Family Reunion Recap part 2

Back for more? It's time for the rest of the family reunion recap. I bet you're super excited to read about our other adventures. This one's a lot more picture heavy - apologies in advance!

Wednesday: The first activity on the agenda after breakfast was mini golfing. Estes Park has a mini golf course available for any guests to use for free. So we rounded everyone up and headed down for a round of mini golf. Of course, it would have taken far too long to go in one big group, so instead we opted to split into 5 groups of 4 and go from there.

Group 1: my sister, Miss M, E1, A1

Group 2: E2, T, me, Nathan

Group 3: Mom, PMJ, Baby S, Young T

Group 4: PJJ, Miss E, Young M, R

Group 5: Dad, A, G, A2

We all had a lot of fun, and nobody got heat stroke. I didn't get the lowest score by a long shot, but I did respectably well. (The final scores in our group for 18 holes were T: 58, N: 59, me: 62, E2: 156. E2 was very meticulous at counting every stroke.)

Here are a few of my favorite action shots:

T helping E2 hold the putter correctly

Young T playing shuffleboard.

Wednesday afternoon we had a private archery lesson scheduled for the older kids and any interested adults. It was probably my favorite activity.

PJJ, G, Nathan, Mom

Miss M, A1, me, E1

I didn't do that great, but at least on one set I got all four arrows in the target. Someday maybe I'll figure out how to aim.

Wednesday evening we rented two puzzles from the game lodge and did one of them in the cabin, staying up til 11:30 to finish it while it thundered and flashed lightning and poured rain outside.

Proof of puzzle completion.

Thursday: Thursday morning we had someone T&G knew come to Estes Park to take professional pictures of our family. It was supposed to be Thursday night, but we moved it up when there was a 50% chance of showers that evening (remember the campfire incident?). Turns out it didn't rain that evening after all, but we were still glad to have gotten it done in the morning.

After pictures, we finally got around to visiting the craft cabin, which is chock full of fun things to do that cost money. My niece Miss M wanted to do everything, of course, but if she had to pick just one, it was the most expensive one - silk painting. First hearing about it, silk painting didn't sound all that thrilling, but I soon changed my mind... Nathan and I ended up spending a good chunk of the day doing one of our own together. I think I'll make a post about that on its own so I can do it justice.

A little preview of A1's silk painting for the impatient. You can also see E1 working on hers in the background.

Once we finished our silk painting (and I resisted the jewelry station), we finished the second puzzle we rented. As we left to take both puzzles back, we passed my nephew outside the cabin who immediately exclaimed "you can't take them back, I wanted to help with them!" with a quivering lip. So we took them back and got another one he could help with instead. Of course, he chose the 1000 piece one that was in the shape of a deer instead of a normal rectangle... and then when we opened it up we discovered pieces from two other puzzles mixed in, so we had to sort them first before we could start working on the puzzle we actually got, and then by the time we began working on the deer it was time for dinner. And then we decided to forget it and took it back (with the extra pieces in a separate bag, so it wasn't all fruitless). We played more Poohead instead and packed all our stuff up. We all stayed up way too late (E1 and Miss M, who were in the same room as me, Nathan, and my sister, were up til at least 10:30 talking), but you know, that happens on the last night of a family reunion.

Friday: The morning was spent eating breakfast and packing the cars. We headed out around 9:30 and arrived home (home at last!) at 7pm, by which time I had a splitting headache and was pretty much useless the rest of the evening. But it was so nice to have a weekend to recover before having to jump back into the daily grind.