Summer Family Reunion in Colorado

Sunday and Monday, July 16-17, 2017
Family members gathered at Michelle's and Josh's house in Frederick throughout the day.  We are so grateful to them for hosting us!
Nathan and Megan's family flew in from Charlotte, NC; Camille and Bryan and their family came from Canton, MI, via Logan where they had a Cook family reunion the following week; Craig and Rashida drove over from Orem, Utah; and Dad and Mary Lee flew in from Tucson, AZ.

Tuesday, July 18
The reunion began in earnest with fun games in the Cook's beautiful backyard!

Kan Jam was a favorite all week--and some people got really good at it!

Michelle and Dad working on a giant homemade Jenga set.  Josh and Michelle thought of everything for our enjoyment!

Fun with Grandpa at Cafe Rio!

Wednesday, July 19

We enjoyed walking up the road at Dinosaur Ridge and seeing all the dinosaur tracks in the rocks.

On the way home we stopped at the Red Rocks Amphitheater.  A band was rehearsing so we couldn't see the amphitheater, but we enjoyed looking at the Performer's Hall of Fame.

July 20
We got the day off to a great start by celebrating Tytan's 8th birthday!

Tytan, Brie and their cousins especially enjoyed the photo book his mom made of his life so far!

The Star Wars lego set was another hit for Tytan, Max, and Ben

Olivia playing finger games with Grandpa.

Craig and Dad enjoying Tytan's photo book.

Zander loved being with Kate--and kept asking for her long after returning home to Michigan!

Max is great with his cousins--younger ones included!

We love our beautiful family...

even when they get a little crazy!

July 21

The family played games at the church for most of the day.  Did anyone take photos?!  

Michelle and Josh have a great collection of fun indoor and outdoor games.

July 22
Nathan arranged a Let's Make a Deal game for Megan to celebrate her birthday. She started out with $35 but chose to trade that for what was beneath dish towel #1.  Good deal!  Under dish towel #1 were 35 five dollar bills.  Wow!  Really good deal.  Then she was tempted to trade the $185 for what was under dish towel #2.  Should she or shouldn't she?  Tough choice but she went for it.  Beneath dish towel #2 was a certificate for a sofa set that she had really wanted.  Now things got really tricky.  She could keep the sofas or trade them for what was beneath dish towel #3.  What to do?  What could be better than she already had?  But the potential for something even better was irresistible, so she traded the sofas for the prize under dish towel #3.  It was so exciting.  It was going to be so amazing.  Both thrilled and fearful she removed dish towel #3 to reveal the ultimate prize:  A pair of corrective shoes for an orangutan.  What a great deal!  The best thing of all!  Well not really.  (In the end she got to keep ALL her prizes!)  It was magical, laughable, fun and typical of how clever Nathan is.

We enjoyed exploring Estes Park, requiring old-fashioned map reading skills :).

 Dads were in great demand on the trail.

Grandpa distributed silver dollars from Grandma and Grandpa Call with a special message for each member of the family.

July 23
Sunday we attended church with Josh and Michelle, and family members began the journey home...till we meet again.   We love you all!  No question about it, our family is TBTI!

July 25
Several of us were blessed to attend Tytan's baptism in Logan.  We're very proud of him!

Family Holidays in Tucson

We were thrilled that everyone was able to come to Tucson for Christmas!!!  Ten adults and ten children in our not-so-big home was a tight squeeze, but with everyone being kind and helping out, it worked out great and we had a wonderful time.

Dec. 24
Taking advantage of family members being home, I brought out many items we have been keeping for 20 years to see who wanted to take them home :).  Michelle and Camille looked through their dolls and decided what to keep and what to give away (almost everything).

On Christmas Eve we gathered in the living room to sing carols and read the story of the Savior's birth from Luke 2.

Grandpa MC'd a great Christmas program with everyone participating.

Okay, so maybe the program went a little long....

The children acted out the nativity story using wooden figures.

Finally it was time for the little ones to go to bed, so Santa could come!

Dec. 25
The children woke up early but patiently waiting until their parents were up so everyone could go together into the living room to see what Santa had brought!

The tree was glowing, the stockings were overflowing, and the room was filled with gifts!

After a beautiful, musical sacrament meeting, we gathered again in the living room and Grandpa introduced our family rap, "TBTI!"

And the children opened a special family gift...

...a TBTI bag for everyone!  Grandpa designed the TBTI font style and colors, and machine embroidered each person's name on his/her bag.

Ben, Tytan, and Max had fun helping each other build models with their new Lego sets.

Grandma managed to snap a photo of Zander--not that he was standing still!  One of my favorite memories of the reunion was watching either Camille or Bryan trail Zander as he wandered from room to room, never pausing more than a few seconds.  Handsome boy!

Camille and the family surprised Grandpa and me with Christmas and 20th anniversary outfits...

...and tickets to see the John Pizzarelli combo and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra!

We were so glad that Ken could join us!

It was a wonderful, memorable Christmas Day for us all.

Highlights of the rest of our wonderful reunion:

Monday, Dec. 26

Cousins bonding with Aunt Rashida--Ava, Ethan, and Brie

Ana Moreno Ortiz took family photos in our backyard.

We love our beautiful family!

Dec. 27

We all got to celebrate Kaitlyn's 12th birthday with her!

Ava leads a Werewolf game

We had lots of fun in the pool and hot tub at the Ventana Vista Condos!

Dec. 28

Grandpa arranged for a round of golf at Ventana.

Racquetball at Udall

 

Dec. 29

It was great weather for a hike at Sabino Canyon!

What a handsome group!  Tytan was especially prepared with snacks in his TBTI bag.

Watch out for mountain lions--or was it crazy hikers?!

Dec. 30

I'm sure we did lots of fun things on this day, but we captured only the wonderful organizing project Camille, Michelle and Dad carried out in the guest bathroom--thank you very much!

Dec. 30

What a fun way to spend New Year's Eve day!

Max and Tytan made photo IDs. Good thing they were both wearing their BYU t-shirts!

We finished of the day with a rousing performance of the TBTI rap!  Alas, the video is too big to upload.  Here's a link.

Thank you for coming to Tucson for a memorable Christmas holiday!  We love you all!!!