Dance Family Reunion 2010

We had the annual Dance family reunion over the 4th of July weekend this year. It was at Candis' house. It was really fun. I liked being at a house because it was easy to put the kids down for a nap and to bed when we wanted too. Plus it was nice and cool in the house. Candis and Ryan did a great job making this reunion happen. Thanks guys!

On our way to Candis' house we stopped in Salt Lake City to see my dad's side of the family. We saw my grandpa, 2 aunts and their husbands, and one of my cousins and his girlfriend. The kids had a blast playing with Alex (my cousin) and Ashleigh (his girlfriend). They entertained them downstairs for a lot of the time. It was good to see everyone. Grandpa was excited to hold Kenzie again since she sat with him for probably an hour the last time we saw him in March. She didn't want to sit as long this time since she can now move. She wanted to get down and play. Grandpa brought some stuffed animals for each of the kids. My boys love them. Jordan decided he was done playing and sleeping with his puppy and now only wants his new doggy. I tried to let him sleep with both but he just kept throwing the puppy out and saying he only wanted his doggy. And he still only holds his new doggy. He's a funny boy.

During the reunion we went to the Scera water park a couple times. It's a great water park for little kids. Jackson loved it, especially when Doug was there. The first time we went, the boys went golfing while the wives took the kids to the water park and then the boys came after they golfed. Jordan liked the water the first day, but the second day he refused to go in the water above his ankles. There's also a sprinkler section and Jordan loved playing in that.

Eva

Kenzie loved the water. I was lucky that the bottom of the pool is scratchy so she didn't want to crawl around too much. Otherwise she would have kept going until I grabbed her.

Isaac, Carinn, Eva, Ashton, Alyssa, Mckay, Kenzie, Anna, Brooklyn, Preston, Xavier, Jordan, Jackson

After the Scera (and after dinner) Candis, Tina, Rose, and I went to see the new Twilight movie. It was fun to have girl's night with the sisters in law. The next day we went to walk around BYU with Tyler, Brian, and their families. Tyler's family and our family went bowling after walking around while Brian's family went to the Bean Science Museum, which looked really cool after I saw the pictures. It was weird to be back at BYU with all my kids. I felt old. I remember seeing families visiting with their kids when I went to BYU and they always seemed so old. Now I'm one of them. I didn't bring my camera, but I found this picture on my sister in law's blog and decided to steal it.... Hope you don't mind Tina :)

Alyssa, Doug, Kenzie, me, Jordan, Jack, Brian, Ashton, Carinn, Rose, Tyler, Avery


That night we had a family softball game. It was pretty fun. The kids loved hitting and running around the bases. And so did the adults.

Jason pitching to Mckay.

Isaac hitting.

Alyssa hitting.

Xavier hitting.

I played right field. This is the view I had. There were tons of bugs out there.


We did fireworks on both the Friday and Saturday nights. We let Jack stay up Friday night, but put him to bed right before them on Saturday because it was late and he was whining a lot from being so tired.

The kids watching the fireworks.

The kids still watching the fireworks.

Preston

Carson

The fireworks. Doug's family does big fireworks. The second night we went to the big field next to Candis' house and did really big ones. One shot off towards the spectators which was a little crazy.

Doug using a sparkler. He was too busy having fun that he used up all the fire before Jackson had a chance to use it. They were supposed to be sharing. Doug wasn't being a very good sharer though.

On the Saturday we had family time. Each family gets up and talks about what's going on in their lives and kids can do talents.

Grandma Dance singing with the primary kids during half time. The kids were getting restless so we decided to have them get up and sing to help get their wiggles out. Candis designed these cool dance shirts for everyone.

Grandma always prepares a fun activity for the kids when it's her and grandpa's turn. This year everyone was given their name and the date they joined the family. Then starting with the year Joan and Blaine got married we went through each year and added the names of the family members that joined that year. (sorry if that didn't make much sense...)

The kids waiting for their turn.

The final project. Together we build a strong family.

The reunion was so much fun and as always went by way too fast. Besides the things I mentioned here we also ate lots of yummy food, the kids jumped on the trampoline and played with water balloons and water squirters, some of us adults stayed up really late playing mafia and talking. I love getting together with the Dance family. I wish we lived closer to each other. You should all move up to Seattle... It's a great place to live :)