Play and Work in the Aftermath

After the reunion on Sunday afternoon, the guys started heading back to work and Grandfather and I took off with our two twelve-year-olds on the promised RV trip to Lagoon which was a delight for all of us! Details back here.

The main event was over but not the party! For another 15 days the fun never ended. We had a fun visit from my sister’s family, The noble Carvers and their families always add a fun spark to our summer! We were delighted to have those cousins with us for a couple of days, especially Elle. Finally there was someone there her “actual” age.

Zara continued delighting us from her little Bumbo:

We had a huge birthday celebration for Isaac:

….complete with the candy bar game.  Since these kids get precious few candy bars, this is one of their favorite activities of the year….

Well except when Isaac’s Uncle and Aunt, who own a Cold Stone Ice Cream franchise come to stay and the tennis house and bring a giant load of every imaginable kind of ice cream and toppings. Sorry I waited to take the picture until most of those cups piled high with delightful stuff was gone down the hatch!

Grandfather helps the guys in group 4 build their treasure chests from scratch….which they treasure for the rest of their natural lives:

 

And there’s lot of hugging and not many altercations going on.

And let me emphasize that these cute kids don’t spend all their time working! They work like little troupers the whole time they are there. They are divided up in groups and each group has assignments and points for accomplishing assignments. The group that wins the most points gets a trip to The Bear Cave for Raspberry shakes. There are days during the reunion when they are begging for more jobs to do so they can get more points! For the sake of the environment…as well as having some work for these kids to do, there are LOTS of dishes to do! Not many paper plates!

And lots of floors to clean!

Worker bees:

There is also a dress-up tent with monsters in it….

Thanks Sarah and Gabe who live in China and run a designer children’s costume company..

And then there’s the perpetual tent made from something that was once a pool table, a plethora of chairs and a gaggle of blankets…

And the creative toys like this old knee board sitting out for Deseret Industries rescued by Isaac for Peter’s enjoyment.

Let’s get a closer look at the fun ride, complete with a seat belt…

Peter pretty much loves to ride anything!

And this adorable little kid was my sidekick this summer. I’m not sure he knows he’s named after my family (Jacobson) but he was at my side every time I turned around….love it! What an adorable little “Cubby” wearing his dad’s old helmet.

We just had a huge load of fun! How blessed we are to be able to spend this precious time together in the summers. We’ll take it as long as we get it! Life is always changing. Kids are growing up. Before we know it they’ll getting married and having babies of their own so in the meantime, we’ll treasure every minute while we can have them!