Malarsie Family Reunion

 Another epic reunion in the books at Casa Fiesta! This is one of our favorite weeks of the year!  We love to fill our house and swim, play, and party! So many pictures - so much fun!

The beginning of the reunion was Eden's birthday and she loved having all her cousins, and all the extra attention!  Dad made her a yummy breakfast and then between lots of swimming, she opened presents and had yummy ice cream cake.

She had quite the audience to watch her open presents.  I'm not sure if that was extra fun, or a little overwhelming for her. ha ha

When we were in Costa Rica she fell in love with a beautiful, crystal toucan jewelry holder.  Without her knowing, we bought it and have kept it hidden until her birthday.  She still loved it just as much even though she hadn't seen it in 6 months.  It was a fun surprise.

She is always so excited to see how much she has grown over the year.  She is DYING to get to 5 feet.  Almost there!

The ice cream cake is always a huge hit!  Happy first teenager birthday Eden!

Then once the birthday was over - the true family celebrations began!  Grandma and kids always make a great schedule so we have a plan to somewhat control the chaos, I mean activities and all the eating!

The courage exercise this year was a treasure hunt through a big bucket of crickets and roaches.  In the bottom of the jar there were a bunch of metal pieces they had to collect, while avoiding the bugs crawling on their arms and hands. Everyone was very brave!  The face paint always helps everyone feel stronger. 

All the warriors gathered together before we started!  There is always some anxious energy as they are awaiting what's to come. We always have to do the courage exercise at the beginning of the reunion because the kids are so curious they start getting into things, and looking in storage closets trying to find whatever clues they can about what they will face.

It's so entertaining to watch as they come one by one and hear what it is they have to do.  There's so many mixed emotions, but in the end, everyone does it!!  So much courage and support for each other.  I love it.

After everyone had taken their turn with the nasty creepy crawlies, they got fed to the turtles.  The kids always look forward to that part. ha ha

Bentley got a little carried away with that black face paint - it was much harder to get off than he thought it would be.   Look at that cute face.

And once again we headed out for some crawfish catching!  It's also become a fun tradition, though this year we weren't able to catch as many.  Next year we need to go later in the day (remember that tip!). And no noses were burned in the adventure thanks to Brad.

Before the crawfish boil, they need their salt bath!

The twins were so curious about these creatures this year.

Kike in that cut off tie dye, stirring up the pot of crawfish boil goodies - so classic.

Karly wanted to keep these claws forever, but fortunately we talked her out of that idea.

We had our reliable crawfish lovers, and also a few new kids to try for the first time this year.  We are slowly converting the family to the crawfish. :)

One day was cousin camp and grandma and grandpa took this large bundle off to Cliff's amusement part and to the buffet.  The cousins always look forward to this time together where they greatly outnumber the adults and they get all the "yes" answers they want from grandma and grandpa.

Grandma and grandpa look a little nervous.

And all we were left with at home was the kids under 8, which was Karly, Lola and the twins.  

Grandma had even thought of them and froze a few ice blocks of treasures for them to excavate while the rest of the crew was gone.

They very patientlly worked on getting out necklaces, rings, fairies, gold coins, and other fun surprises. Thanks grandma!

And then all the parents got to hang out, mostly kid free!  It was a peaceful and delicious meal from Weck's. Thanks for taking all the noise grandma and grandpa!  Everyone agrees that cousin camp is the best.

Grandma even got lots of cute pictures of them on all their adventures.

This was Olive, London and Cooper's first year at cousin camp.  They were so excited to be included with the big kids!

While the crazy kids were raiding the buffet, all the adults got a date night out at Don Choche's Mexican Restaurant, and then mexican popsicles at the Poleta Bar.  Yum!

This year we had a new addition to the schedule - neighborhood scavenger hunt!  Grandma and grandpa worked hard to set up all the clues, and even got the Reidheads involved in a required picture.  It was so much fun!

They had broken down all the teams by colored wrist bands and then we each had to come up with a team name based on our colors.   My team was the "Green chilis"

Brad's team was the "Orange Creamcicles"

Cam's team was the "Purple Panthers"

And Kike's team was "Red Ketchup"

Each team had a list of items they either needed to get a picture with, or a video of and it included a couple streets surrounding our houses.  There were points awarded to the first team back, and different amount of points for different items on the list.  We had some pretty healthy competition, and people were running all over looking for clues.  It was really fun.

A horse race around the trampolines was a video item that each team completed.  Those were hilarious!

The "green chilis" completed everythong on our list and were the first ones back and we were celebrating our victory, when we realized we didn't read one of the clues completely!  Those metal animal statues in the park were each worth three points, and we thought we only needed one so we quickly got one and moved on.  Turns out Brad's team was the only one who read that correctly and took a picture with every metal animal so they killed us all in points.  Well done "orange creamcicles" you guys were the real winners.

After everyone returned we looked through all the photos and videos.  It was a good time! Thanks grandma and grandpa!

We also spent another afternoon at the zoo.  It was a first time in a long time for many of the cousins, and a first time to see the penguins!  They had fun splitting off into groups and roaming around amongst the animals for a few hours.

And then before and after all the structured activities, there were so many fun and miscellaneous things to fill our time together.  So much good food, games, swimming, playing, and everything in between!

New pool additional this year were the battle logs.  Those were quite a balance challenge that took a lot of rolling over before the battles could even begin.  We got a lot of good laughs watching the kids try to keep themselves upright on those.

Olive, Bentley and Cooper were the ice cream truck crew.  They made their advertisement posters and got everything all set up.  They felt very important, and their ice cream was very appreciated.

Unfortunately the rock wall by the hot tub caused a few injuries this year.  Brad had a nasty hematoma on his shin, and Karly took a hard crash when her floatie collided with the rock wall.  She had a major owie on her forehead. 

But aside from those few injuries, the rest was all fun and games!

The teens enjoyed pickle ball across the street at the Peck's house.

And no reunion is complete without some new tie-dye shirts!  This year we did it over on the side gravel.  We continue to learn each year about the best way to do things :)

The night swims are some of the best!  The kids love turning out all the lights and playing tag and other games in the completely dark pool.

It's always such a blessing to spend this week together full of so much fun and laughter.  I expecially love to see the relationships amongst the cousins.  I'm so grateful we can all be together like this and hope we will all cherish these memories forever!

Number the children from 1-19!!  

Thanks to grandma and grandpa for all the extra planning, and thanks for all the families who traveled long distances to spend this week together.  Lots of sacrifices are made to make this happen, and I'm so grateful!