Our Family Reunion, 2013, Part 1

We just had our Hinton Family Reunion.  We rented a home in Logan, Utah and spent a glorious week together.  

We have 7 1/2 grandchildren.  Kristen is expecting a girl in September, which will give us 4 boys and 4 girls.  Aren't they cute?

We left on Friday afternoon and spent the night with my sister, Patty and Hal in Elk Ridge.  It was an exciting day for them as they had just received their third (fourth for Hal) mission call.  They are going to Berlin, Germany.  It was fun to be there on the exciting day.  

We got up early the next morning to drive to Provo to be at the finish line where Michelle was finishing a half-marathon.  The finish line was at the Provo Tabernacle/Temple.  It's amazing how they are restoring and constructing this old building.  It's virtually on stilts and the entire block is dug away.

We were so proud of Michelle accomplishing this goal.

She ran with her friend, Tanaya Larsen.  Michelle lives in Virginia and Tanaya lives in Colorado.  They decided to meet in Utah and run it together.  Tanaya and Michelle have been friends since they were in 1st grade.  

Tanaya and her cute family.  

One must stretch after one runs!

And then the reunion begins!!!

We drove up to Logan after the race and went to Shonna's house.  Ken tended Caleb while Shonna, Lily, and I did the grocery shopping for the week.  It took us over three hours!!!  Little Lily was a jewel.  She was born to shop,  I guess.  We all met at the rented house.  

In the opening meeting, Shonna presented the theme for our reunion:"A house of learning."

Shonna and Blake were in charge of the planning this year and did an awesome job.  We "learned" so much.  Each of us were assigned to teach the others something.  

Sunday morning, we all got ready and went to church in a local ward.

 On Sunday afternoon, Ken and I were assigned to teach the children games from our heritage.  It was so fun to pass on the traditions of our families to our little ones.

 I taught them finger plays my mama used to sing with me,"Open, Shut them." and "Noble Duke of York."

 Ken passed on the tradition of my grandpa and my dad and his magic trick of grinding up and blowing away the quarter.  It was so cute how they all (but Brielle- she had it figured out) thought it was pure magic.

 Can you hear the quarter being ground up?

 Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? is a game my childhood family played a lot when the cousins would come.  Even little Jaron loved it.  Here he accuses "Nathan stole the cookie from the cookie jar!"

 We played "Hot Potato" but instead of getting out when the music went off, you got a potato chip.  It was like feeding fish!

 My grandpa and my dad always did the "Grandpa Machine." Grandpa Ken did it and sons-in-law also got in the act.

 One time when we were holding Family Home Evening with my parents many years ago, my dad taught us a game that he used to play when he was a child.  It's called "Charlie, Charlie, butcher boy."  It's a sweet memory of my dad holding my little girls' hands and skipping down the grass singing, "Charlie, Charlie butcher boy, coming for to trade." We taught that to everyone, too.  (The rest of it goes, "What's your trade?  Sweet Lemonade!  Show us some if you're not afraid!)

Monday

After breakfast . . .

 We got ready. . .

I can't get this shoe on!

Here, let me help you( Two-year-old helping two-year-old.)

I know I can do this.

TA!  DA!

Brielle gave the scripture, we had prayer, then . . .

 went to the U-pick strawberry patch near Shonna's house.  The kids loved picking and tasting the strawberries.

Jacob was especially fond of the strawberries and I'm sure ate his weight of them in that patch.  He was so cute and polite, "Please I try this one?" before he ate each one.   He had the quote of the day, too.  He saw the farmer on his tractor and told his dad, "He's a Donald!"  (Old MacDonald)

It couldn't have been a more beautiful or perfect day.  

The whole group.  Notice Brian is missing.  He didn't fly in until Wednesday.   We missed him the first half of the week.  We thought it was so cute that as we assembled for this group picture, the big dog planted himself right in the middle of us, and I swear he smiled.

Nathan and Jacob loved this dog.  This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole week.

That afternoon, Michelle did some activities with us that involved fun music and movement.  The kids had a blast.

 Then we had our 2nd Annual Talent Show.  Each child did a talent and got rewarded. . .

 with a group hug.  Brielle recited a poem and then read one she wrote.

 Nathan showed how to call a turkey and told about hunting a turkey with his dad.

 And Jakie sang the ABC Song.

 Gabbi did a beautiful ballet dance . . .

 and taught us the ballet positions.

 Jaron made the animal sounds

 and Caleb showed how he could jump.

And Lily counted to 10 like a pro!

Then I taught everyone how to make strawberry jam with the berries we picked that morning.  

Nathan taste tested and said it passed!

After dinner we had a nice FHE presented by Shonna.  Blake spent much of the evening in primary corner.  Actually he spent much of the week in primary corner!

For activity, Michelle taught us folk dances.  It was so fun!

Blake felt bad he didn't get to do a talent earlier, so he displayed remarkable talents for the adults after kids were in bed.  

We played a really fun game where we had to act stuff out.  It was a fun evening with the adults after the kids were in bed.

To be continued . . .