Monday, July 28, 2008

Manwaring Family Reunion

Our most recent adventure has been the Manwaring family reunion. The one bonus was that everyone else traveled here, instead of us traveling somewhere. Our family was in charge of the first day, Monday. We kicked everything off with a real crowd favorite.....family pictures!!!!! I was very upfront with the photographer as to the size of group he would be dealing with, and he was still surprised with our crazy group! He had suggested that we all where a "neutral" color and suggested white shirts for everyone. If a photographer EVER suggests white for a picture with kids, outdoors, again, I will flat out refuse! I was a basket case the entire time trying to keep them clean, and grass-stain free. This is a picture of the kids after an hour and 1/2 of pictures. They faired pretty well. It was the photographer and me who were a frazzled mess! I get to go look at the proof tomorrow. This will be our first "non-Sears" family picture so I hope we got some good ones. After pictures we took everyone to the Twin Falls temple open house. It was a wonderful experience. And I say that with complete awe. Not because of the beauty, or feeling of the temple (there was that too, don't get me wrong). But even after we had subjected all 20 of those kids to hours of pictures, they were so well behaved at the temple, I can only site divine intervention. They showed a wonderful video before, and it was so sweet to watch my children so attentive and reverent. This is something they have been hearing about and looking forward to for so long! A very touching experience.

Day 2 was at Grandpa's in Buhl. We all met for a wonderful breakfast and swimming at Branbury hotsprings. I even did my first flip off a diving board!!!! I am still shocked myself. My neighbor told me about a great slip and slip they had made out of Ag-bags (the big white bags they put silage (sp?) in. So we tried it. Add a little Baby wash, and it was quite the ride!! The kids had fun on that for hours!!! It was a fun day for sure.


The last day we went to City of the Rocks, south of Burley. It was fun to climb on all the rocks. I packed my big first aid kit, and only needed it for one tiny little owie on Jack. I was amazed we didn't have more injuries. We did however have a few casualties in the way of seat bottoms. All the uncles told the kids to slide down on their bum, so as to be safe, and we lost atleast 3 pairs of shorts, maybe more in the prosess. ( Emily was one of them, but I didn't even notice until they went thru the wash.)

Here are all 20 of the Manwaring grandchildren. What a sight!

6 comments:

Cheryl said...

What fun!! I just love family reunions!! Your kids are getting so big!! It amazes me how quickly they grow up!

SKH said...

Looks awesome! Crazy how our paper did an article on city of the rocks the same time you went there. We will for sure have to visit it now.

Amy said...

Looks like you guys are doing great!! Tell Emily that Josh and Jacob say "Hello"!

Emily Kern said...

You guys have been busy! This looks like a lot of fun, and I love that it makes Blake happy when his family is working...I feel the same way!

Kristy said...

How fun! I agree with Cheryl. Your kids are so big! What handsome boys you have!

Brigitte said...

Those rocks look like so much fun to play on! And I can't believe how big your kids are getting! Your oldest girl looks just like you. :)