Hansen Reunion Top 10

Over the 4th of July weekend my family ALL came to my house!  I kind of forced them to-- last summer I made them all promise to come unless someone got married (because then we'd all be together at the wedding instead). I really wanted to have a family gathering since we are all ABLE to get together- no one is on a mission or living really far away or extremely ill.  As it turned out, we did have a 6-week old baby (Katrina's Ryder) and 2 very pregnant sisters, (Allison due Sept. and Christine due Aug.) but we timed it just right so everyone could come and stay for 3 and a half days!  wow!  So much time together, what a gift! :)  Seriously, I told Eric I didn't even need any birthday presents, I feel so loved and blessed and fulfilled, with all the hard work he and his dad put into our bathroom (which needs a whole other post!) and all the joy of this family reunion and Kurtis' homecoming- I'm good!  

So anyway.  Here are my top 10 favorite parts of the 1st ever official Jamie Hansen Family Reunion.

#10- A lot of little things that I don't have pictures of, such as:

--Derek spending most of Tuesday and Wednesday before the reunion helping me get ready!  I never could have shopped for all that food, or gotten my yard looking so nice, or cleaned my banisters so well without him. :) And during the reunion he was always asking if I (or anyone else) needed help.  If anyone knows a cute girl in the search for a good husband, I have a prime candidate for her!

-- My mom enjoying being a grandma, or should I say, a Grammy!  holding the baby and reading to the kids and entertaining them with fun games while we made the campfire dinner, there were a lot of cute moments.

--running with Jenae!

--hearing all of Melissa's fun college stories

--standing in the kitchen with the MacKays and the Idahoans waving up to Lydia when Phillip brought her out to say goodnight, it was hilarious, she had just gotten to our house and she looked at us like "who are all of these people waving excitedly at me??"

--the several That Thing You Do references that were thrown out- and understood by others!!  I love being around my family because they can laugh with me about things other people don't understand. :)

#9 The Hike

 We hiked the Grotto in Payson Canyon- perfect for our crowd of kids and pregnant women!  And everyone had fun.

 Kate finally got to do something with everyone (she had been sick with a high fever for a couple of days, SO sad!)

 The boys!  Caleb and Owen definitely have some similarities- in looks and personality!

 Donny and Christine, soon to be super cute little new parents to a little girl!!  So exciting!

#8- T-shirt Painting

So I knew everyone in my family would love this!  And not surprisingly, Eric and Phillip did not paint shirts haha!  But really, every Hansen has an artistic side, and if you give them some paint and a T-shirt, they will enjoy creating something!  So the theme was hand prints, I wanted to have the kids paint their hands and then put overlapping hand prints on a shirt to make a heart.  We did get a couple of those made and it was super cute, and then everyone used their creativity to make some great stuff!  Derek had a hand stripe going up his shirt,

 Jenae made an amazing rainbow hand shirt,

and I didn't get pictures of Dad's amazing Family tree shirt with ALL of our handprints or Jonathan's cool shirt or melissa's amazing Hansen logo or Jenae's flag feet and hands shirt... all so awesome.

My kids loved painting their shirts- especially Owen, who loves painting, and Katelyn, who painted the cutest little monkey on her shirt.

I didn't get to make my shirt during the reunion, so I did it last week.  It's like Dad's Family Tree shirt, but with circles :)  There's a color for Hansen boys, one for Hansen girls, one for brother-in-laws and grandsons, and one for sister-in-laws and granddaughters.

 Here you can see at the bottom my mom and dad, then me and Eric with our kids branching off, then Allison and Kent with theirs, then on top Donny and Christine and their little girl, and Melissa and Jenae on my shoulder.

Then on this side Katrina and Phillip and their kids, and Jonathan and Derek on top.

I love them forever. :)  

Top Ten to be continued...