Monday, September 16, 2013

Mortensen Family Reunion - part 1

We had a great time at the Mortensen family reunion.  We don't get to see all of John's siblings and their families all that often because we are spread out between Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and California, so it is a treat when we are ALL together.  This year the reunion was in St. George.  Heather was in charge and did a GREAT job planning everything.  We were plenty busy all week with fun activities for everyone, but had enough down time to relax too.

Marc and Betty rented 3 condos next to each other for all of us to stay in, 2 siblings in each condo.  We were with Heather and Curtis and their four kids.  The condos were perfect...big enough for everyone and all shared a backyard.  The cousins had so much fun running around, in and out of the condos, all week long playing together.  Brooklyn was in HEAVEN with her cousins.  She didn't want to nap most days because she was too busy running around with all the kids.

We drove down Saturday afternoon (July 28th).  Heather's girls Hannah and Emma drove with us, which was helpful to have entertainment for Brooklyn the whole way.  Once we unpacked the van, Heather and I headed to Wal Mart to get food for the week.  We picked up Pollo de Loco for dinner and headed back to the condos.  After dinner we all met together (32 of us total - Marc and Betty, 6 siblings and their spouses, and 18 grandchildren) and went over what was going to happen during the week, passed out family reunion t-shirts, and sat and visited.     

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting at Marc and Betty's ward, then packed lunches and drove to Parawon, Utah to visit the cemetery, where lots of Mortensens are buried. 


Brooklyn and Emma

 I love this picture of Brooklyn and Grandma Betty.  Brooklyn wanted to sit in her lap and did for a good 15 minutes while everyone else was walking around looking at the graves.

so sweet

Royce


 Bella and Sadie - Brooklyn followed these 2 around all week and they were both so good about including her...she loves them.



After we looked around the cemetery we drove down the road to a park and ate our packed lunches and let the kids play.
Brooklyn and her twin...only 8 days apart

 
Look at Royce....cutest face!

Before dinner that night we had family pictures taken.  Each family was assigned a color...either a shade of blue or green, and I think it went really well together.  I always dread family pictures only because it is exhausting, but always so glad to get them done.  I think we got some great shots of everyone.  (I will post those soon)  After pictures we ate dinner together at the clubhouse, followed by cupcakes in the backyard to celebrate everyone's birthday.

Monday morning we all met for breakfast, which included casseroles, fruit, muffins, and juice, at a park close to Marc and Betty's house.  It is a great park with lots of playground equipment, big areas of grass, and a huge pavilion.  We ate and then played.  Solomon and Sonya were in charge of games and came up with some fun ones.

Emma and Jake

anxiously awaiting for the games to start

races with a pool noodle in-between your leg


Hunter - I love how into it he is, tongue out and all

Josh

Emma getting ready

John and Jake

Brad

Sara



I think we tied :)

Heather brought this huge ball that the kids could climb in and roll down the hill.  I wish I were small enough to do it because it looked fun.


Royce, Brooklyn, and Connor inside the ball, all hot and sweaty :)  These three are all 2 (missing Aleks) and are busy busy!



Brooklyn, Sadie, Brynna, and Bella

We went back to the condos once it started getting too hot to eat lunch, put kids down for naps, and have some down time.  During that time too we made memory plates, where you colored and designed a plate however you wanted (family reunion tradition).  Some went swimming at the clubhouse just across the street from our condos.  We headed over once our kids woke up from naps.

Hannah and Brooklyn




After dinner we all met together for FHE and stories by Marc and Betty.  We did this every night (followed by treats) and was a nice way to end each day and discuss what was going on the next day.

2 comments:

  1. WOW What a fun reunion! You got to do so much fun stuff. Did the kids hit heads inside of that ball while rolling in it? Loved all the cute pics.

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  2. What a fun reunion! I think we need to do that with our family! Your kids are so cute and grown up!

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