DAY 4: Today was sort of a sad day, because Kevin and his parent's left for Washington DC for Kevin's award ceremony.  I was very excited for him, but sad for him to have to leave us during vacation.  Needless to say, I spent all my time with my sister and my parents while they were gone.

While I was with them, I tried to help my sister finish things in her new house, so it would be ready for our family reunion the next week.  My brother Preston was also working on the house, and it was so wonderful to see him and his family!!  I even got to have dinner with them, and it was great to catch up, even though Derek tried to reak havoc on all their unpacked boxes (They just moved to Twin).

DAY 5: Sunday was a nice day.  Derek slept all through sacrament meeting, and then I went to Nursery with him – which was really fun actually.  They have such a great nursery, that it made me sad he doesn't get to be in it every week.

That night I put the kids down to sleep, and my dad watched them while I went and took family pictures for my sister Holly.  Derek woke up while I was gone, and somehow, being the amazing man he is, he got him back to sleep.  The pictures turned out pretty good, although it is quite hard to get a 6, 4, and 2 year old to look in the same direction, let alone smile at the same time :).

Day 6 & 7:  Monday and Tuesday were a crazy whirlwind of last minute preparations for the reunion – shopping, cleaning, putting new beds together in Holly's house, and trying to unpack both my parents and Holly's stuff.  It was crazy and exhausting, but I was glad to help. 

We also went to a ward party, where I got to catch up with a few old friends :).  Lily and Derek were so tired, that we left early, which broke Lily's heart – you see, there was a dunk tank and she wanted to play with it so much!  Letting her throw a ball at it with nobody inside just didn't suffice for her.

 Day 8:  Kevin and his parents got back from DC, and so we met them at his Aunt Susie's house in Paul, ID.  Lily loved it, since it was on a farm with huge tractors everywhere.  We got to see Kevin's Grandma Mona, which was very nice.  And the kids had a great time swinging, playing on the trampoline, watching the hummingbirds, and running around in circles :).

   We spent the rest of the day relaxing, since we were all exhausted.  And I was able to stop by my parents to say hi to my brothers and sisters that were starting to arrive for the reunion, which takes us to part three . . .

PS.  Although Kevin didn't get INSCOM linguist of the year, he got a beautiful plaque and got to give input to some pretty amazing people.  And hey, Dennis got to shake hands with a General :).