Tom Slack Family Reunion - Day 4

Today we had to check out of the cabins, then we spent the rest of the day at Lake Patoka with the family who hadn't had to go home yet.  I was so nervous for that day, imagining drownings,etc., but it turned out to be my kids' favorite day, and I had a great time too. 

We spent the first half of the day in the shallow part of the lake just swimming and floating around with the Froerers and Aunt Nicole.  We had such a fun time with Camden and adored Noelle in her cute little floatie thing.  Aunt Michelle was smart and figured out that we could use the kids' harnesses to attach their floaties together, so that made life much easier.

The second half of the day we spent on a pontoon that the Enz family rented.  That was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed seeing all the kids having fun, watching my daddy go off the slide, floating around in the middle of the ocean, seeing the happy looks on my kids faces (Caiti's happy look was when she was asleep at this point), enjoying the company of some of my wonderful family.  It was very nice.  

The highlight of my day was taking Garrett on the innertube behind the pontoon for his first innertube ride.  It was so cute because he had a great big grin the whole time.   :)

After a long day at the Lake, the family reunion was officially over.  I was very happy though, because my mom rode home with us in the van, so we got to have a nice visit on the way home.  :)

Tom Slack Family Reunion - Day 3

Day 3 was a Sunday.  It was such a nice day, one of my favorites on the trip.  We all got up nice and early and had a "grown-ups" only devotional, given by my mom.  It was very spiritual and sweet, and I will always remember her wonderful testimony.
After the devotional and breakfast, we all met at mom's cabin for family pictures.

Most of the day was spent visiting and just enjoying each other's company.  Garrett and Caiti were so happy to get snuggles with Grandpa, and Caiti remembered how much she loves Aunt Jen too.  :)

Sunday was mom's and my turn to fix lunch.  We must be related because we both had the exact same idea of what to eat: Taco Bar!!!!  Yummy.  We were lucky to have Jen's and Glenn's help.

 After lunch we got the treat of pedicures from our own family nail artist, Amy.  I loved my toes.  We did them in a camouflage design.  :)

It was also super cute because Amy gave Caiti her first pedicure, and she was soooo good for it. We loved the watermelon design. 

After lunch, I was so happy because I was able to have my first art lesson from my daddy.  We used water colors to paint still lifes.  

We had such a nice day.  :)

Tom Slack Family Reunion - Day 2

The second day of the reunion was probably the most boring for my family...oh well.  :)  Everyone else went to Holiday World, but I didn't feel comfortable going to an amusement park with my kids.  I already felt like I was stepping out of my comfort zone to go on a vacation in the first place...I guess it's baby steps.  Maybe next time.  We had a great morning before everyone left though...Caiti got to snuggle her favorite Aunt Michelle!

We had a yummy breakfast too, and Garrett and Caiti were good and even ate at the table...can't say the same thing for Jason.

 After breakfast, all of the Slack grand kids all got in the tie dyed shirts they made (someone nice made my kids' shirts), and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's cabin where they met before they went to Holiday World.  We took the opportunity to take a couple pics too. 

After they left, I decided to try and clean up a little bit, but it was kinda hard to do, so I utilized the bathtub as a great distraction for some cute little kids.

We got to finish up the melon from breakfast and the hamburgers and hotdogs from the night before.  Yummy!

My kids did a pretty good job the rest of the day.  Caiti loved playing with Dora and Blue, Garrett and Jason watched lots of movies.  I tried to watch TV.  It wasn't so entertaining since the only non-sports channels I could find were the cooking channel and the TV Guide channel. 
The worst part of the day was cleaning up a #2 accident in my bedroom which involved taking all three of the kids to the convenience store that just happened not to have carts, so that I could buy cleaning supplies.  Sigh...So, I had Garrett and Caiti on harnesses, held Jason's hand, my purse and a basket full of stuff.  I was not happy.  Oh well.   We all made it through the day safe and in one piece.  :)

Tom Slack Family Reunion 8/2010 - Day 1

August was a good month for our family.  Kevin came home after being gone on RIMPAC for 2 months.  Soon after he got home, the kids and I were brave and ventured on an airplane to go to Indiana for the Tom Slack Family Reunion.  I was pretty worried about going on the plane by myself with my kids, but for the most part they were pretty good.  Garrett loved being on the airplane and kept saying "I like airplane...I like helicopter...I like space shuttle." (All of which were on his puzzle when he was little).  The kids were super good on the plane.  My only problems were with ignorant people like the lady in front of Garrett who kept telling me to make him stop kicking her chair even though I warned her ahead of time and tried my hardest to make him stop, or the flight attendants who offered to help me with Garrett when we got off the plane, and didn't hold his hand, so he would make a dash for the airport and I'd have to chase him down.  Let's just say it was a long day.  We left our house at 9 a.m. and got to Indianapolis at 11:30 p.m. where Aunt Marie was there to pick us up and take us to her house to stay overnight.  We had a great time catching up with her and her kids.
The next morning Michelle met us at Marie's house.  Marie was kind enough to let us borrow her van, so we headed out to the family reunion.  It was quite a long drive, complicated by a 2-hour stop at Wal-Mart for last-minute purchases, getting lost trying to find Arby's, passing the cabins and having to turn around.  We finally got to the cabins after everyone else had spent the day swimming in the lake.  I kind of went through a little panick attack when we got to the cabins and the first thing Garrett and Caiti wanted to do was go out in the pond, and I kept losing track of them.  So, we all hid in our bedroom for a while so I could get myself together and figure out safety issues.  Luckily, the kids could watch DVDs in our room, and they even had a fun visitor, their cousin Will.

Nicole and Jake got the family together for a very fun version of Minute to Win It with some super fun competitions.  The games that I participated in were "Junk in the Trunk" and "Suck it Up."  Not surprisingly, I lost both. 

Garrett was enjoying spending time with family he missed so much, and they got a good dose of Garrett  loving!

Jason would have none of the games...so he and Caiti went upstairs with a bunch of the younger cousins and nice Aunt Michelle and Uncle Robert who volunteered to watch them, and they all watched some Dora.

After the game, we were all blessed to sing a late Happy Birthday to my daddy who was in the ICU on his last birthday.  We were so glad to have him with us to celebrate this time.  We also had a good bonding moment singing our wonderful Slack Family song that my mom wrote when we were little and then Amy cowrote additional verses to fit our family dynamics now.  I loved it.  It was sure nice to spend time with our family!

The Journeys of Dora and Blue (and sometimes Boots) as told by Caiti

Hi, I'm Caiti, and I LOVE my friends Dora, Blue and Boots.  I take them everywhere I go.  Here's my story of where they went today.

Dora and Blue were hungry so they tried climbing up the cupboard thingies to get to the counter and find something to eat.

Then I decided I missed my daddy, so I took Dora and Blue to the computer so they could see a picture of him.  I guess daddy already met Dora, since she's in the pic too.  :)

Mommy decided to get me ready for the day, so Dora and Blue waited for me on the couch, where they met with their friend Boots.

Okay, I'm back.  You can continue your journey.

This table is a nice place to rest.  Maybe mommy will get the hint that I want to eat...or maybe not.

I guess watching TV is just as good, especially if I can watch my buddies at the same time.

My friends are almost as cute as me!  The End!!!!