Brown Family Reunion

My mom is a Brown. Daughter of Karl and Ruth Brown.  Karl's parents are Granny and Pa pa Brown... So sad but there first names are not coming to mind. (Mom when you leave a comment tell us what those are. I feel stupid for not knowing)

This last week were had the chance to go to a reunion for this entire Brown Family.  It was so fun to meet new people and run into old ones.  Last time I went to one of these I was a very young little girl.

The 5 days in between our ALB trip and the reunion I was able to get a lot done.

These two kept me busy of course but I also got to do this....

10 QUARTS BABY!!!

So back to the reunion... It was in Show Low. A little place called Owen's Creekside.  I had heard about this place before, but I have to say when I got there I was pleasantly surprised.  There was alot to do, I felt like anyway.  They had a large pond with paddle boats, kyacks, and cannons to use at our leisure.  Here is Grandma, Maycee, and Aunt Rachel...

Maycee loved being on the water!  Any chance we had she was asking to go out on the water.  Grandma happily took her several times. Thanx Mom!  The pond was also great for swimming...

As you can see there is the dock to get on and off the boats from and then there is also a little further out a floating dock.  The guys OF COURSE turned that into...

KING OF THE MOUTAIN!!!

Blake was showing my high school aged cousins how to win. That is until.....

My Uncle Kelly decided to join the game...

As you can see Uncle Kelly is much bigger than the rest of the guys and after that it was really a competition but everyone still had A LOT of fun!

My Uncle Kelly is a great guy.  He lived with me growing up for a bout a full year right before he left on his mission.  I have fond memories of playing cards (skip*bo and scum mostly) with him and having him throw me literally across the pool.  He really is a big teddy bear. So sweet and so fun.  And he doesn't like to lose! In fact, he doesn't lose. (that was show again during the weekend and the card games we played)

Here are the horses they have on the property. An electric fence separated us. Maycee found that out the hard way :( But they like carrots!

 Also several swings...

 (please excuse the silly hat, but it was nice to wear)

One way the family helps to of-set the cost of the reunion to have an auction! The auction was fun!  I brought 2 different "vinyl" related pieces. They both went for a total of $75. I was really happy about that.  made me think I could start charging a little more for the stuff I do, but I wont. To soft.  Blake and i bid on several things and we got a good amount I thought.  Two of the items were tutu's... my mom actually got those.  The girls LOVED them.  Lydia wears hers everyday!

 (I had to put this pic in. Its a classic finger shot!)

This was just after they had won the bid on the two tutu's.

 We also won a awesome griddle, that fits nicely on our 3 burner camping stove :)  That was a happy fathers day to Blake :)  We also won a blancket that was crochetted by my moms first cousin, Brenda.  She has an amazing skill!  Wish I had a pic of the blanket to show you.  Also a doll with clothes also crocketted by Brenda. We made out good.

funny side story:

So one of the items auctioned off were a couple of "bunny catchers".  All over the property there were bunnies.  I don't quite know if they were wild or not, never got the scoop on it.  But the kids had been trying so hard to grab one.  So some smart person put the "bunny catchers" together for the reunion.  They were just simple little ziploc sandwhich bags with a few things inside you would need to catch a bunny... ei, about 6ft of twine, some bird seed and a couple of carrots.  (In my mind I was thinking, "Really guys? Those bags would have gone to better use somewhere else. The carrots would have been nice with dinner and the bird seed was a waste of money")  As soon as they were auctioned off the kids went to work.....  About 15 minutes later....

 Here come the kids walking into the auction saying, "They worked!"  We put a hold on the auction and just laughed for a few minutes.  Never again will I under estimate the power of what a ziploc bag combined with a few other crucial items can do!

 The Brown Reunion was a success!  So glad we made the drive to go!

 Aren't they great!?!  Blake is the best girl dad I know!