Lauren and Blake's Wedding

The weekend after spring break we traveled to Eldon for my cousin Lauren's wedding.  Justin and Becky moved back to Missouri in January, and it was the first time the whole family had been together for over 2 years.  And so we took some pictures.  We also celebrated Hannah and Olive's birthday in the hotel room since we had the whole family together.

 horseplay

Aunt Becky's first time meeting her nephew

First ever full family photo with Wade.

My baby.  Most of my Meneely reunion memories are of carrying her on my hip.  I have always loved babies and kids and Lauren will always be my baby cousin.  Fun fact:  I first met her future husband at a Meneely reunion and we teased them about getting married...and now here we are.

It has also been years since we've had a cousin picture.  We didn't get it until the end of the night and Amanda had already changed out of her bridesmaid dress.  I love these people.

Meneely Reunion

It's Meneely Reunion time!

It was the first reunion for baby Wade and he got to meet his great-great aunts Betty and Katherine.

Super Stapps

New this year: prizes for youngest and oldest!

It was a low attendance year because part of the family was at a wedding, so Olive ended up being the youngest girl!  She was very excited for her prize!

And guess who else got a prize?  I guessed the closest to the amount in the jar.  Another family winner!

 And of course Wade won the youngest boy.

Cousin pic minus Justin.

The youngest second cousins.

The same frog and the same cute smile a few years ago...

Meneely Reunion

 Justin and Becky live in Idaho and Marissa and Casey were on vacation in Florida, so it was just us at Meneely Reunion this year.  My cousin Amanda couldn't travel because she was about to give birth, so there weren't even second cousins there.  And it was raining.  We had a good time anyway.  No door prizes this year, instead there were jars of candy.  Whoever guessed the closest won the jar.  Steve got some mints!

Neither of us had sisters there, so we were sisters for the day. :)

Meneely three: John, David, and Sarah.

It was too rainy to play at the park, but we explored the Locust Creek boardwalk for a little bit.  We need to come back when we have more time.

Meneely Reunion

 We had a busy Saturday with two soccer games and a birthday party.  I was ready to skip the Meneely Reunion on Sunday just so we didn't have to travel.  But when I talked about it to the girls Hannah said, "We HAVE to go to the Meneely Reunion!  We never miss it!  We get prizes and Olive and I get to draw the names!  And there is all the good food!"  With that much excitement, I couldn't say no.  So off we went.  And they did indeed get to draw the names for prizes.  And they each got the prize they really wanted (silly string).

Fun with SnapChat

Jump!

Hannah has been jumping on that since she was a fetus.  Here she is when I was 3 months pregnant at the reunion in 2008.

For me, the best part of the reunion was always playing with my cousins.  And now my kids get to play with my cousin's kids: Liam and Soren.  Love.

Grandma has the best crazy face.  Could someone please turn this into a meme?

As usual, it was a great time and I'm glad we made the trip.  It is always good to see family.  And it is really special to go to a place where I had so many memories growing up...and now I get to watch my kids make memories in the same place.