John Reunion 2015

 The morning after Sadie's birthday we left for the John family reunion. The girls had been looking forward to it all summer. I had too. 

The flight was fine, except for Camille just being her typical menace self. When we arrived in Minneapolis we picked up our rental car to drive to the house in Wisconsin. 

We made 1 quick stop for lunch and the girls all got a little nap on our 3 hour drive to Nicaboyne Lake. The build-up was very exciting and we were all elated when we finally reached our destination. It was wonderful to see everyone. Daniel hadn't seen the Anthony John family in years. We all missed Carrie, since she had to stay close to home in KC, being at the end of her pregnancy.
The house was an old summer lodge with 9 bedrooms and 3.5 baths so there was enough space for many of the kids to sleep separately from parents. There were a ton of toys at the house along with a swing set outside and a private beach/water activities on Lake Nicaboyne. 

I can't limit myself on the pictures. So here are a million of them organized by day because I can't figure out another way to organize. I think the fact that none of us live close to one another makes it so we take even more pictures.

BEFORE WE ARRIVED
Lots of cute pictures were taken over the 2 days before we arrived that I wanted to include.

DAY 1
We arrived to find Addy walking around with a big announcement plastered on her shirt. The Gessells will be adding John grandchild #11 in March. With Sadie being the first grandchild, that will make 11 grandkids born in 6 1/2 years! Best cousins for everyone.


Papa read to any interested grandchildren before bed

DAY 2
 Unsurprisingly, our kids were totally unaffected by the time change and woke up before 7 AM. Camille loved having free reign to wreak havoc on everything non-child-proofed

Later that morning we headed down to the lake. It was a perfect distance from the house. It only took about 2 minutes to walk there, but it was kind of hidden by trees so the kids never tried to go over alone.

We had a small private beach area and dock- just the right size for our group. We also had a paddle boat, a couple of paddle boards, and a pontoon boat. I bought matching swim suits because I am weirdly obsessed with matching outfits.

The lake was so beautiful that every picture came out like a postcard, even when I was just trying to document people doing various water activities. 

The pontoon boat was perfect for the John family. We are not a water sport family. So the fact that we couldn't break 20 miles an hour was fine. The kids loved riding around on the boat. 

We ghetto-rigged a tube meant for floating. We made Matt be the guinea pig to make sure the tube wouldn't just get flooded when the boat got going. By the end of the day, the handle we tied the rope to ripped away from the tube and made a huge hole. So tubing was a one-day event. 

Sadie excitedly volunteered to be the first kid to try tubing. If you click on the picture below on the right you will see Daniel's feet up in the air as he and Sadie attempted tubing. I could not stop laughing at him. I took Lou out. 

Hillary kindly agreed to take Will and Nolan out. Nolan was not happy about it. 

Sadie and Elise both tried tubing alone. I was completely surprised at how enthusiastic and unafraid Sadie was. Part of me thinks it was her not knowing to be afraid. She felt safe.  

After swimming the kids played in the yard for a few hours.

 Following dinner we all relaxed, some playing Nintendo and some playing in the backyard.

Will introduced Sadie to one of his favorite activities- taking batting practice with the whiffle bat. Will is very good at this, and Sadie is very competitive, so it was a little hard for her to watch Will be very good at it while she was just average. Actually, I would say she was really good for only having swung a bat a few times before. She wanted to keep going all night so she could get better. 

Uncle Tony treated the kids to lots of good underdogs. He went inside for a while and when I tried to replicate I somehow knocked Lauren out of the swing. I felt terrible and she just wanted her dad. 

Before bed we introduced the other cousins to one of our favorite books- The Day the Crayons Quit. 

DAY 3

Hillary had the brilliant idea to rent a jet ski for a day. It was a little out of the comfort zone for many of us Johns (not the in-laws), but we all ended up loving it. Sadie may have gotten the most rides. Bryce took her for her first ride and she was hooked. She just hung out down by the beach and asked to go with anyone who would take her. We all spent a lot of time at the water that day.

The picture below is Hillary on the jet ski circling Matt, who was on a paddle board, trying to make him fall. 

 

 Addy loved the paddle boat and later convinced the Salazars to take her out on it. As the pedaled back to shore she cried.

My girls love their Uncle Ben. Look at Sadie's face in that picture with him. She had the time of her life.

 When people have food/toys the twins want they swarm them. With adults it is funny, but Camille did not appreciate it.

 By the time I got my first turn Sadie was an old pro. She was driving it at full throttle

 Even Tina enjoyed her turn (with Sadie hovering at the beach, hoping for another turn)
The babies ate lots of sandy food.

 It was fun to watch my mom and dad have a good time on the jet ski. Overall, probably the most fun activity of the reunion.

Meredith and I took turns doing Lojo's hair most days. I loved it because my girls tend to cry and squirm when they get their hair done.

 Lauren happily posed by the dessert. Mere moments later Anthony found a tic on Will's head. It was disconcerting, but we didn't find any more.

That night some of us had a lip sync contest. As many things go with our family, we spent longer discussing how to do the contest than actually doing the contest. In the end we came up with 15 good lip sync songs and had partners draw a song out of a hat. 

 
Maxfields do No Strings Attached



The lip sync lead into a puzzle contest. Each couple had the same dollar store puzzle. Somehow the Maxfields whizzed through it in like 5 minutes. The problem with the dollar store puzzle is that many of the pieces are the exact same size and similar color, so it was very frustrating.

 I won the no-hands cookie moving contest because I was the only participant.

 We started by playing the name the states game on Sporcle, which Hillary rocked, but that turned into playing every other game on the website.

DAY 4
We rushed to get everyone ready in the morning for some group pictures. Elise loved pictures as much as she usually does. She didn't even pose for the grandkids picture.

 

There was a huge storm the night before and the ground was a swamp. Steven found a couple frogs and the kids were fascinated.


Nana and Papa held a short primary lesson for the kids where they built Nephi's boat. We had an adults-only testimony meeting after that.

 

 We all had fun hanging out at the house that afternoon.

 

Sadie loved having Adelaide to boss around and "take care of". Addy didn't appreciate it all the time.
While some of us napped, others walked.

 Nana and Ben made these capes for the kids. Nana cut/sewed and Ben designed the decals.

We celebrated Sadie's birthday with the John family at lunch/dinner that night. All the kids were happy to help blow out the candles. 

 
After dinner we hung out and tried to pretend Anthony and his kids weren't leaving.

Hillary kept her most energetic aunt status and played with the kids nonstop.

 This hug demonstrates how we all felt about the Johns leaving, but even the world's best hug couldn't keep them in Wisconsin. They needed to get home to Carrie and work.

DAY 5

Steven found a huge blow up called the relaxation station. 

 While he attempted to blow it up Nana and Papa took care of their 2014 grand babies.

 Gessell family portrait doing one of Addy's favorite activities

The dads took their kids out knee boarding on the paddle board behind the pontoon boat.

 
And Sadie even wanted to do it by herself. Again, she just totally surprised us with how daring she was.

 

 

 I am pretty sure I was napping at this time while other people took care of Millie

 Later on I joined everyone out on the now blown-up relaxation station.

 

 Hillary and I went on a walk/run that evening. There were lakes in every direction from the house. We found a house out on a little inlet by itself.

 And even more important...that night the men beat Super Mario brothers 3. Hard works pays off.

 

DAY 6

 A bunch of us headed out on the lake to try knee boarding and paddle board surfing behind the boat. Bryce and Hill went first.

Then Meredith and I tried our hands. Meredith showed off with her waving (left) while I looked a little ridiculous.

 

 Hillary took Elise and Ben took Sadie out on the boards. Ben helped Sadie go from kneeling to standing.

 Sadie loved it and wanted to try standing by herself. I am still so proud of her for wanting to do all this stuff. She stood for about 20 seconds before she fell into the lake.

Steven went fishing with Sadie and Wes. Both Sadie and Wes caught fish!

 

 

That night we finally had a fire. The girls had been begging to make s'mores. 

 We spent a while out in the yard after s'mores.

DAY 7

The Salazars and my mom left for Michigan in the morning. 

 We spent a lazy morning playing with toys and play doh. Adelaide enjoyed eating the play doh.

 

Later on we went out on the lake again. We decided to tow the relaxation station to the middle of the lake to do some relaxing and swimming. 

We all swam a bit and Bryce did a couple flips off the boat.

Elise was captain of the pontoon boat as we towed Bryce in the relaxation station slowly back to the dock.

Steven did some more fishing with the kids and Elise was SO excited about catching a fish.

 

Daniel, Matt, my dad, Millie and I went out for one last boat ride. Papa and Matt tried their hand on the paddle board. They were both great. Camille loved standing at the back and watching with the wind in her hair.

 We got back to the dock to find some beach mermaids.

 

 Sadie tested out her cape and helped Addy read some books.

DAY 8

We woke up to clean and pack up. Not too exciting, but the clean-up really wasn't bad for 12 adults and 9 children under the age of 7.

It was sad to say good-bye. I desperately wish we lived within driving distance of our families. It is hard to live so far away from everyone.