Hansen Family Reunion 2009

A couple of years ago, my family decided to start the tradition of having our own family reunions. Everyone (that can) is married and we're starting to spread out a little. Especially for us, this is important, because we only get back to Idaho once or twice a year. Mom's family, the Hunters, has reunions every year and they are some of the best memories we kids had. I want my kids to know and love their cousins as much as I did/do.

This year it was our turn to host the reunion. I've got to say, it wasn't as hard as I could have made it and it was tons of fun. We based it out of our home, which wasn't as bad as it sounds, since three families couldn' t come. The dads and their kids slept outside in tents, which left plenty of room and beds for us delicate mothers.

My brother Scot, his wife Angela, and girls-- Hannah, Elizabeth, and Madeline-- came on Wednesday. That left my parents and brother Mark; Sara (my sister) and Shawn with Ryan, Elinor, Reagan, and Grant; and Evan (my brother), Christi and Katie to come in Friday afternoon. We let everyone get unloaded and shake out their travels for a few hours. Then the official fun began!

I chose a pirate theme since our big activity was a trip to the beach. We dressed up in our pirate gear and took lots of pictures. *On a side note, it kind of surprised me when people asked me how I got my family to be caught dead dressed up, let alone get it photographed. It never occurred to me that other families can't be coerced into this kind of thing and think it's the best fun ever.* We started with singing our pirate anthem (please sing to Primary song #209 "Fathers" with as much piratey spirit as you can muster!):

The captain of our ship

leads our scurvy crew

He yells, he screams,

He often demeans.

The captain of our ship.

(chorus): Pirates are swashbuckling

with a very smelly smell.

We'll pillage and we'll loot you.

If you're not nice, we'll shoot you.

But we can tell a good tale!

The crew upon our boat

Keeps this tug afloat.

We'll help you sail

You might see a whale

The crew upon our boat.

(chorus)

The wench upon our ship

Plans out every trip

She drops the anchor

We never thank her

She has a vice like grip.

(chorus)

The Pirates on the sea

Scratch from all our fleas

We dig for treasure

It's such a pleasure.

A pirates life for me!

(chorus!)

Here's the official slide show of the pictures I have.

Getting ready to sing our song. Grammy and Papa After we sang and took the pictures, we went out front and watched "Muppet Treasure Island" projected onto our garage door. For all who don't know my family, that's the most quoted movie besides "Clue".

Saturday morning we headed out to Ocean Shores beaches. Our kids were the only little kids that had ever been to the beach and a couple of the in-laws had never been. It was funny to see all of the reactions. Shawn was in awe. Sophie spent the whole time wandering in deeper than she should. Hannah, Elizabeth, Madeline, Grant, Reagan, Katie, and Alison put one toe in and promptly decided it was far too cold. Heidi loved it! She would run up to the waves, plop her little bottom down on the sand and shriek when the freezing cold water washed up over her belly. Morgan, Malynn, Ryan, and Elinor also had a fantastic time getting soaked and sandy.

On Sunday, amazingly enough, we got all of those people to church ten minutes early. Even more amazing is that church starts at 9 am. The family started trickling home after church. See, not so bad.