4th Friend Reunion

 

Our long awaited BFF Friend Reunion finally arrived. 
 

The countdown is always half the fun as we anticipate being with our greatest friends again.

This year we returned to the place where it all began... Lake Forest, CA. 

It was nostalgic and SO nice to be back.

The Smith's hosted and did a fabulous job.

 

I packed up my little tribe on Friday afternoon and drove to St. George where we stayed the night.  In the morning we met up with the Stringhams and caravaned the rest of the journey.  We were all SO happy.

 

Saturday night we relaxed at the Smiths, watched some of their favorite t.v. shows and laughed. 

The rest of the group arrived on Sunday, in time to go to church at 11:00 at our old ward.   

 

I wasn't expecting the emotions that would burn inside of me as I hugged old friends and had a flood of good memories pass through me as I sat in church.  I tried to hard to hold it together but it proved to be an emotional church meeting.

Alicia gave the lesson in Relief Society and it was wonderfrul for all of us BFF-ers to sit together on the same row and share thoughts about how the Priesthood blesses our home.  I wanted to share my thoughts about how the Priethood blesses my home through great acts of service from others, but my emotions kept me from doing so.

 

It was a grand reunion for us all to be together.  (except we missed the Steadmans greatly)  It never ceases to amaze me how everyone, especially the kids just pick up as if no time has passed.  They think they're all related and consider themselves bestfriends too.  All the ladies LOVE that the admiration for each other is carrying over into the next generation. 

After church, while we were preparing dinner, the kids all followed Ryan and Tyler's lead climbing over their back fence into the cemetary behind their house.  There was a huge tree which they flung a long rope over a tall branch.  Then with pillows to provide a nice seat on one end they gave everyone rides up and down that tree; pulling the other end of the rope to leverage the kids up and down. 

still trying to be respectful being in a cemetary and all.

Never had their been so much fun in all the history of children.  Everyone had their turn going as high or as low as they wanted to ride.  Some climbed the tree to get a different view of the kids flying.

Here's a shot of the pullers.

Sometimes they needed a dad to help pull the heavier ones.

Some were big daredevils doing the Mission Impossible move and stopping 2 inches from the ground.

Loved Loved Loved having my Maryn with us for this great reunion.

The pet snake even came to join in on the fun.  Ewwwwww.

With each child I was noticing the rope getting more and more frayed as it rubbed against a branch.  Everyone assured me that that rope had lasted tons of rides and it would be ok.  Daniel Wood wanted a try.  He's over 6 feet tall and a muscular 18 year old.  ALL the kids had to help hoist him up.  They grunted and pulled but they got him up... about 2 feet up off the ground...

...then the rope snapped and Daniel landed with a thud ontop of a headstone. 

Ouch!

Of all the kids this could have happened to the parents were glad it was Daniel... he could handle the pain.  But, poor guy.  He stayed on the ground moaning for a minute before he could get up again.

As quick as it started the kids climbed back over the backyard fence leaving the cemetary and back to the Smiths.  (in the distance you can see the ladder and some kids already leaving the scene while Danny is still recovering.) 

Monday before lunch we went to Corona del Mar Beach.  This happened to be the same beach where we had a family picture taken before we moved.  It was so beautiful.  The kids did some awesome body boarding thanks to the Smith kids for being the teachers.  Some of the newbies did a few face plants into the sand before they got the hang of it... Kaden for example, got a a faceful of sand.

These 2 awesome dudes liked to play it safe in the more shallow waters.

Emmy was nervous about trying it so the Smith kids tutored her in the ways of body boarding.

Nothing more relaxing than sitting on the beach...
happy kids
happy moms.
Reminded us of 11 years earlier going to the beach together with our babies.

The kids went crazy with their shovel and dug a hole to China.

Jim let everyone have a turn of climbing inside until the lifeguard came over and told us we had to fill it in... too deep.

I think these pictures are a little out of order... 2 days later at Crescent Beach.  The tidepools were super fun to explore.

Monday night for Family Home Evening the Tanners hosted the dinner at O'Neil Park.  We had the yummiest BBQ. 

We had the toastiest fire, a super great guest speaker (a wonderful lady from the area), and then a testimony meeting.  Always a spiritual time for us to share our testimonies with each other.

Fun back at the Smith house.

Tuesday we went to Irvine Park and had a picnic.

Driving in the car.  Age has no boundaries with these kids.

Here's Danny Wood who a month later got his mission call to Ogden, Utah.  He will be the funnest and happiest and silliest missionary the church has ever known.  Watch out Utah!

At Irvine Park the kids had SO much fun!!!

These 3 boys were adorable together.  Trevor, Evan and Kaden.

We rode the bikes and the train and climbed the trees.

That night we had pizza poolside hosted by the Tanners.

 

Emmy with her new bestie, Sarah.  The Sommers were invited to be apart of this year's reunion and we were all SO happy about it. 

This is one of my favorite memories of the whole trip... driving in the Smith car.  Alicia at the wheel and me as the passenger.  We have 3 sets of kids double-buckled.  The radio is blasting and All of these kids are singing at the top of their lungs ALL of the songs that come on.  I was amazed that they knew all the words.  I was amazed at how loud it was.  I loved the joy that we all felt.  We were all smiling and laughing and singing and loving being together.  It made me SO happy!

I took a picture with my heart because it was a JOYFUL moment.

We stopped at the Marina rescue center.  We had been there a lot of times before when we lived there so it was fun to go back. 

More time at Crescent Beach body boarding, tidepool exploring and hanging out.  A bunch of the older kids went to another beach to have a go at surfing.  Apparently Maryn was quite successful for a first timer at surfing.  Doesn't surprise me!  She wants to move to California now so she can take it up.

These 2 made me so proud.  They never quit at this body boarding business.  They kept trying and trying even though it was challenging.  They got so good at it and had tons of fun!

Love it when Maryn thinks she's old and mature but just acts like a silly kid!

The Smiths got us into this show called Psych.  The kids got addicted to it too and had to watch a few episodes every day.  Hilarious. 

Wednesday night we had a delicious dinner at Valerie and Steve Ludden's house.  We played some games and then the older ones went to the Wood's to watch a movie.

Thursday morning the ladies went to our old favorite park on Peachwood. (the same one where Maryn broke her arm.)  We had our bookclub meeting where we discussed Brad Wilcoxes new book, the Infinite Atonement.  It was perfect for us and SO very wonderful to share thoughts with these ladies.  Our normal conversations naturally take us to these  Spiritual kind of discussions anyway but it was nice to have such inspired words to direct us.

The teenagers did baptisms at the Newport Temple. 
It was awesome!
The tradition in the area is to eat at In and Out after you go to the temple, so we just HAD to do it too.
These are GOOD kids!

I loved being there with my 2 girls too!

The moms took all the kids to the Jumping trampoline place after. 
Of course they had lots of fun, especially on this thing where they got to fight each other.  It actually was hard for them to hit and try to knock off their apponent.  No one wanted to be too mean.

Emmy and Trevor

Kaden and Evan

Maryn and Audrey

Ady and Brandon

Kaden and Trevor

Emmy and Evan

That night the adults left all 20 plus kids and went out to dinner at a yummy Mexican place.
Then we did a session at the temple enjoying the new temple movie for the first time. 

I don't know what to say about these 3 ladies standing with me.  We were the Primary Presidency of the Lake Forest Ward.  It was the most Celestial time serving in the church.  I get a little choked up when I think about the Spirit and unity we had with us as we served for less than 2 years together.  We were a team.  We were wonderful friends.  We did so many amazing things in the Primary during that time that probably go down in the history of the church as the most incredible Primary activities ever.  It truly was a sacred and special time to work with these ladies.  I was the President but really we were all equally yoked and serving with one heart and one mind.  Our close friendship and bond has only strengthened over the years which makes our times together all the greater and the memories of that time serving together very sacred.  Heavenly Father allowed our paths to cross for 2 1/2 years and here we are almost 12 years later still close as ever and still loving each other more and more.  We decided that we must be some of Heavenly Father's most favorite people ever.

With sadness we hugged and kissed after the temple as we said good-bye!  It was a FUN-filled jam-packed week.  We couldn't have fit anything else into the week.  We ate good, we laughed, we phylosiphized, we reminisced, we looked to the future, we loved, we felt the
Spirit.
One more year of great memories and great times! 
See you again in 2 years... but hopefully sooner.