Andersen Family Reunion

Kyle's side of the family had a big reunion planned for over the week of the 24th of July at Ensign Ranch. It was on Dee Ann's side, the Andersen family reunion. They haven't gotten together since Kyle's grandpa Preston Andersen's funeral which was almost 20 yrs ago. This was our first time camping this summer so the kids were super excited. And it wasn't even tent camping. Well, Kate slept in a tent with Kathryn, but we all slept in a cabin. Pretty nice going camping without having to set up a tent! Our car was packed tight and we were off. Well, not too fast since we deal with traffic every time we leave to go anywhere. Good thing for DVD players.

Everyone snug in their beds. This didn't last long, well Chelsea slept good, but Preston lost his sleeping bag and Lindsey's bag fell down on the side of the wall. It was a rough night that first night. Kyle and I could not sleep. Kyle usually never sleeps the first night, but I usually can. We stayed in this cabin with Melanie and some of her kids. They were up a little too so it was an exciting night. haha. The next night was much better. :)

Kyle's grandma, Arlene Andersen (aka Grandma Great as my kids call her) had her 90th birthday in February so we celebrated it at the reunion with everyone there. This picture is Arlene with most of her great grandkids. 

Arlene with most of her grandkids

The paparazzi. I thought this was funny!

Arlene with her kids- back row- Kenny, Mona, Kent and Marilyn. Front row- Dee Ann, Arlene and Rick

Dee Ann's family- US!

Back row: Nathan, Melanie, me, Kyle with Chelsea, Madi, Craig and Kathryn

Front Row: Preston, Dee Ann, Dane, Arlene, Kate, Owen, Jill holding Lindsey and Reed.

Marilyn and Cordell with their family 

Kent and Louise with their family 

Rick and Sunni with their family

Kenny and Sherry with their family

Paul and Mona with their family (Paul was home sick) 

The whole gang! Over 100 people were there from all over the country. It was good to see everyone there and to catch up. Some people I had never met since married into the family.

We rode horses and it was a lot of fun.

We played games and Kyle got to be the token boy at our table.

Courtney and Becky organized a big group game and it was a lot of fun. 

Dee Ann put together a slide show and she did a great job chronicling the Andersen history. 

Each family was put in charge of a couple meals. All the food was delish. Yum yum!

Lindsey enjoying Arlene's bday cake.

Kate and Preston loved the slip n' slide. Lindsey not so much and Chelsea not at all. She found muddy puddles to jump in. It was a fun reunion and we are grateful for all the people that put in the effort to plan it because it was a big undertaking!

Summer Happenings

These are some young women from my old ward, the Beverly Park Ward. Emma, the one in the middle in stripes is going off to BYU for her 2nd year and came to visit me while she was home this summer. Rebecca, between me and her, is her younger sister and Jacque with the dark hair is Emma's best friend. Jacque is going to BYU-I this fall for her first year. They were fun young women to work with and we had fun catching up on life. Jacque babysat our kids a lot and my kids really liked her. 

Each summer different parks around the area show movies at night. We went to Willis Tucker Park with our neighbors and saw Frozen. Kyle stayed home with Chelsea because the movie didn't start until 9:30pm. The kids had fun and loved the snacks we all brought. 

Kyle and I were invited to an 80's themed murder mystery dinner party with other couples in our new ward. We weren't too excited to get dressed up, but excited to go meet other people in our new ward. I was supposed to be Tiffany Gibson a music star. Kyle was Joe Montana, a retired football player. He made a big Superbowl ring using one of my rings and foil. It was funny. I teased my hair a lot and wore bright colors. We had a good time. 

Or course, we go to some beaches throughout the summer. The kids have fun playing in the water and sand. Chelsea was funny when we went here because she would run far away from us. I followed her around while Kyle played with the kids in the water. We have had a nice warm summer so far. I hope it continues because then we can do lots of outdoor things. We love it. 

Yard: Before and After

Our backyard needs a lot of help. It's not our favorite at all, but when we were looking at homes this had the biggest yard and we liked the house a lot. The yards are off to the sides of the house (yes plural yards because one is on one side of the house and one is on the other), weird, I know. We have 2 giant trees off the back of the house that we hate. They make a mess. Pine needles are everywhere. I feel like I'm up camping when I walk around back there. It's gross. I guess you can't have it all! But man oh man, we wish we could have a better yard. We talked to the landowners behind our house because the giant trees are on half our property and half theirs. You have to get permission before taking them down. Kyle talked to them and the owner had just died and the land was in probate. Kyle called the lawyer and he said they can't alter the property while in probate, but to hold on because they will be selling the property soon. Hopefully, the developers take down the trees! That would save us some money. :) But then again that would mean we have neighbors right behind us. It was nice to have no one behind us.

Anyway, we decided to rent a trailer and get to work. We hauled two big loads off and got a load of gravel. We weeded a lot, ripped out several trees, bushes and tree stumps left behind. It was a lot of work, but it looked better afterwards. Not great because we can't really do anything with the lawn due to the big giant trees. Some day maybe...hopefully! 

Side of house Before:

Our little helpers weeding the side of the house.

After: 

We put down gravel because we store the garbage cans here and it keeps the weeds down. Except we have a mole that keeps making mounds in our new gravel!

Before: Backyard looking from side of house

After!

Before: Backyard looking from back deck

After

Much better overall. You can see the giant tree off the back deck. Ugh. The other side yard is on the other side of the deck and we haven't touched that yet. 

I had to include a picture of Kate's eye. Kyle was taking the kids on a ride in the bike trailer just around our neighborhood and Kate wanted a ride. He started swerving from side to side to make it more fun and it tipped over and Kate went tumbling out as they were going downhill. Kate came to show me and she had this HUGE bump on her head. It was ginormous and I forgot to take a picture, but it was 1/2" off her forehead. This is the next morning showing the bruising and swelling. I was worried at first b/c I'm thinking awful things like bleeding on the brain, but she was fine and didn't black out or anything. Kyle felt horrible. Kate cried and said, "I don't want to die. I just met Grace (our neighbor) and I have lots of things I want to do still." That broke my heart when she said that. She was fine and had a good story to tell her friends the next day. She had a black eye for a while. 

We are Farmily Reunion

My parents put on a family reunion the day after 4th of July. My parents have a license plate that says "Farmily" to combine the works Farm and Family. So my Mom had t-shirts made with their license plate on our shirt. It was very clever. I've had people ask me if the word Farmily is misspelled and once I explain I grew up on a farm they get it. :) The theme of the reunion was "We are Farmily". 

Attempting pictures with the kids

 L-R in birth order: Aubree, Carter, Kate, Paige, Preston, Hailey, Reagan, Lindsey, Baylor, Chelsea and Zane.

All the grandkids so far...Sara is due at the end of September with another boy.

Everyone minus Jared who is in Brazil (until October), Marci who was in Utah for the summer and Sara's husband Derek who came later in the day. 

Us girls crafting a block that my Mom designed with the theme and pictures from the beginning of the farm. 

This picture of a barn used to belong to my Dad's parents and it was famous in Ellensburg. I remember seeing it when I was a little girl before it was torn down. 

Preston, Lindsey, Baylor and Chelsea enjoying the small kiddie pool and slide. My parents make sure to have fun things for everyone to do while at their house. 

The huge slip 'n slide that the kids had fun on. They use dawn detergent and rub it all over their bodies to make them slide better/faster so at the end is a pool of bubbles and they had fun with that. 

Putting the brand on a block for the kids' to keep. The brand is called a stirrup F and the Sabin's and Walton's used it on their cattle they had years ago in the Ellensburg/Kittitas area. My Mom also made a book for all the kids to give the history of my Grandpa Paul's Dad, my Gpa Paul and down to my Dad and us. It tells about how they came to WA and farmed and then     how my parents ended up in Mattawa. It was awesome! She went to a lot of work to put it together and collect all the pictures. It is neat to have. 

We had different activities throughout the day and one of them was an obstacle course race with the loader tractor, which has been in our family forever and my Dad is a pro at working the front loader part digging up rocks. Jeff set up this cute obstacle course for us. The tractor was for the adults, the four wheeler for the bigger kids, the gator ride on for the little kids and the wheelbarrow for the toddlers. They are ALL green!!! We went around cones and then had to stop and lift a bale into the front loader and then take it out then go back through the course backwards. It was so funny watching everyone! The younger kids had a more simple course, but we timed everyone. I won for the girls and my Dad won for the men, but then Jeff did it again alone (the first time he did it holding Baylor) and he beat my Dad's time. Good competition!

Chelsea and Baylor figuring out the gator

My turn on the obstacle course. I spent lots of time on this tractor baling hay while growing up. Us older girls had older tractors to use while baling hay. We say the 2nd family (aka Jeff, Sara and Jared) had an easy time baling hay because they had tractors with cabs and air conditioning! We had older tractors with radios (only some of them did so we would fight over who got what tractor based on the radio! No joke! Or we would fight for the tractor with the cab if it was cold or buggy outside.) 

Zane was the only toddler who competed in his obstacle course. :) He grabbed the wheel barrow and picked up that chunk of wood and pushed the wheel barrow back. It was adorable! He loves being outside and in the dirt.

Then after dinner we had a talent show outside. Almost everyone participated, well at least most of the kids did. My Mom made the curtains and it looked like a legit stage!

Kevin was the Emcee and did a great job.

Baylor showing us his skills of climbing on top of a motorcycle. Jeff is a proud dad. 

Zane showing us how he plays with tractors.

Preston reading a tractor book to us upside down like a teacher.

Reagan doing a dance routine. She was hilarious with her moves and facial expressions. We were all dying laughing because she was so funny and cute. Lindsey was going to sing "Heavenly Father Loves Me", but didn't want to get up there so she didn't. She turns awfully shy around other people, but at home she isn't shy at all. I don't get it!

Hailey aka Cinderella dancing with her Prince Charming. It was adorable to see them dance. My Mom might have teared up. :)

Paige showed us her gymnastic skills and did cartwheels, tumbling and back bends. She was good!

Kate did her ballet routine from her recital she had in June. She did a great job. She is graceful when she dances. 

My Dad was hilarious and showed us the many uses for his thumb. We tease him about his thumb because he has giant hands and fingers so his thumb can squish or do anything it's so big and strong. 

Carter made some balloon animals for the kids. They loved it. He's gotten good at making them.

Aubree played a song on the flute. She's been playing for a little bit and using Jeni's old flute. She did a great job.

It was a fun family reunion and I am so glad my parents take the time to plan it all for us. They are so generous with their time and it's made our family closer. The cousins had fun playing together and we made lots of good memories. We just wish Marci and Jared were there!