Family Time

When we got back to WA, over half the family and all of the cousins were there.  There was always lots of excitement and a lot of eating.  Feeding and cleaning up after 30 plus people is no small task, but it was planned out pretty well.  We had dinner CEO.  Funny thing was on my CEO night, we were the last people home so we didn't actually end up doing much to help out (Kyle said that was in true CEO style...haha).  We had a massive family home evening, the kiddos painted their future uncle Clarke a banner.  I think the wording got a little outdone by the paint.

One of the days we went over to Remlinger Farms.  It was really perfect for this age group of kids (10 and under).  Kherington was way more adventurous than Kevin even though Kevin could have done almost all the rides she did.  Like the pony rides.  She loved them.  I think she went 5 or 6 different times and Kevin just stood and waited each time.  Kherington's favorites were Bumbleberry and Peach.  Another highlight was the hay pit and maze.  Also at one point just members of our family filled the roller coaster.  It was cute to see the cousins play.  Brenna was extra sweet with Kherington and ended up riding most of the rides with her.  As with each get together though there is always an injury and that came during lunch time.  Eli fell off the bench and sliced his ear open.  He ended up at the ER and came home with stitches which was not so cool. (plus they didn't appropriately grease the scab so it dried to the bandage when they took it off.

Wednesday evening we left all the grand kids with a crew of baby sitters and were all able to do a temple session together.  We ended up waiting for the last session because Clarke's plan got delayed a couple hours and even with that it wasn't sure that he'd make it.  They ended up holding the session a couple minutes since the front desk had told them he'd just came running in the front doors and was changing.  So the first time all of us were together was in the temple...kinda cool.  All we had was an iPhone to snap a picture after the session so there are some pretty funky eyes.

The Fourth of July was a busy one.  We had family pictures in the morning.  After the main photographer got the whole family, Anna took some individual family pictures with her sweet high end camera plus every one was snapping away.
Just the Glovers (the one with Ryan and Kevin is one of my favorites):

Most (maybe all, but I can't find Lani's) the individual families had pictures taken also.  Here they are from oldest to youngest.

The Finley grandparents...not sure how the Dixon grandparents and Mom & Dad got skipped.

My favorite picture, I got the most crap about taking, but I am so happy we did.  It was a 'in-law's' picture.  We all married well :).  What an awesome group (sadly we didn't get a siblings picture).

After family pictures we all did a quick change into workout clothes and laced up for our traditional run.  Mom had ordered some shirts (with an awesome design by Anna) for all of us to wear.  At this point I was finding it funny that in about 12 hours Clarke had seen us in just about every setting...anyways...  We started off with the kid run.  They ran down a hill, through a little pathway and down the gravel road back to the house.  They were pretty cute.  They all got ribbons when they finished.

Next up was the adult 5K.  This year we had actual people telling us where to turn (thanks to the Redding Dixon clan).  Ryan, Guillaume and Kyle all tied for last...what a great crew of non-running bro-in-laws.  At the award ceremony, Ryan ended up with two award - one for last place (the red lantern award) and one for sweatiest runner...haha.

After the run some went down to the church to play some bball while others started getting everything cooked and setup for the dinner that evening and the reception the following evening.  We had a big BBQ with Clarke's family that night.

A few of us went to the hill to watch the fireworks.  We went, but both kids were almost asleep (it was a long fun packed day) and didn't really care so we headed back down and put them to bed.  I then ended up making one more batch of pita's for the reception.  I don't think I'll ever make pita's again.