We had a great extended weekend F-M with my family this year for the Hamm Reunion. We stayed in Cle Elum at Ensign Ranch, a great recreational property owned by our church. We had a great big lodge with two gathering rooms (shuffleboard, ping pong, pool) and a huge commercial kitchen. There were nine bedrooms in the lodge and an outbuilding bunkhouse divided into two bunkhouses that had five twin bunk beds in them. With a family our size, space is really essential and we were so glad to all have room to spread out. Jordan had plans with friends in Chelan, so he wasn't able to come. Jeff and Mary had an exchange student from Japan, Mari. She was there with us...in spirit...the girl didn't have much personality...and I can extend lots of personality lacking mercy to someone who doesn't speak the language...but this is a lack of personality that I think is likely extended to those who speak her native tongue as well. Anyway, she was there. :) Here's a story in pictures of what we did...
Molly, who would throw down flat on the ground if I pointed my camera at her a few weeks ago was a willing subject for my attempt at a good pic of her, and I have to say...I got it! YAY! She is Jeff's youngest.
We celebrated two birthdays...Sarah's and Adeline's. A few presents and some birthday cake and homemade ice cream. It was good times.
Adeline loved her princess nightgown. She came over to me pointing at it and saying "princess". So cute!
Jane and Carson, my favorite little duo.
Betsey. Anytime she is willing to look at me, I take her picture.
Betsey is iffy with any kid her age. She mostly suspects that they are going to take everything she holds dear from her, so there are a lot of "mine!"s and hoarding of toys and people. Anyway, she and Addy have good moments too...here they are loving each other. They are just like four months apart in age.
Alice playing with Betsey and Van...she's so good with the little kids and they just love her. She was wrestling around in the grass with them for a long time. It was so cute!
Van. Mini-Braden...I love him. He's a boy and I love that about him! Look at all the cuts and scrapes and bruises on that perfect face! MMMMMM. Cute.
Mason was super athlete...outside with the ping pong stuff hitting the ball all over the place...so well! That is the bunk cabin we stayed in back there.
Alice and Van. So cute! (Van is Braden's littlest and Mason is his oldest)
The cute kids admiring the grazing horses in the pasture behind the lodge. I love this shot, I wish Adeline and Molly were there too!
Alice, Sarah, Ruby, Hailey and Emma...the first five of my parents' grandkids were girls!
This is all of "rounds 1 and 2"...two kids born to each of the married Hamm siblings. Nathan...the sixth...the first boy to carry on that juicy Hamm name.
Adeline loves uncle Chris. Actually, they all love uncle Chris. His arrival is like the main event of any gathering. It dies down after some chasing and screaming and tickling and scaring. Addy toddled over for some uncle Chris fun and he was happy to indulge.
My parents are tight with one of the workers at the ranch and she wrangled one of the horses over to the fence to say hello to the kids before bedtime.
There is Mari...they don't have horses in Japan!
Before bedtime, we sang a little song about the family from the children's hymns at church. It was super cute. All the kids in their jammies singing. The chorus goes,
"God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares his love,
for the family is of God."
I had to sneak a picture during our bedtime prayer. Looks like Jane and I have some of the same sneaky prayer peek genes.
Alice lost a tooth just before she left for the trip. The one next to it was VERY, VERY loose too...I want a kid with no front teeth!
On Saturday morning (my kids were still in their jammies with their ratty bed head) we made marshmallow guns. The kids had fun with that activity!
A little target practice...
Then we went horseback riding. Well some of us. There were two options based on skill and experience. Ruby and Sarah were able to go on a trail ride, governing their own horse. Ruby rode Jethro, they gave her an ornery horse because she had the most experience in the group. She was thrilled. She told me that she would pull Jethro out of the walking line and then when everyone had passed she would trot back to her place in line. Hahahaha...she wasn't going to be satisfied by just walking. :)
The other option was for the little kids to have a guided ride by a parent (who knows nothing about horses). It was a fifteen minute ride and the riders had to have shoes and socks on, but the guides, whose feet were right by the heavy horse feet were fine in flip flops. I wasn't getting the logic, but whatever. Alice can ride pretty good, but she wasn't big enough for the trail ride, so she did her little fifteen minute walk.
Even Betsey got to get on for a few minutes. She was soooooo thrilled and this will probably mess me up a little big in the future when we take the others to their riding lessons. Shoot.
I had to keep this pic because she actually showed her dimple! She has a really obvious dimple, but she never seems to show it off in pics. Probably because she never really smiles for pics.
As if marshmallow guns and horses weren't enough, we spent like four hours at a giant waterslide/slip'n'slide that is another fun thing Ensign Ranch has to offer. I went down several times and really enjoyed it...the kids went non-stop for hours and hours. It was a hot day!
Adeline playing with Uncle Chris in the bucket...
Chris was by the slide in the sun for a long time while I napped with Alice and so he was sporting his usual weekend sunglasses sunburn that evening.
On Sunday, we went to church in the morning and then had lunch and nap time and finished the evening off with a cute play written by Sarah and Mary. Chris was cast as the main character (favorite uncle)...the Big, Bad Wolf. He was a very good sport and got into character well. The play was adorable, the BBW got amnesia after failing to take down one of the little pigs, so he went from story to story trying to see if he fit in. Hint: the glass slipper didn't fit him.
The kids had cute little parts and really got into it as well.
We invited the volunteer missionaries who run and maintain the ranch to come and enjoy the play with us. They actually took a lot of pictures and seemed to really enjoy it.
Mary didn't get a very well rehearsed cast, so she had to really feed the kids their lines, which worked great! Thanks, Mary!
Oma was the Grandma in the Red Riding Hood part of the play. She makes a great Grandma!
Cutest little brother pigs EVER.
Jordan surprised us all by arriving at the ranch right when the play was about to start. He and his girlfriend Ashley had been in Chelan and thought better of cruising straight past us (you can see the ranch from I-90, and they had avoided Hwy 2, so they were on I-90). We were so happy, Jordan is the other favorite uncle...he's the novelty uncle somehow.
More reasons why Chris is the favorite.
Many of the cousins and Mary are taking piano lessons, so they did lots of practicing and playing at the piano. Heather was the weekend pianist.
Sunday after the play, my folks set up a screen and showed a presentation they had prepared about our family and the importance of temples.
Betsey folded into a bucket. She looks unsure about it, but this was her second time wanting to go in there and she loved it. :)
What a great reunion! I loved the adult time too...playing games. The men played lots of shuffleboard and many enjoyed ping pong. Mari was good at ping pong. Looking forward to next year!
