Good-byes *sigh*

Way back on Tuesday, Bob asked what day it was.  He fist pumped when he realized it was only Tuesday because that meant we had so much time left... We all felt the same.  And then, suddenly, it was over and we were standing around Sunday morning saying good-bye's!  I love this family and am so glad we got to share this time and make memories!

12 year old boys:

Jaron, Bryson, Rhys

7-10 year old boys:

Zach, Walker, Dallin, Jackson, Eli, Dane

Little Girlies:

Nicole, Kara, Lia, Adelaide, Hailee

Bryson and Zach

My five with Grandma and Papa

Laura and Tony were the last to leave- At some point, Adelaide decided that she wants to come back for Christmas- her last words to us at the airport were in fact, "See you at Christmas!"  Love it.

I've heard about eleventy thousand times in the past few days:
"Why does everyone have to live so far away?"
"I wish everyone didn't have to go"
"When can we have everyone come again?"
"I wish our family lived closer"
"When can we go visit everyone?"
"Can we do that every year?"
And various other forms of saying "I love our family and wish we could spend more time together more often." 

I heard so many times during the week one family member or another expressing gratitude that Nathan and I would be willing host the whole family, as if it was some amazing feat, but honestly, it wasn't!  And if that's what it takes to get us all together, then BRING IT!  I can't even believe how smoothly the week went- the only real issue was water usage (ie: our septic not being able to process waste water for 43 people, instead of just 7 for which it was designed...) it was an inconvenience, but manageable.  Everyone helped and just got along.  I'm so thankful for this amazing family we call "ours"- can't wait to do it again!!

Cousins Cousins Cousins

Cotton Family Olympics and Talent Show

  Laura was gracious enough to organize our family Olympics.  The last time we were all together (in 2009!!) we had our first Olympics- and pretty much the whole family requested we do them again.

Not that I'm keeping track or anything, but I was on the first place team in '09 *wink*

We'd planned on using the fields at Freeman, so it was convenient that we were already there for pictures!  As we were getting set up, I spied Eli playing with Darren- so cute *grin*

One of the events was a good ol' fashioned foot race- the starting moment was captured perfectly from different angles:

Never mind the handful of pretzels I was trying to protect... behind me, notice Bob (from my team) 'helping' Nathan (on a competing team) get off to a great start...

Bob's send off to Nathan from a better angle:

What are the chances we'd get such a perfect shot of that from 2 different angles??  We all just about died laughing *grin*

And then almost died laughing again when we had the piggy back race...

While I promised Brandi that I wouldn't put the above picture in our reunion photo album, I made no such promise for my blog *wink*  She thinks it looks like Aaron is helping her give birth *snort*

The "Longest Line" event... using each team member and any items on them, we had to stretch to make the longest line possible (hence the name)- We stripped shoes of shoelaces, tied socks together, lined up shoes and well...

desperate times call for desperate measures *wink*

My team won by a landslide... or at least a bra *gasp*

Seriously, I love our family!  We had so much fun doing the simplest, silliest things- and while there certainly was some competitiveness going on, it was all in good fun and *at least I think* everyone had a great time!

And in the end, victorious once more:

That night, we gathered for our family talent show...

It was h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s!

Dad performed a riveting version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"- insinuating that we were ready for the family to leave-

he may have missed the mark a touch ;')

The Dreaded Family Pictures

The bright sun made finding a spot to take pictures tricky tricky!  We wanted to take the pics at our house, but because of lighting, we were resigned to take pictures in the only reliable shade we could find... right in front of the garage doors =/  After getting some good shots, we thought we'd check out options at Freeman that might offer a little better backdrop.  SO GLAD WE DID!  While no one really loves pictures, everyone agreed they were glad we took more...

Kendra said she's never felt taller...

and when did I become 'tall'??

I used to be really good at getting our family pictures taken regularly.  Really, really good.  But time flies and sadly, we haven't had family pictures taken since Hailee was about one year old =/ 

Of course we had to be silly too...

The original 10:

Sibs only:

Silverwood

Could this week get any more fun??  Or busy?!?

Thursday, we conquered Silverwood...

After a fair amount of time at the water park, we were all ready to hit the rides.  Hailee and Jace and I split from the rest and hit the kiddie rides- they had a b.l.a.s.t!  I rode a lot of the rides with them and thoroughly enjoyed their squeals of delight, throwing their arms in the air like they just don't care and endless energy and excitement...

Eli quickly met his 'yearly quota' for the big rides and joined H, J and I- He was so sweet ensuring that Hailee and Jace were safe *grin*

Near the end of the day, we joined up with a few family members and did the log ride- Jace took the brunt of the water for me =/

We happened upon another group at an opportune time:

Funny enough, McKenna and Addi (representing the Cottons) were talking to some random people in line and eventually realized they were loosely related!  It was Jacob and Rebekah (aka Rosses)... 

What a fun coincidence!  McKenna and Addi *might* have though Jacob was pretty cute *wink*

At some point during the day, Dallin ruptured his ear- he had told me his ear kinda hurt when we were in the water park, and then after a few rides, he told Nathan that his ear felt better... and that there was water coming out of it *groan*

We stayed til closing.  Except for our resident night owl Hailee, all the kids were asleep when we got home.  Sometime in the middle of the night, our bedroom door slammed open and Eli burst in crying... Despite my sleep induced coma, I figured that he'd had bad dream, pulled him in close to me to snuggle and went right back to sleep.  The following day, I asked him what THAT was all about... apparently, when we got home, even though I roused all the kids, Eli never came inside!  So hours later when he woke up in the car, he was obviously confused and a little scared.  Poor guy!  Mother of the Year nomination, here I come!

Zip Lining!

We were more than a little excited to be able to bring (almost) everyone on an amazing zip lining adventure!  It was so exciting, right on down to the UTV rides:

We had to break down into groups of 10-11, each separated by 30 minutes- we were close enough that we could hear squeals and excitement from the other groups.  It was so fun!

Eli was just big enough to zip- but had to be 'cannon balled' for most of the lines- so cute in his gear!

The view from one of the platforms- they said on a clear day you can see all the way to Canada!

Dallin ready to zip across the 1,512ft long line:

After some very minor concerns with the first 'baby' line, no one in our group showed the least bit of apprehension to go...

"CANNON BALL!"

It was seriously amazing!  I'm usually mildly afraid of heights, but despite being 500+ feet above the tree tops, I had NO worries- I felt totally safe the whole time.  What an experience!

Bryson went in a different group, with Rhys and Jaron, but we still got pics of him:

That night, we celebrated Emily and Sarah's birthdays a day early since the next day was going be a long and late day...