Lee Family Reunion 2012

The Lee family gathers every other year. We are kind of a big deal and these parties are off the hook. I love my family... even for days at a time. This year, we met up in Heber at an awesome cabin for three nights and four days. 

Thanks, Mom and Dad for the amazing weekend! 

Sadly, my mom was sick with Bronchitis and then got super sick with the plague/flu bug that's being going around... we felt so bad for her. She had been planning this for about two years now. :)

Our first night featured the traditional talent show. The word "talent" is used loosely here... it's basically a bunch of us making complete fools out of ourselves for cheap laughs.

Here are the little girls in their jammies getting ready for the show to begin.

My mom singing "Waddle 'LEE' atcha"... she changed the words to this Melody Makers classic to accommodate our crazy family. It was awesome.

My dad laughing. Love this guy's laugh.

We especially loved that she provided us all with copies of the lyrics.

Okay... this was my dad's talent. It involved a green screen and "Stars" from Les Miserables.
Seriously, the planning and plotting involved in Dad's talent was impressive. Truthfully, Brett's talent was equally awesome (more on that later) but the surprise of my dad's zaniness was too good for words.

Brett and Robyn's reactions.

I think I like Michelle's reaction best.

Laurel's talent was "The Tiger Song" from The Hangover.
Yeah... she is singing with her eyes closed... and playing a Casio.

Michelle's was a poetry performance that was pretty awesome and also involved a costume that cost her $39.00.

Brad enlisted Kaiya to help out with his talent that defied gravity.

A shot from Brett and Robyn's talent. It was stellar. It was originally 14 minutes long but cut down to 12. It featured a dance-off, a parody of 500 Days of Summer (see above), a parody of Footloose and even an extra scene of a Star Wars light-saber fight a la George Michael Bluth.

The proud couple.

Scott and Megan wowed everyone with their awesome rendition of "My Little Buttercup" from  The Three Amigos! I don't think I could have taken better pictures of this is I tried.

I'm actually not sure what is making Scarlett and Kaiya laugh so hard here, but this might be the cutest picture ever.

Sarah (in her much too small kitty jammies) being the rabbit in our family's version of "The Little House in the Middle of the Woods".

Jake was the "hunter", and Blaine was the "little old man".
Let's just say that the Carters' talent paled in comparison to its competitors... but our kids were cute.

Matt allowed Mom and me to put his talent together. He wasn't sure it would "pan" out.

But, he was wrong.

"Greek God Pan" was awesome.

Of course, Dad won the talent competition. He deserved it.

Even if it made Brett super sad. :)
(By the way, the other two trophies were for kayaking and designing a family crest.)
(And I didn't win either. Boo.)

Kayaking at Deer Creek.

Helping Daddy carry the oars.

Race one.

Miss Scarlett.

Jake and Sarah taking it all in.

Matty acquainting himself with his youngest niece.

Kaiya and Sarah throwing rocks with Brad.

Laurel and I have been talking lately about how fun it is to see Sarah and Scarlett "catch up" to each other in age. They are only five months apart and I can't wait for them to be besties.

Blaine is such a good daddy to these kids. He spent a good amount of the afternoon pulling them around the shore in the unused kayaks, helping them believe that they were really paddling the boat themselves.

Oh, I love you, Jakey.

Kaiya's bum. Super cute.

Taking Jake out.

That's me!

Laurel and I went out together. (She beat me.) It was fun and neither of us knew what we were doing.

Dad. :)

More Scarlett.

Robyn getting ready to join the fleet.

Oh yeah, and Scotty won the kayak trophy.

Later on that evening, we all got pretty for a family picture at The Homestead. One of my best friends, Val took them for us and they turned out really, really nice.

I think this one is my favorite but I've got to figure out how to fix Scarlett's hand.

Brobyn.

The Richardsons.

The Carters.

Cute.

Scagen.

The Walkers.

Cute.

Val and her two oldest girls, Avery and Holland.

My mom and dad. 

Love them.

Six grandkids!

The returned missionary.

That's better. 

 We made sure to go get buck-wheat pancakes at Chicks for breakfast one morning.

And we visited The Homestead again to check out the crater. It was fun.

My pretty Marmee.

Our view of this little private lake. Killer, eh?

View from the hot tub.

S'mores. (With Spider-Man Fudge Stripes!)

Laurel.

Aaaannnnd Bretty.

With Robyn. :)

Here's my dad snoozing with a good book. I think this one was taken during the four hour creation of the family crests. If I remember right, there were seven crests made but Scott, Laurel, Michelle, and I seriously sat at the table for four straight hours working on ours.
Yes, Michelle won this trophy. No, I didn't deserve it but it did feature Loch Ness.
I can't believe I don't have pictures of each crest. I will have my parents take some for me.

 Matt's.

 Michelle's (and the big winner).

 Mine.

 Laurel's.

 Brett and Robyn's.

 Brad's.

 Mom's.

 Scott's.

Washington trip

Not too long ago, Blaine and I decided it would be good idea for me to take the kiddos to Washington when Matty J. got home from his mission. Don't get me wrong... it was a good idea... it was just a lot harder being a single parent than I thought it would be. I'd like to say it was the drive. But it wasn't. My kids are generally great travelers. Sarah got pretty sick (croup) and Jake was as difficult as he was right after Christmas. (And if you know how hard that was on me, then you know me well.)

I wish I was a better mom and had more patience in times like these. Patience is something that I am praying for daily. (Totally serious.) Because this really was an important trip for me. Still, I'm so happy I went to see my little brother come home. Matt is so awesome and I loved spending one on one time with him. I also loved watching Matt meet my kids all over again.

All in all--completely worth it and worth every minute. I love Washington in the summer, and I hadn't been to my folks' house in a year.

The beginning of the journey.

A little Idaho. (Some parts of the state are actually pretty.)

Oregon. Just outside of La Grande. Here's where things start to pretty up.

More Blue Mountains.

A lookout point above Pendleton.

I love the way farms look like patchwork quilts.

And, here it is. The Columbia river Gorge. The most beautiful country I've ever seen with my own eyes...

These pictures don't do it justice.

Not even close.

My mom's "fancy room" with her baby grand piano. I love the green that's always showing through all the windows.

Poor, sick Sarah. This was the morning when we finally got her into an actual doctor. We tried to get to an Instacare the night before, but the jerk of a doctor wouldn't see us. His receptionist told us he was still there, but that his hours ended ten minutes eariler. Oh, did I mention that I had talked to this receptionist three times on my way to their office? And that I begged her to stay there and that my daughter needed a steroid treatment because she couldn't breathe? And that the only reason I wasn't able to come earlier was because their online site showed that they closed a half-hour later than they actually did?
I was furious. Remember the hospital scene in Terms of Endearment? Yeah. Just call me Shirley Maclaine.

While waiting to see my mom's amazing doctor, Katherine, my genius mother made little people for my kids to play with. here's Sarah with a flight attendant.

And Jakey's pilot. Adorable.

Okay... so here's the sad truth about seeing Matt at the airport. My parents read the flight itinerary wrong and we were late to see him off the plane. So late, actually, that as I was pulling in to drop off my mom and go park the car, we found him sitting outside with all of his luggage. Saddest sight ever.
My dad realized our mistake and raced over from Altec (his work is minutes away from the airport), but even he couldn't make it in time.
Matt swears he was okay with it. He actually realized my parents had the wrong time during his layover and was anticipating that no one would be there.
Well, it was still great to see him and he was still surprised that I was there at all. He didn't know I was coming. :)

Matty and Mom and Dad.
I think Matt's on the phone with Laurel here?

"And we're the two best friends that anyone's ever had..."

Hanging out by the fridge. :)

Playing up at the neighborhood park by my parents' house.

I love these trees.

Sunday afternoon. Following Matt's homecoming talk (which was incredible, by the way), my parents had a little open house for friends to come over and visit with Matt. My parents' neighbors/friends, the Petersons brought their new kitten over for a few minutes for my kids to pet. I think the poor little kitten (Grayson) was terrified, but Jake and Sarah were enamored by him. Especially Sarah. She was giddy and darling. Too bad their mom sucks and these kids are never getting a pet. Ever.

I know that I went a little nuts with all the kitten pictures, but holy crap. Isn't Sarah a doll here? For real.