MLL & GJE Reunion

This year the MLL & GJE Reunions were at the usual Harding Haven at Bear Lake. We love this place. It is the only place that Landon has consistently gone back to his entire life. Really it is the closest place he has to "going home." Unfortunately, he was not able to really be there with us at all. (If you don't know why, see previous post.)

The kids and I went up on Wednesday evening and stayed through Sunday night. There was lots of soaking in the sun and playing on the beach, which was only about 15 yards from the cabin, and lots and lots of playing with cousins.



Pretty much the entire reunion was spent lounging on the beach and playing in the sand and water. This is one of my favorite pictures. Grandma Ladwig bought a relaxation station that floated in the water. The first time it went out Levi relaxed in his pirate boat in the middle as all the other kids sat around him.

What a doll baby this little girl is. Adasyn, we love you!

I have to admit that I would not have been able to do this week without a lot of help from the family. Uncle Steven was so great to play in the water with my kids (he has Adasyn and Ellen in this picture), Grandma, Aunt Renee, and Aunt Audra were quick to jump in to help watch when I needed to take a step away. Marrying Landon was a fabulous idea! I love his family!

Cousin Rachel's jet skis were the big hit on Thursday. Levi did get to go for a little ride, but he was just as happy sitting on the "motor boat."

Poor little Adasyn got a bee sting on her face. A hornet attacked her and stung her about 4 times before we got it off of her. Her poor little face was so swollen she hardly looked like herself. She got drugged up and did fairly well with it. Although, she did get nervous of any flying bug, even cotton in the air.

Along with beach time there was plenty of time to play games with the cousins. Ellen's favorite was Crazy 8's with her second cousin Sammy.

This was Aunt Lindsay's first time to Bear Lake. We are sooo glad she was able to come. We were able to see some of the fun projects she is working on, such a crafty girl, plus she gave us the sweetest blanket for baby Kathleen. (I will post a picture of it in a future post.)

Since the water is soooo high this year the beach was not completely beach. There are years of weeds that are now under water and have been getting pulled up by the water. Walking in the water was a little slimy going through all of those weeds. We would spend time raking them off of the beach each day. One of the days the neighbor got his tractor out and hitched it up to a trailer. We loaded the piles of weeds from off of both beaches and it made for a lot nicer playing.

Sometimes the fun just gets to be a little too much.

This picture was taken the day that Adasyn got stung by the hornet. At dinner that night she was really freaked out about anything flying by her face and wouldn't eat. In fact, she wouldn't stop crying. Ellen decided to go over and start playing with her. She was able to get Adasyn to stop crying and play with her. She even got her to start eating. It was one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. My girl is going to love having a little sister!

On Saturday we decided to start doing some clean-up around the cabin. The little kids were assigned to pick up trash around the entire cabin. Since most of them were so little they had a hard time starting to do things. Uncle Son, started helping out and became the Pied Piper of Children. He was followed around by all of the kids for about 20 minutes and then set up a "magic show" for all of them afterwards.

This has to be one of my very favorite pictures of Trevor. Aunt Lindsay took this one and posted it on her blog. It is priceless! Thanks Lindsay!

We were at Harding Haven on Sunday which means no playing in the water. We were able to have a little devotional meeting and then thanks to Aunt Moana, and I think really thanks to cousin Roseanne, there were all sorts of activities for the kids to do. There was coloring, and bubbles, and glow sticks, and Minute to Win It. My kids loved it!

Our original plan for Bear Lake was to stay until Monday afternoon, but with the breakdown of our van we had to change our plans very last minute on Sunday night. We decided at 8 p.m. that night to pack up our stuff and have Grandma Ladwig take us all home. We left Bear Lake at 10 p.m. Our kids were exhausted from the week at the lake as well as it being so late. There wasn't enough room in the back of Grandma's truck so Daddy just had them all sitting back with him. They all fell asleep draped all over Landon. We couldn't get a really good picture of it, but it was very sweet.

It was a very fun trip, just tainted a little by the breakdown of the van. We love family and love spending time with them! And there is no place better to do that at than at Bear Lake!