Tanner Reunion Day 4- Happy 4th of July

(Although it was purely coincidence, I loved how our family had a patriotic red, white, & blue theme for the 4th of July!)

On Sunday, the 4th of July, we had the exciting opportunity to bless both Lilah and Emily. We had come up with the idea months before and everything ended up working out that we were able to have a double blessing day. It was so fun to be able to have the two of them blessed on the same day. I think the best thing was that we were able to have so many family members and friends there with us. With the exception of Jacob, we've blessed all our kids in Philadelphia with just our little family. It's still a special day, but it is fun to share the experience with family. We had the whole Tanner family, minus Houston. Jim & Lori Stevens, Scott & Amanda and family, Greg, Bryan & Gina and family, Jeff & Terri and family, Kenny & Mari and family, and some other friends.

Both of the girls were given sweet blessings. I am glad that others were taking notes though, because I only heard about the first 20 seconds of Emily's blessing before Caleb and Matthew decided to start a party. I spent most of the blessing wrestling with them, pulling them over the bench, and trying to get them to be quiet. For some reason, mom's 'beware glare' doesn't work as well when they're on the bench in front of you. I was a little embarrassed, but at least it was during my baby's blessing rather than someone else's. Those first 20 seconds were very special though, and I'm glad that I have some notes as to what the rest of the blessing said. * :) Such is the life of a mother of three boys.

Grandma & Grandpa with their granddaughters

Grandma & Grandpa Stevens

(The really great pictures were from Dad Stevens' camera)

After the meeting we tried to get some pictures with everyone. I really felt bad we didn't get everyone who had been at the blessing. Some people took off early, others loaded up kids, and others were just patiently helping in the background. I feel guilty about being so spacey, I really wasn't thinking clearly. Can I blame it on a big crowd and two hungry babies? We didn't even get a whole group shot, or a big family shot with our kids. Our boys pretty much took off after we forced them into one family picture. More than anything, I just hope everyone knew how much we appreciated them coming and supporting.

Daddy & Daughter

Sisters with our daughters

The Tanner Family

(and our boys are....? somewhere around the church)

All the Tanner girls

I think everyone was happy to head back up to the house afterwards. We had a yummy lunch and were able to sit back and actually visit with each other. Once again, I wasn't as good at taking pictures, I didn't pull it out until close to the end, so I missed people; but we enjoyed spending time together and that's what really counts. I love watching the kids run around- they really have a good time together. As I looked around at everyone who was there, I couldn't help but feel such a feeling of love towards and gratitude for the blessing of having such a wonderful family. I don't know how I managed to be so lucky to have such amazing family members on all sides, but I hope everyone knows how much we love and appreciate them.

Amanda & Scott- these two do a lot behind the scenes

Isn't Eliza adorable? She is so helpful with Emily.

Cute little Aly- she and Emily will be good buddies someday! I don't know how I missed getting the Sorensons in a picture. We loved having them there!

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying time at home. We had a devotional with the kids and then put them to bed. Then we had a family testimony meeting. This was another one of my favorite parts of the reunion. * It was the perfect way to finish the final day of our reunion, and the 4th of July. A few members went down to see some fireworks, but most of us just enjoyed the evening at home visiting together and playing 'Bop-It'.

Kristie and Tom took off for home on Monday morning because Tom's mom had flown into town to visit. The rest of us had one more day to enjoy being together since everyone had work off. Mom, Lacey and I took Emily to get pictures taken at the mall, and the boys had fun playing together for a while. Jeff and my dad actually took the boys over to Kenny and Maris for horseback riding, paddle boats, raspberry picking, fishing, etc. Their home is absolutely beautiful and amazing.

It was sad to see the reunion come to an end, but it also makes us all excited for next year. Hopefully we'll have Houston & probably a new sister-in-law too. Once again, I'm so grateful for the blessing of family.

Tanner Reunion Day 3

Saturday, July 3rd, was day 3 of the reunion. After our previous two days that were filled with activities, we were all ready to have day to kick back at home. Plus we needed to finish some things before Sunday, the 4th of July, when we would be having family and friends over. We spent most of Saturday morning working together in the yard.

I remember when I was younger, yard work wasn't exactly my first choice of activity. Like most kids, I think we tried to find a way out of it and probably did our share of complaining about it. It's funny how things change as you get older though. Now I absolutely love working with my family in the yard, and I understand why my parents used to tell us that someday we would love being able to work together as a family. They were right, and I'll probably be doing the exact same thing to my kids- hopefully they'll realize it while they're still little. It's also amazing to see how quickly all the jobs of my parent's 1.3 acre yard can be completed with 8 adults and a few kids. I've decided that someday when we have a big yard, it would be nice to live close to family so we can all do each others' yards together. I love being able to work side-by-side and see everything come together. Of course there's always time for fun amongst the jobs. Cole and Tom were having contests of who could balance a rake on their chin the longest.

Matthew doing his part. I'm pretty sure his 'help' usually meant the opposite, but it's fun to have him around!

After we finished the yard work, we put out a blanket and sat out on the lawn. I love being able to just sit and talk together while we watch the kids run around. We spent the rest of the day just doing various things, making food in preparation for Sunday and enjoying each other. A few of us snuck in a nap as well. Caleb went running around with the camera and took some pictures of people. Emily and Lilah played together on a blanket.




Saturday night, we did a campfire and roasted marshmallows. Funny enough, we didn't have big marshmallows (I'm pretty sure my kids are responsible for that- they know where grandma stashes them) all we had left were the small ones, but we roasted them anyways and they turned out pretty good. And when else can you say you ate 40+ roasted marshmallows at one time? You had to roast about 8 at a time. :)

I love this shot of the boys

Tanner Reunion Day 2

On Friday, July 2nd, day 2 of the Tanner reunion, our main activity was ice blocking. For those not familiar with the activity, it involves taking a big ice block with a towel, to the top of a giant hill and sliding down the hill on the ice block. Simplot Hill is the best place around for ice blocking. It doesn't look like much from the pictures, but it's pretty much the Everest for the area.

(Notice my Dad and Caleb coming from behind. They nearly ran into each other about 5 seconds later. :)

It was hilarious to watch everyone go down the hill. There were some impressive races, and even more impressive wipe-outs. Fortunately we came away without any injuries, minus damaged pride. I love the combination of personalities and sense of humor of the group, it sure makes for an entertaining afternoon. I know there were lots of jokes and one-liners going around, I wish I could remember the details better. I was so impressed with our boys, they were all over that hill! I don't know how many times they went up and down.


One of the final activities was a race up to the top of the hill. Again, I know it doesn't look like much, but my goal was just to make it to the top of the hill without stopping to walk. Cole won the race with flying colors- that boy needs to go out for cross country. I think we all needed about a 10 minute breather, then we raced down to the bottom. It's pretty funny to watch the videos my dad took.




We finished about 3pm and then headed home. We ran some errands and everyone got ready- another one of my favorite things- getting ready with my sisters. It's fun hanging out in the bathroom getting ready together and brings back fun memories of high school times.
That night, the adults with Emily & Lilah, went out for dinner together at Cheesecake Factory. It was my 2nd time there and Jeff's 1st time. It was fun to sit down together and enjoy a yummy dinner. I think the last time we went out to eat together was 6 years ago when Jacob was about 6 months old, so it was fun to do it again. Mom and Dad Stevens were sweet enough to watch our boys for a couple hours while we went, and they had a blast fishing while we were gone. We stopped back to pick them up at 9pm. Then we got them to bed and spent the evening visiting, playing games and having fun.

Tanner Reunion Day 1

With 2 (almost 3) children married, and 5 grandchildren, my parents decided that our family has hit the qualifying mark for a reunion. And thus, this was the first year of the annual Tanner family reunion. We spent some time planning dates and activities and everyone was excited to get together over the 4th of July week/weekend. The only bummer was that Houston wasn't able to make it up from his pest control job in Arizona. We were sad not to have him there and we hope it works out to have everyone together next year. Kristie and Tom got into town on Wednesday night and the reunion officially began on Thursday.
On Thursday, we had breakfast together, packed some lunches, and headed out to the pool. We spent most of the day playing in the water and enjoying the sun. It was fun to watch the kids playing with Uncle Cole and Aunt Lacey in the water. Uncle Cole can be a bit of a tease, but Jacob and Caleb can return things pretty well themselves. There were some impressive tricks off the diving board and games among everyone. Kristie and I had fun playing with our babies in the shade. Emily and Lilah did great and seemed to enjoy being outdoors as much as everyone else. I didn't have a swimming suit for Emily, but Jeff let her enjoy the water anyways. I love being able to sit back and just relax in the afternoon, having family together is the best.

Daddy and Emily

Cole, thinking he's cool.

The Sisters. We had some fun conversations together.

We could tell Matthew was tired at the end of the day.

We finally made it home about dinner time and everyone worked together to make a bbq dinner. I think some of my favorite memories are just times when we're working together in the kitchen. The kids, were pretty tired after a day of swimming, so we were able to get them in bed early and then spent the evening playing games together. It was a perfect first reunion day.

Grandpa and Grandma with the granddaughters, Emily & Lilah

Mothers in Zion

(Valerie, Georgiana, Amy, Cindy, Andrea, Wanda, Angela & Emily)

Our good friends, the Alders, just e-mailed me this picture. In our small ward in Wilkes Barre, where one new baby created a lot of excitement, it was pretty much amazing to have seven women expecting a baby within a couple months of each other. Our friends, the Alders, had the fun idea of getting the women together for a picture in order of due dates. We took it after church on the last Sunday in May, our last Sunday in Pennsylvania. Kip took the picture, edited and added the caption and sent it to us. It was so fun to get the picture. The first three of us had had our babies, and the other four were due in June and July. I was lucky enough to see Ty Alder who was born just two days before we left and just missed Isaac Olsen's birth by a couple weeks. I love the picture. It's such a fun memory of wonderful friends. I miss them and maybe someday we'll have a chance to do another 'after' shot with all our our kids together. I sure love these women.