Family Reunion: Arkansas

Our family reunion started with a 23 hour car ride. That was interesting… to say the least. Michael, Tyler, and I were all smashed in the backseat with 3-4 pillows.

But upon arriving in Arkansas, we felt right at home. We had a lot of really fun activities planned for this trip, and we made so many great memories! My nieces and nephews are so adorable, each and every one of them. I currently have 10 nieces and nephews. I swear they’re the cutest in the world. There was swimming, kayaking, shopping, movies, bike rides, museums, splash park, and much more that made this family reunion unforgettable. Here are some of my favorite memories from the trip.

• My nephew Mason eating everything and all the time. He's 17 months old and as cute as could be. It seems like every time I saw him, he was either in his high chair eating food or walking around the house with some sort of snack. A few times he decided to eat markers and ended up with a purple/blue mouth and face. 
• Kendall and her obsession with "excuse me." My niece, Kendall, is 4 years old. She is really sassy with the most innocent little voice you can imagine. Lately she's into saying "excuse me" all the time. She'll say it every time she wants someone's attention. I swear she says it at least 15 times a day. "Excuse me, I need a drink!" "Excuse me, you stole my spot." One day we went to a really neat museum. Some of the artwork was guarded with a line on the floor saying "Don't Cross." Some random stranger had their foot across the line, so Kendall goes up to them and says "Excuse me, you're crossing the line!!!" I'm sure they were surprised to be chastened by a 4 year old girl. 
• Theater Night. Dan and Tara have a pretty enormous backyard. They also have a GIGANTIC screen that they put on the side of their house to have theater nights. It was really awesome! It was truly our own drive-in movie experience, with an awesome sound system and all. 
• Country Dancing. It's a tradition in the Christensen family to do old country dances like the Virginia Reel, hokey pokey, chicken dance, and other silly/fun dances. My grandma taught all my cousins how to do these dances, so we thought it would be fun to continue the tradition. I had previously learned the Virginia Reel, so I had the opportunity to teach it to my family, and it was a blast!
• On the Pontoon. The day we took the pontoon out to Beaver Lake was fantastic! We rented it for the whole day, so we played, and played, and played. There was even a barbecue on the pontoon. The water was really clear, and it was the absolute perfect temperature. We parked the pontoon by a shore, and played for hours on the rocks. There were very large boulders and rocks along the shore, and the water got suddenly very deep off shore, so we jumped off the rocks into the water all day. It was an absolute blast. 

Arkansas really is a beautiful area. We went on bike rides inside a gorgeous deciduous forest area and went kayaking twice in the local lakes. But even the small moments of the vacation made it worth while. My nieces loved for me to read them books, so we spent quite a bit of time just reading with each other, and it was really precious. My family created our own volleyball team and played some intense games. We went swimming and shopping and just plain socializing!

One great part of the vacation was being able to see my nephew, Gavin, get baptized. It was a very well-organized and very personalized baptism. There were pictures and videos of Gavin that made it really special.

We had many laughs with each other. Especially while playing catch phrase. One specific time, it was McKenzie's turn. I guess it was one of those "you had to be there" moments, but we could not stop laughing! This is how that round went:

McKenzie: “This comes out your butt!”

So of course, we all screamed, “Poop!!”

McKenzie: “No… It’s not a solid”

“DIARRHEA!!!!” We screamed in unison

McKenzie had a fit of giggles, so we all started laughing, too. We sounded ridiculous. Then the timer went off, and we lost a point because we were all laughing so hard we were crying. This continued for about 5 minutes before we could resume the game. The word she was trying to get us to guess was “gas tank.” Now it all makes sense....