Family Reunion #2 ~ Strawberry, AZ

Happy 4th of July!!!

Every year over 4th of July weekend, the LeBarons have their family reunion. We were originally planning on going up Friday, but when we heard it was raining and being that we'd have to stay in a tent, we just decided to drive up early Saturday morning and spend the day.

The moment we arrived, it was time for breakfast, but not just ANY breakfast - WAYNE'S breakfast. This unique event consists of frying bacon on a rusty 'ole #10 can, placing a piece of bread, with a hole pinched out of the middle, on top of the bacon and cracking an egg in the center. Sounds delish, doesn't it!!!!! It takes almost 30 minutes to cook one of these beauties!

Blake cooks, Matt eats

A boy and his sticks are ne'er soon parted

Matt & I hiked with the kids up to "First Lookout." This was the first time I'd been up there and lets just say that I'm outta shape!!! It is a pretty good climb, but I was worried about smashing my precious camera. ;) Brooklyn and Emily were so cute, holding hands on the way up. I kept telling them they had to let go so they could use their hands on the tough spots.

Here are all the kids at the top ~ Brooklyn, Blake , Josh, Gavin & Em

On the way down, we had a little "incident." Please don't call CPS on Matt, he felt guilty enough!! Haha! I witnessed this all from behind. At one point on the way back down the mountain, Matt lifted Gavin off the ground (maybe to lift him over something?) holding both Gavin's wrists in one of his hands. Gavin starting crying and I knew that was an owie cry. I quickly caught up and we tried to assess where there may be damage, but couldn't pinpoint it. Gavin wouldn't move his arm and screamed every time WE tried to move it, so I took him the rest of the way down to the cabin. We were afraid we'd have to make an ER run to Payson, but thankfully we were reminded that Lafe Carroll, a member of the family, is a pediatrician and was at the reunion. So we found the Dr. and had him take a look at Gavin. He suspected nursemaid's elbow and did some twisty thing with his arm, told us to give Gav some Tylenol and to come back if it wasn't better in 20 minutes. Thankfully, Gavin started using his arm again and was good as new! Thanks Lafe!!! :)

The Cummard family was in charge this year and did a great job with activities! After a quick trash tidy up of the field, we played monster kickball....

...and snow cones were provided for a cool mid-morning treat! Blake had an "ice" cone because of course the syrup was pretty much flavored corn syrup. He was happy just the same! :) I love snow cones and had my favorite flavor- watermelon. Yum!

The rest of the afternoon consisted of {another} marshmallow war, making these cute hair clippies ----->, coloring Don't Eat Pete game boards, creating plates, and lots of opportunities to chat and catch up with family members.

I'm so glad to have married into such a tight-knit extended family! It's been four years since we've attended the LeBaron reunion and I'm glad that we were able to finally go this year. The weather was beautiful and cool and the kids had an absolute blast, running around, rolling in the dirt! Good times!