Joy was in charge of picking the theme and doing the major planning for this summer's reunion. A huge job, but she worked her usual magic and we loved every Super minute. When she called to explain the shirts she wanted me to make and bounce some ideas around I knew it would be fantastic. "On the front, we need a superman symbol with SF inside. And then the words, 'Super friends in a Super family = Super fun'. And it was.
Even the 2 day road trip was super.
The venue was a "resort" called The Other Place. Situated right inside a big bend of the Comal River in New Braunfels, Texas, we occupied several comfortable cabins and enjoyed 5 days (june 30-july 5) of family memory making. Each morning we did a craft: t-shirt hero capes (seen in the pictures with the SF tshirts), personalized superhero books, and American flags and red/white/blue drinks on the 4th. It was a great way to give the cousins something fun and a little organized to start the day.
Everyone took care of their own lunch and then we spent the afternoons floating on inner tubes on the river, playing games, or enjoying the shaded playground.
Ryn, Caitie, Coco, Ethan, Elle, Nora, Darren. That old see saw was holding on for dear life.
Savannah and Lily were the dose of adorable we all needed each day.
The girls' table with Mis, Maurie, Nora, Eden and Anne-Loren.
A spirited game of boules between Rae/Conlon and Kevin/John. Let the fingers do the talking to tell who won.
Conlon and Baby Jane.
A father and son moment
Kitchen-turned-ping pong table in action between Matt and Conlon.
Joy helping Maurie get dolled up.
Eden and Mia checking out the bunk beds.
After lunch, Mama KK and Papa Stan would get a group of the grand kids together to practice a slot they could present to all of us at dinner depicting scenes from our ancestors' lives.
Then after dinner we had some great activities. Monday night we watched the world premier of each unit's family SUPER home movie to go with our theme. Hi-lar-i-ous. Natalie was the rappin MC of theirs so we had to get a recap with Conlon B-boxing. Oh yeah. You'll be dancing.
Another night , Rob and Christa held a taste-test challenge (that we girls killed the boys in :)) to pick name brands from generic ones. Peanut butter, Nutella, root beer, Oreos, Reese's, and Ruffles. Yummy business. Unfortunately I was too busy eating to take pictures.
On the night of the Fourth, some of us found a park where we could enjoy the town's fireworks display. Somehow to me, fireworks are an essential part of this holiday. They were beautiful. And I always feel like "standing up" with Lee Greenwood and singing "I'm proud to be an American."
Joy brought otter pops and we had DumDums so we survived the wait until the show started.
Before checking out and heading to San Antonio, we had our SUPER photo shoot provided by our super in-house photographer/brother, Rob. Here is the whole crew. We were missing Mark and Aup and Co., and Spencer so you can catch them in the cut-outs :)
Super Papa Stan decided he would fly up to the balcony to grab the towels
Then he offered some private flying instruction to Darren and Eden
Kevin was going to take some more individual shots of Eden and Hope, but I tripped and sprained my ankle pretty badly. The photo shoot was over and he had to use his super strength to carry his clumsy wife up the hill, then clean up, pack up and load up all of our things by himself. I sat on the couch, icing and elevating said sprain, feeling guilty and useless, and thankful to be married to a true superhero. We left "The Other Place" and checked into a hotel in San Antonio. That night we competed in the Super Olympics where each family led us in an event of their choice. Seriously entertaining. Here are two highlight videos--one of the hula hoop finals between Jared and Sam. Insanely talented closet hula hoopers, both. The other is a tiny glimpse of Ryn and Elle in the three-legged race.
Here are Rob, Christa, Savannah, Lily, AND baby bump#3 making it across the finish line!
Warren is the ultimate oldest cousin. So good with babies, toddlers, you name it. This picture just makes me happy.
The next day was our Sea World adventure.....to be documented in Part 2 of this post. À la prochaine.....
