First Day of School for James

It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that ALL FIVE KIDS are in SCHOOL!! Where does the time go? I've said it a lot lately, but I felt like time crawled by when the kids were little. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed each stage, but it felt so slow. Now all of a sudden the kids are all in school, Austin has ONE more year of highschool (WHAT???) and not even a year later is on a mission. Ella has one more year of Jr high, Will is already in jr high. Time went from crawling to a high speed chase!! 

James' first day of school was the day after all the older kids. He was so excited, but when I asked him, he said he wasn't excited haha. Little turkey. Jimmy was able to come for the first day which was pretty awesome. James is in the morning class and shares a classroom with a girl from his primary class. It was nice to see a familiar face. He did make an instant best friend named Tayson. These two have become inseparable. It's like they've known each other their entire lives and it's adorable. When we went to meet the teacher night she asked if James and Tayson knew each other outside of school. I said they just met there and she was shocked :) Super cute!

I always thought that when all my kids were in school I'd have all this time to do whatever I wanted or needed to. Well, for the first couple weeks I took full advantage of that "me" time. My neighbor invited me to go to hot yoga with her, so I started going day 3 into school. I bought an unlimited month trial pass and was going 4 times a week. I even got a couple other friends to join me. I really enjoyed hot yoga. I'd drop James off at the school and rush straight to class with just enough time to shower and then go pick up James. It was hot and sweaty and yet so wonderful. Sadly I got sick (even ended up at urgent care because I could barely breathe, super fun times) and stopped going. Even more sad is that my pass is expired and I'm too cheap to justify the full cost. If only the trial price was the regular price ;) I might just have to find another place to go... hmmm.... 

Anyways, after the yoga stopped it's mostly been errands, cleaning, etc. But I'm glad James is enjoying school so much. He gets mad at me when we have to miss because of the doctor or dentist or whatever. That makes me happy that he likes being there. I think he just likes getting to play with Tayson every day, but hey, who cares ;)

Saunders Family Reunion 2017

Be prepared for photo overload!!
I think this was our first official Saunders Family Reunion ever, and it was an absolute blast! We have little get-togethers here and there but nothing more than a couple hours. We went down to Taber Friday night and had a bonfire, roasted marshmallows, played games and took a group photo. We played the game "4 on a Couch" and it was hilarious. Everyone writes a random fact about themselves on a piece of paper and then the paper goes in a bowl. 4 people are called up to the "couch" or bench in this case, and then one of the facts is read. The person who's fact is read tells the truth while the other 3 make up a story to convince everyone else that the fact is about them. The group then asks the 4 on the couch questions to see who the fact might actually be about. It's quite funny! Definitely recommend playing this game!

Saturday was a delicious pancakes and sausage breakfast followed by fun relay games. The kids had a blast and the weather was perfect for all the water games. Another game we had to fill out all of grandma and grandpas kids down to great grandkids which was actually pretty hard. I knew most of my cousins' kids but some were hard and some I didn't even know had kids (how sad is that!). But it was a great game and made me want to get to know everyone a little more.

After all the game we had delicious walking tacos (tacos in a bag) for lunch followed by even more games. Leilani really did an awesome job planning everything. One of the games for the afternoon was a sumo challenge. We formed a circle and two people tried to knock each other out of the circle or knock the ball out of the other's hands using these giant exercise balls. It was hilarious. Then Ethan and Zac put t-shirts on that had candy glued all over them and the kids had to try and catch them and pull the candy off. HILARIOUS. Thankfully Leilani put the kids in groups of younger kids first and then the older ones last. It was so nice to see how the older kids shared their candy with the younger ones without having to be asked. Such a good group of kids!

After the games Aunt Ruthanne brought grandma down to the campsite for a visit and I took group and family photos with grandma. Grandma and Grandpa had 8 kids and 5 were there - Gordie (passed away when I was about 16), Tom, Marilynne, Mike, Cyndi (out of town), Allyson (my mom), Greg (out of town) & Ruthanne. I'd love to see how big we are when EVERYONE is together!

 5 of the 8 siblings and their spouses - Tom & Wendy, Marilynne & Dave, Mike & April, Allyon & Dave, Ruthanne & Ken

5 siblings and grandma (L-R : Mame, Ruthie, Tom, Mike, Ally)

Rob & MacKenzie and Mame & Dave with Grandma

Sean, Thea, Millie, Katelyn, Scotland and grandma

Tom & Wendy's family, Jessica, Eli, Ida, Jeff, Carson, Quinn, Ivy, Stacey, Dahl, Ty, Reid, Rex, Grandma (missing Nena, Aaron, Chuck and Sandra's family who are in Victoria, Dave and Lisa's family who are in California)

Stacey and her boys, Dahl, Ty, Reid and Rex with Grandma

Zac and Maddie (came all the way from Cedar City, Utah!) with Grandma

Jenny, Andee, Ryder and Grandma

Victoria, Adam, Thalia and Grandma

Jessica and her kids Eli and Ida with Grandma

Ethan and Janie and Grandma

my family

Great Aunt Jeri, her son Jason, his son Dillon and grandma

Allyson & Dave's family (missing Dave and Ashley and the girls who are still in Australia)

Ken and Ruthanne's family, Mitch & Kristen, Bentley, Brinley, Raquel, Max & Leilani, Benson, Addison, Hunter, McKay, Jorden & Candace, Emerson, Walker, Spencer & Courtney, Hadley Eden,

After the photos a food truck came down and served delicious frozen yogurt, we had face painting and glitter tattoos, then yummy BBQ pork sandwiches for dinner. After I finished painting faces I sat and held grandma's hand until we could tell she needed to get home. I really love my grandma!! It's sad to see her not remember people but try her hardest to. After grandma went home came skits and then stories about grandma and grandpa. It was so much fun, I even got in on one of the skits and got to pretend to be pregnant haha that was easy to fake. I loved being able to spend time with those there. A huge thanks to Aunt Ruthanne and Leilani and all others who helped for the awesome job of organizing everything. I can't wait to do it again!!