, we didn't make it to bed until almost 2.
We slept in on Monday and took it easy. It's always nice to have my family around to help out, especially since Trent actually had to work a few days from the hotel.
We didn't make it to the lake house until lunch time (luckily the lake house is like a 3 minute drive from the hotel). My mom had organized a little baby shower for Jenn so that was first up :)
She got lots of sweet clothes for her baby girl :)
Afterward we decided we should probably get out on the boat since we hadn't yet. We did a sister ride on the tubes and got some pictures...
...and then we had the kids join us for a slow ride.
I don't actually have any of the pictures from our tubing ride (I think my mom does), but the kids enjoyed it :)
Janie helping out Grandma with the ropes. She was taking it very seriously ;)
Then she decided she was tired..ha. Quinn was checking on her :) He seriously loves Janie (if only she would reciprocate the love)!
Some of the teenage girls got out for some "extreme tubing." It's too much for us anymore. We're getting old!!
Legs flying!
My cute family back at the house.
Beauty girl!
Just playing with Bryn on the dock :)
Trent hanging out with all the kids.
We just had to stick Beckett on the Nemo rocker :)
Bath time for the kiddos in Gigi's big tub.
The kids slept in on Tuesday. I think the jet lag really got to them on this trip.
My mom and Jill headed to the lake house before us to get dinner going in the crock pot (every family takes a night) and Jill called me to say the young Whitmore's (Scott) were doing their annual hike and all are always invited. I figured the kids and I don't get a whole lot of boat time anyway, so why not?! Plus it's kind of fun to do something different :) Jenn came along with me and the kids. Jill stayed back with Beckett.
I totally missed the shot, but Greyson had had Janie up on his shoulders :) It was so nice to have Greyson and Cutler helping out with my kids b/c it did get slippery and steep at parts.
Neat waterfall!
The group! Scott and Krystal were down taking the photos.
I wish I had been in front of them for a better shot, but Janie and Adler were playing in the water :)
On our way out Janie found this enormous tree limb/branch ;)
The kids were pretty stoked that we stopped for ice cream. Thanks to Cindy for treating us since we didn't have our wallets on hand :/
Had to get a shot of Monica's Pies since we get several of her pies every year :)
Back at the lake house.
Probably the kids very favorite thing of the whole reunion was getting in the hot tub. They would have been happy to stay there all day, every day!
The Pack 'n Play at the lake house didn't have a sheet on it so we used a towel..ha.
Aiden and Janie decided Greyson was pretty cool and lots of fun after our hike (they had so much fun playing with him the rest of the week and I loved it too ;)) Aiden's always been a little scared of the jet ski, but he even braved going on it with Greyson!
A little later we had dinner (sweet pork burritos) and headed back to the hotel to get changed and cleaned up.
Later we made our annual trip to the book store. This is a favorite tradition that my grandpa started before I can even remember where he let us each choose a book. My grandma has kept it up and we love it! Unfortunately she didn't actually make it this year :/ Earlier in the day she had gone out on the jet ski with my uncle Rick, and as she was getting off she cut her leg on the dock. She tried to wait out the bleeding, but my aunt Suzy finally decided to take her in after several hours. So my grandma was actually getting 3 stitches in her leg while we were getting books :/
Aiden and Quinn have the same shirt so we had them both wear it to the book store. Aiden refused to take a good picture with him though. He's really been hating pictures lately :/
I had Janie wear her gray and white dress as well ;)
This year I got What Alice Forgot, Aiden got Dragons Love Tacos 2, and Janie got The Day the Crayons Came Home. I can't remember what Trent got ;) And Beckett stayed back at the hotel with my mom who wasn't feeling great.
Most of the group.
Amy got a picture of Gram back at the lake house. She was playing up her injury..haha. She kept telling everyone that she never would have gone to get stitches, but Suzy forced her. She wanted to tough it out ;)
The kids slept in again on Wednesday.
Trent took a little break from working and came on the boat for a little bit. This was actually Beckett's first boat ride! And I promise we ALWAYS have a life jacket on board for everyone. It's terrible, but we get lazy about actually putting them on everyone when we're not in the water.
Us with the 2 babies - Beckett and Kyler.
Aiden got out on a tube with Tessa and Amy and Richard were on the other. Unfortunately, sometimes when the boat first starts, the tube will submerge if you're not sitting on it just right, so Aiden fell in and was not happy about it :/ Aunt Amy to the rescue!
Quinn was watching his parents :)
You know how we all have that one sibling?! Haha. #photobomber
Then Jill, Jordan, and Bryn got out there.
Bryn was getting aggressive, trying to push their tube away ;)
Getting crazy!
Jill and Jordan's tube landed on top of Bryn..ha.
Oh no, there goes Jill...
...
Amy decided to get back out so Bryn hopped on with Jordan and Jill.
Love that you can see the water droplets in the foreground of this picture :)
Agh! You can see Richard going down here. Amy is convinced Richard kicked her and may have cracked her ribs :/ She was in pain for a few weeks.
We thought Jordan would make it...
...but she fell in as well. Scott got them all off.
Jordan rode with Adler (her son) and Bryn rode with Quinn when we headed back to the house.
Those blue, blue eyes!
In for lunch. Janie loved the nesting dolls at the lake house.
Janie and Adler playing on the dock.
Jenn and Jill got the paddle boards out.
Gigi loves Beckett!
She asked me countless times during the trip if he ever cries and I always told her, "Not really!" He honestly didn't cry a single time on our flights to New York! We are so grateful that our 3rd baby is so chill :)
That evening most of the rest of the family went to a baseball game. Trent and I had already left during the planning session on Monday night and the Christensen family had decided against it. We went to eat at Simply Crepes instead, a family favorite!
Downtown Canandaigua is so cute and quaint :)
I was taking the photo ;)
Thursday was kind of a chilly, rainy day so we just took it easy and didn't do much on the water. In fact, I only have 4 pictures from the whole day!!
Primping with the girls ;)
I thought it was so funny that Beckett was in with all of the big boys ;)
Tessa is a baby lover! She always wanted to help feed Beckett :)
We did go on a boat ride, but brought towels to keep warm ;)
A whole bunch more cousins showed up on Thursday like Thane and Shelby. You can see Thane in the background ;)
That evening we had our movie night and most of us went to see Dunkirk. Thank you to my mom for staying back with our kids. I have to admit, I didn't know anything about this movie going in and I had a hard time following it. Plus there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue which was tricky for me as well.
Friday is always a big day at the reunion every year because it's Olympics day, plus trying to cram everything in that we haven't had a chance to!
Blaine and his wife, Olivia, were over the Olympics this year and did such a great job! They needed a few hours in the morning to gather supplies and get everything ready.
We were told they needed like 2,000 water balloons (I think an event ended up being cut b/c we definitely didn't use that many) so lots of people got to work. Janie loved assisting :)
Sawyer played with Beckett for a while :)
I honestly don't have any pictures from the Olympics and am not even sure what all of the events were b/c I was busy with the kids for most of it. I'm sure my mom has some pictures (besides the one below), but this post is taking me entirely too long so maybe I'll add them in the future ;)
This year the teams were West Coast vs. East Coast. So all of my sisters and the "college" kids were on my team :) So basically the older grandkids vs. the younger grandkids.
I think I only ended up being able to participate in 2 events, which was totally okay. Mom duty first and foremost :) One of them is pictured below. This PVC pipe had holes drilled all over and we all had to plug the holes with our fingers while another team member filled it with water and we had to fill it to the top! Harder than it sounds! You can kind of see me sitting at the bottom, getting a lot wetter than I ever expected..haha.
And then I participated in the final relay at the very end. My part of the relay was to name all 50 states while Amy wrote them down as fast as she could! I just sang 50 Nifty United States that I learned in 6th grade..haha. That song always comes in handy!
East Coast ended up winning! Darn!
The rest of the day was full of fun as well.
Jill, Jenn, and Bryn realized they were all coordinating :)
We tried to get a picture of Kyler and Beckett in their matching outfits again, but failed again..ha.
Got in a few games of Knockout! Always a blast. I'm somewhere in there :)
We headed back to the hotel to get changed out of our swimsuits and Janie took a minute to study Grandma's little Book of Mormon ;)
Jenn, Jill, and I headed back over later that evening for our traditional girls night boat ride. We always take the boat out and park it somewhere in the lake and just sit and chat and look at the stars :) And it's always freezing..haha.
And we also always struggle to get a good picture b/c the flash is so bright! There's always a few of us with crazy eyes ;)
Trent got all of the kids to bed while I was away. He's a gem ;) Beckett stuck his legs out of the crib..ha.
Saturday was officially the end of the Whitmore family reunion, but the only family that actually ended up leaving were the young Whitmore's..haha. I guess the only families that travel are the Christensen's, Lund's, and young Whitmore's b/c the Clark's and Jensen's live in NY. Uncle Rick was the only member of the older Whitmore family who made it at the beginning of the week.
This was the day that we (the Christensen's) checked out of the hotel and moved over to the lake house since we were having our own little reunion of sorts for a few more days (separate blog post to follow). We had until 11 to check out and pretty much needed that whole time. It is so tricky with kids. SO MUCH STUFF!!!
Once we made it to the lake house, it was a regular, easy going day :)
We had to get some shots of the babies! Maryn is about a month older than Beckett and Beckett is 3 months older than Kyler. So 3 babies in 5 months :)
Beckett is always moving..haha.
Just wanting to feel Kyler's bald head ;)
And then grabbing Maryn's headband. This kid!
Just watch Kyler :)
That tongue..haha.
We had been trying to get a shot with Thane and ran out real quick as he and Shelby were headed out for the night.
Beckett fell asleep with Aunt Jenn.
Janie finally warmed up to Quinn when we moved over to the lake house :)
They were having so much fun jumping all over the air mattress!
That night was pizza night and s'mores by the fire pit :)
Once the kids went down, we went on our annual Wegman's run for gummies and treats :)
We headed back to the lake house and watched Pearl Harbor. Seriously a classic.
If you made it through this whole post, I applaud you. It is craaazy long! I am honestly so glad to be done with it..haha. I'll have another, shorter (thank heavens!) post in a day or two with a recap from our little Christensen reunion :)
Read every word!😊
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