Thursday, October 29, 2015

Hipwell Family Reunion – Day 4 {Etc...}

We missed the bear sighting the night before but it was clear he enjoyed himself.


Robyn brought plates for everyone to decorate (neither of us knew we were bringing stuff to decorate dinnerware).

Lee’s 
   
Grandma’s 
   
Justin and Mine 
   
Katie and Raymond’s    

Some of the teens spent some time enjoying the hot tub.


There was a Connect Four tournament.  Drew and Katie faced off in the first round and to our surprise Drew won! 


Abigail and Dylan ended up in the final face off where Abigail was deemed the Connect Four Champion.


We had a bubble blowing competition.  Scott’s bubble took first, but I thought my attempt was impressive.


Justin stayed back at the cabin while Drew napped and the reset of us visited the historic park and museum in Frisco.  The kids enjoyed running around the old village downtown collecting stamps in their passports for each of the buildings.


I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of Katie all dressed up  
  

We found Griffin in the chapel giving a passionate sermon  
  

We followed up our self-guided tour with some delicious ice cream


Lee took a picture of the family that day, but unfortunately he still had his camera set for nighttime bear watching so they didn’t turn out well.  Next time.


I snuck out with Abigail and Carly to check out the outlets that night.  When I pulled into the driveway and saw the dumpster lid up I knew we weren’t alone.  We had to wait in the van while the bear rummaged through the dumpster and then quickly snuck out when he went off to the side to eat.  This was the first evening that Katie and Drew had still been up to see the bear.  Drew could say “bea” quite well and he added a munching noise – cause that’s what a bear sounded like to him.  So cute.

We got lots of video footage this evening as he entertained us over nearly 45 minutes.  It was fascinating to watch how easily he could move.  He could stand along the edge of the container effortlessly.



Sometimes he’d just chow standing in the dumpster.


Another entertaining day (and night!)

Monday, October 19, 2015

Hipwell Family Reunion – Day 3 {Mugs, Rainbow Park & Minute to Win It}

Keeping with reunion tradition we had various guessing jars for everyone to try to win by correctly guessing the number of goodies in each jar.  Hipwell’s are great with numbers so there was some tight competition.  I think Caylee actually won 4 jars, but Grandma decided to let her choose just one to keep and the others went to the second place guesser.  The two victors from my family were Katie (animal crackers) and Jason (pretzels)


Drew was frequently found sneaking candy out of everyone’s jars.


I brought mugs for everyone to decorate.  


My own family still uses plates made at my childhood reunions.


Everyone did a really great job and I love that they will each have something to remind them of this week we had together.


Some of the finished masterpieces…

Drew’s (courtesy of Uncle Lee)

Uncle Ray’s

Uncle Lee’s

“What Do I Say” – Fox’s

Grandma’s


Drew had his very own room.  We set up his play-n-pack but after the first night he decided there was no use letting the giant king size bed go to waste so he wanted to sleep on the bed the rest of the week.  I was nervous he wouldn’t stay put and actually go to sleep – he did.  I was also nervous he’d get home and not want to sleep in a crib - he did.  So thankfully his sleeping in a bed for a week went just fine.


The hammocks were a big hit.


That afternoon we all went to Rainbow Park to let off some energy.  I don’t think anyone anticipated we would stay for a couple hours.


Cammy and Justin got the kids spinning ridiculously fast on this playground toy.


There was an intense game of Lava Monster 


Followed with a game of Ultimate Frisbee

my kids are a bit intense 


Then as if everyone wasn’t exhausted enough, Justin challenged Griffin to a planking contest – which he lost.


After our enjoyable afternoon at the park we headed back home for dinner and Minute to Win It game night! 


“Face Cookie Challenge”


“Nutstacker”


“Suck It Up”


“Hanky-Panky”


“Scoop it Up”


“Junk in the Trunk”


“Stack Attack”



“A Bit Dicey”


Such a fun night!