Anderson Family Reunion Part 1

My mom's side of the family had our family reunion the weekend after our Scottsdale vacation and we all absolutely loved it! Even though it was a busy fun filled weekend and we were tired by Monday... we really didn't want to leave. It was so great to see everyone again and do so many fun things together. We had it at my Uncle Steve and Aunt Vicki's house and school (Steve is my mom's oldest brother)... Thank you so much Steve and Vicki for your wonderful hospitality! My mom's brother Eric and some of his family were there, brother Tony and his family, Sister Coralee and her family, Steve and his family, and my mom and her family. We missed Kevin, Jeff, Chris and all their families! Love you guys!! The food, games, visiting, tours, olympics, swimming, other unplanned activities (ie: skinning foxes and blowing up refrigerators), etc... was all so great! My entire family loved it (hey niki: Emma keeps asking how close we are to Abby's house so we can go play.... a little too far!). My cousin's husband, Todd, and my aunt Coralee did a video of my grandparents love story and can i say... It was AMAZING!!! It will be a treasure in our household forever. It made us laugh and cry and just feel so good that we come from such wonderful people. My twin cousins, Nathan and Matthew, have just finished completing all 121 scout merit badges and my uncle Steve presented them with some gold plated eagles on Friday night (which was very cool). The talent show on Friday night was cool too. When the little kids did "Going on a Bear Hunt" I was laughing. Niki was so great to do it with them and lead the song. There were skits and walking on hands and playing piano, and babies dancing, and Shaunie sang and danced, Josh and Jody sang, Emma sang, and I had to bribe Jaron with an MP3 player to sing while Clint played the guitar. :) It worked! Everyone was so cute! We had the olympics and races on Saturday which were really fun. I want to say thanks to EVERYONE for competing in the age group races (not one person sat out). I was very impressed with the 36 and up group! Most of you guys can still run!!! :).... or speed walk (which was the case for my mom and aunt coralee. haha). Watching my dad do the potato sack race was a highlight for me. haha. Way to go dad.. you made it! Jennifer and I kicked butt on the 3 legged race! The Anderson little cousins can really run too. Jill killed in the paper plate discus throw and I would say Lisa too, but she totally cheated with a real frisbee (I think Justin cheated too. haha). Jolyne has the cutest crabwalk ever, and Aunt Vicki and my mom are pro's at pushing the wiffleballs with their noses. Volleyball and basketball reigned on Saturday. We had some "whatever you want to do" time in the afternoon, so our family went swimming in Sedona at my parents timeshare place. It was really fun, but we missed out on blowing up the fridge (great video though!!). Saturday night we all ate our own fast food and visited and played our family trivia game (thanks Jesse.... you did great!) and learned to swing dance (thanks mom and dad) and line dance (thanks jen). Tony and Ginger were pro's by the end of the night! Sunday morning's testimony / thankimony under the trees and in the shade at Steve and Vicki's was wonderful. Thanks to all who shared and all who listened. Church was great! An awesome missionary farewell. And lunch afterwards was yummy! Clint and I and Shannon (and our little kids) and my parents went with Steve and Vicki (in the 15 passenger van) to see their other school in Camp Verde (beautiful!) and see Dawn and Angie's houses (beautiful too). Then they took us on a driving tour of Jerome (old town on the cliffs outside of Cottonwood). It was great (and a little scary at times... thanks steve!). On the way home on Monday we drove through Oak Creek Canyon. Good thing it's only about 15 minutes from Cottonwood, cause it was about the time we entered Oak Creek Canyon when I realized I'd left Clint's laptop and all our DVD's at Steve's!... So while Clint, Shannon, and Mom took the kids to a fun lookout place, my dad drove me all the way back to get them (Dad, you rock!!). We stopped in Flagstaff to eat lunch and then head home. It's such a gorgeous drive! Thanks for all the fun times! I am so grateful for family!!!!

Here's the 1st set of pics from the reunion!!

At Steve and Vicki's house:

Shaunie and Emma being goofy; Ammon, Leah, and Lily with Aunt Jody. I love Lily's face in this one. makes me laugh out loud.

Visiting in the shade... LtoR: Justin (cuz), Tony (my mom's youngest brother), Eric (2nd youngest bro), Kathleen (Eric's wife), I think Lane (cuz), Jody, Josh, and Shannon

Swimming in the tin pool!! This was one of my favorite memories as a kid and yes, it's still there! LtoR: Auri, Abby (Niki's), Krissy (Jared's), Jolynn (Niki's), Emma, Aniston, and Lily; Sweet little Madelyn

Dillon (cousin Jill's) and Zach (cousin Cheryl's) golfing in the lower pasture; Carson could not get enough of the dogs. Here he is with Hunter.
Josh, Jody, and Madelyn Moser down behind the lower pasture at the Verde River.
Me and My hottie husband!
Carson practically falling in the Verde. haha. he loved throwing rocks down there!
Jaron with his new MP3 player (almost always had it on!), Shaunie, Emma and Lily. It was so nice down there!

Walking back from the river through the lower pasture and up to the house. Josh and Jo and Jaron and Clint

Dinner time at the school! Steve (mom's oldest brother) and his wife Vicki, Tony (youngest) and his wife Ginger, Uncle Gil (mom's brotherinlaw), and Molly (cousin Danny's); Trevor and Rex (Danny's), Alice (Niki's and no that's not her real hair.. it's talent night), Aubrey (cousin Jared's), and Emily (cousin Cheryl's)

Abby, Krissy, Aniston, Lily, Jolynn, Emma, Auri, and Jaron; Sam sitting with the big kids Alexa (Tony's), Taylor (cousin Jill's), Nick (Cheryl's), Dillon (Jill's), Zach (Cheryl's)

Niki (cousin), Gloria (Niki's) and Camden (Dawn's), Dawn (cousin), Brandon (Dawn's hubby), Angie (cousin), and Rob (Niki's hubby); The chow line!! We ate some of the yummiest food all weekend!!
The Boys: Lane, Jake, Dillon, Jeremy, Zach, Nick, Matthew (I think), Justin, and Nathan (I think haha)
Nathan and Matthew (Uncle Eric's) with their gold eagles. These guys are some of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. They can do anything. :)
Breakfast crew: Tony, Jaron, Dad, Steve, and Mom
Aaron (cousin) taught archery. Clint loved it (he's the guy closest to the camera). Look at that pose... He is so handsome!
Josh and Jeremy going to get their arrows
The sweetest little lads: Carson (mine), Troy (Jeremy's), and Camden (Dawn's)
Leah (Jeremy's) playing with Madelyn (Jody's)
My boy is so happy to be outside with lots of room to run and play!
haha. Carson and Troy look so tiny on that field.

Shannon and Mom and Dad visiting at Steve's; Emma and Clint napping on the trampoline

Brigham (Niki's) and Jaron loved playing in the irrigation ditch (I loved doing that as a kid too! It's like your own personal river); more playing!

Jennifer and Jared (cousin) just hanging out and visiting (we all did a lot of that all weekend); Clint and Lily swinging and eating chocolate while the dogs, Hunter and Sugar, await any handouts. That's Auri in the tree.


Ammon getting a ride (I love Shannon's expression in this picture); Carson and Ammon getting pulled by Grandma.. aahh, this is the life!

Again, Carson with those doggies! This is him and Sugar the Saint Bernard. Her head is huge. haha.; Lily liked the dogs too!
Is this the cutest or what?! Carson loves his cousin Ammon!
hahahahahaha.
MY favorite! Lily just loves her daddy!!!

Ok, more to come later!!

Scottsdale AZ family vacation

I know there is still so much to post that's happened in the past couple of months, but I want to post about our wonderful family vacation we took and our totally awesome family reunion in Arizona. It was so great to spend time together as our little family and then help our children create memories with their cousins and 2nd cousins in the same places that my siblings and I made so many cherished memories as children and teenagers. I love my Anderson cousins, aunts and uncles, and now even more extended family on that side. We are a close knit bunch with so many great examples and so many wonderful life experiences. Hopefully I can get across the fun we had in all these pictures. Enjoy looking!! I'll start with our family vacation in Scottsdale with this post and do the reunion in the next one. We stayed at a place called Villa Mirage Resort Scottsdale. It was really nice with our own full kitchen and 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It fit all of us quite nicely. The kids totally loved it cause they had their own bedroom and mini kitchen and their own TV and DVD player (I have to admit it was nice for Clint and I too). The place was great for kids too. They had a great pool and a kiddie pool for the little ones. There was an activities room where Jaron and Emma and Lily loved to go. They made sand art, beadwork, and other crafts, planted a cactus, played video games, etc. We swam everyday we were there (FUN). On Saturday night the resort had a bbq and movie by the pool. We sat on pool chairs or swam while watching Hotel for Dogs and had BBqed burgers. On Monday night we drove into Mesa and Gilbert and went to the temple visitors center with the kids and then had FHE with some cousins (visiting and swimming). Tuesday we went to the Phoenix zoo which was awesome. Thursday night the resort had a cowboy chuckwagon dinner with a singing cowboy, a jail, and a place to roast smores. We had great weather all week and it was a great getaway for our family.

The kids in their room (jaron is checking out the resort book... so silly); Lily breaking the rules (again)... but of course I had to take a picture before pulling her off. haha.

Jaron and Emma swimming (on the other side of the skinny middle section of the pool there is a water fall you can swim through and under. The kids loved it); All the kids (clint included) in the kiddie pool (where we spent most of the time)

Cute cute Carson; Movie night!!

In front of the Mesa temple.

Lily breaking the rules again (she couldn't resist... it looked like ya needed to put hands in that fountain); Me and my honey in front of the "cool tree" on temple grounds


All of us not being reverent on temple grounds

The good pictures... handsome boys, foxy girls!

Cousin fun on Family Night!! Thanks Cheryl!! picture on left: Emily, Carson, Clint, Micah and her 3boys Trevor, Rex and Blake; pic on R: back row- Jill (cousin), Me, Sunshine (cousin), Dawn (cousin), Micah (cousin's wife). front row- Tommy (or Rex... sorrry Micah), Cheryl (cousin), Molly (Micah and Danny's), and Niki (cousin)

At the zoo on the carosaul (sp??), Emma and Lily on sharks, Jaron on the cool eagle

Lily and Carson deciding if they want to get into that cage with the cool tiger!; Jaron playing on the spiderweb on the "children's trail"

The stroller that was meant for Lily and Carson!; The totally fun camel ride that the kids didn't want to get off of!!

Petting zoo! Carson was so fun to watch in here!

Lily and Carson totally crashed after a fun day at the zoo; That night we played several games of Jenga and discovered that Jaron is REALLY good at it! And won almost every time.

One of the nights we were there we went and saw "Up" at the drive in. I can't believe they don't still have these all over... it was so fun!!; Lily at the chuckwagon dinner.

Our family sitting down and excited to eat the great smelling food; Clint and Jaron roasting marshmallows

We sent our kids to jail! They loved it!

ok , this is really funny... We started heading to Cottonwood on Friday morning for a weekend reunion (about a 2 hr drive)... Carson was playing with this sword and when Clint got on the freeway he rolled up the window and didn't realize the sword got stuck there. We finally noticed and got it out and then laughed about how many people saw that thing stickin out of our truck wondering what it was. haha. oh well! I hope we gave others a good laugh.

At the petting zoo

riding the camel