Callister Family Reunion

Every other year, we have a huge Callister Reunion with my mom's cousins and my second cousins. It's always a blast, and this year it was held at the LDS stake park in Groveland, Idaho. Wade and I love camping, especially when it's on a nice grassy area like it was this weekend. It's my FAVORITE way to camp! I really don't mind sleeping on the ground, sharing a tent as a whole family, or missing a day or two without a shower (come on, that happens sometimes even when I'm not camping. I'm a mom for crying out loud!) It's just so much nicer that the kids aren't quite as filthy when we camp on the grass.Emily and Jon helping daddy. Sorry about the behind shot Waders! After a long drive in the car, Jonny takes a minute to rest. Ahh, so comfy.

The first night, after my Uncle Seth and the band entertained us, he invited anyone else up on stage that wanted to sing or play an instrument. Emily asked me if she could go up and sing and was the first one up there! I was super surprised, but definitely proud of my little girl. She sang every word of "I Lived in Heaven" without missing a beat. It's funny because although she talks and sings all day long at home, she is usually as shy as can be in front of people. my two boys with their crazy morning hair-do

We slept in our tent like this without the covering and could see every star possible that night. It was gorgeous!

Wade and my dad helping Jonny during craft time

Cute girls: Emma, Emily, and Lucy

Lucy and Emily with their hula hoops during the relay race

For some reason, they always ask me to be in charge of the kids games at every reunion. ;) Marne and I teamed up and created a fun relay course and some other games for the kids. It was awesome watching the cousins get to know each other better. playing tag

Little Gwyn and me
These older boys were crazy about Jonny all weekend. If he was sad because his mean mommy was making him actually eat his dinner, they would come up to us and say, "Jonny, don't be sad. What's wrong buddy?" And of course they invited Wade and Jon to join them in playing water baseball. Later I begged them if I could play too, but mostly just so I could go down the slip and slide at home base...like 50 times. I was loving that thing. It's kind of ridiculous what a big kid I am really. They almost kicked me out of the game because I kept stealing bases so I could slide into home base again.

One of the best parts of the weekend was tubing down the rapids of the canal. We used to do this at every reunion when I was a kid, and I loved it. Still do. Thanks to my mom for watching Jon and Emily while we were gone.

Awe-some
The crazier the waves the better!

Trying to get back to shore before the current took us too far down the canal

Our favorite redneck joke used to be: "You might be a redneck if you go to a family reunion looking for a date!" Well, we're not true red necks in that sense. Thank goodness! But we do dance together and love every minute of it. When I was 10, I used to think it was so cool to dance with Tommy, Eric, or Zane because they were the cutest cousins my age. And I felt so lucky if Uncle Lee danced with me because he was such a good dancer. Now that I'm older and married, I'm more than happy to dance with my husband on the slow songs (which is a good thing!), but we all still line-dance, swing dance, square dance, and do the hokey-pokey together. Anyone want to join our family? I love being a Callister!

Oh, also BIG thanks to Kristen, Melody, Kelly, Marne, Nikki, and Kim for being my buddies at the reunion! I feel like I have the coolest cousins ever and genuinely enjoy spending time with them. It's great!

Here's a few fun pics of Emily and Jon on the swings on our last day there. They couldn't get enough of the swings the whole weekend. They asked us to push them several times a day everyday.

The biggest reason we attend the family reunion is so we can spend more time with this guy. My Grandpa Callister is pretty special.

After the reunion, we spent the rest of the day and night with Wade's cousins, Tyrell & Rose and Dallas & Cecilia in Ucon, Idaho, near Idaho Falls. I love small towns! These guys still irrigate their lawn, just we did when I was growing up. So we went skimboarding across their lawn and just talked and laughed the rest of the evening.

Sunday morning, we went to church with Wade's cousin, Nancy and her family, and had a good visit with them before getting back on the road.

On our way home, we stopped in Logan for few hours so we could BBQ with Wade's best high school buddies, Tyler & Heather, Craig & Aubrey, and Caleb & Paige. We're pretty excited about Tyler's new teaching job at Tooele High School because it means we'll get to see him and Heather more. Yea!

We had been looking forward to this weekend all summer, and it was exactly what we needed! I didn't expect, however, for this to change our plans for where we want to raise our family. I still don't know if Wade is convinced yet, but honestly, I feel like I could live in rural Idaho forever!