Making Raspberry Jam

My mom has a great raspberry patch and she had a lot of raspberries that needed to be picked.  So for Family Home Evening one night, Jon and I decided we would make some raspberry jam.  This was a first for Jon, and he really enjoyed it.  Of course, he loved the finished product as well and had to taste it several times.  :)

We ended up with about 24 jars of jam.  Thanks mom for the raspberries!!!

Wedding

My brother Darin, got married on July 6, 2013 to Christy Mair in the Portland Temple.  The weather was beautiful and they both looked beautiful.  It seemed like forever waiting for them to come out of the temple.  There were 3 other brides that came out before Darin and Christy.

Makaela

Everyone waiting for Darin and Christy

Here they are!!!

Pinning on the Boutonniere

After the wedding we went down the street to the Oswego Grill for dinner.  It was fun to catch up with everyone.  Brian was even able to fly out for the wedding.  Dinner was so delicious.  I would recommend this restaurant to anyone.

On Saturday July 13, 2013 Darin and Christy had their open house at my parents house in Grandview.  It was decorated so beautifully.  Lisa had some great ideas on how to decorate.  It all turned out so good.  It was fun to see family and catch up. There were several people who hadn't met Jon so he got to meet a lot of people as well.

Darin loved the Cookie Bar we had at the reunion, so we did it again for the Open House.  It was really good, and we had TONS of cookies.

The valets waiting for people to arrive.

After the open house, we watched Darin and Christy open their gifts.  Lori decided since they were opening all these gifts, Makaela should get to open something too, so she bought her a gift as well.  She bought her Merida and her Horse from the movie Brave.  Makaela was so excited she could hardly contain herself.

I made Darin and Christy a table runner.  It turned out really pretty and they loved it.

Congratulations Darin and Christy.  It was so great to celebrate your special day.  Welcome to the family Christy and Makaela!!!

Country Living

That was the theme of our reunion this year.  On June 8th we were all together for a family reunion.  Brian and Summer were going to be visiting so we thought a reunion would be lots of fun.  The entire family was there, which is a first in a long time.  Even Darin and his fiancee Christy were able to come.  Everyone came in on Friday night.  We had pizza for dinner then we played Telestrations while we waited for everyone to arrive.  We had lots of fun.

Saturday was the big reunion.  We started out with biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  Country food is delicious. :)

This guy was just so cute.  I couldn't get enough of him.

After Breakfast we had lots of games to play outside.  We had the perfect weather.

Lisa did a wonderful job with decorations.

We took a few family pictures.  All the grand kids had matching skirts and shorts, thanks to Grandma. :)

There was a bean bag toss

Target Practice

Three Legged Races.  These were lots of fun.  Everyone tried this.

Jon and I fell during the three legged race.  It was quite the fall.  I have the Battle wounds to show for it.  Here are the lovely pictures of my bruise. 

Stick Pull...the kids and adults loved this.

Lisa found the cutest idea on Pinterest for a cookie and milk bar.  We had milk, chocolate milk, and strawberry milk, and all kinds of cookies.  She had found small milk bottles for us to put our milk in. It was so fun and tasted so good.  Lisa it was such a great idea. 

After lunch the kids looked for the needle in the haystack.

They all found some fun little toys.

After lunch we went for a swim in the afternoon.  Because I was in the pool I didn't get any pictures.  But it was nice outside and the pool was perfect.  Some of the kids had no fear about jumping off the diving board.  As long as there was someone there to catch them.  :)

Just before dinner, we went out and had a hayride.  We saw a "waterfall", and went through the "woods".  We even sang some songs as we had the ride.  It was so much fun.

After a delicious country dinner, we had our final official activity of the evening.  No party is complete without a pinata.  We wanted to have one that was shaped as a boot, but that is almost impossible to find.  So we had one that had woody from toy story on it, along with some of the other toy story characters.  At least it had a cowboy on it.  All the little kids got a turn, and then Darin broke the thing completely open.  The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.

My parents will celebrate 37 years of marriage, in 2 days, on the 25th of June.  As an anniversary gift, my sister got all of the family to write our testimonies and put it into a book with a picture of each person.  We gave it to them on Saturday since everyone was able to be there.  My parents loved it.  

We had such a wonderful time at our reunion.  Thanks Lisa for all your hard work.  The decorations were great.  The random drawings for prizes throughout the day was lots of fun.  It is definitely a reunion I will remember always.  It was so fun to see and spend time with everyone.  I love you all!!!