Family Reunion: Day Two

On July 4th the family woke up bright an early for a family picture and our own flag raising ceremony at the house. Before raising the flag, we sang a couple patriotic songs and my older brother, Tyler (who served in the Air Force) shared a few words with us about Independence Day. Afterwards, the older scouts in the family (Taylor, Branson, and Kendell) carried out the flag raising.

Once we finished our yummy pancakes for breakfast, we drove out to the cemetery to visit Chad's grave. I'm so glad that we were able to visit his grave as a family while we were all together in Midland. Nana gave each of the grandkids a flag to place on Chad's grave. This was the end result...

I like how the smaller kids placed their flags in his flowers

From the cemetery, we broke off into individual families for a photo scavenger hunt around Midland. Each family had one hour to complete as many things on their scavenger list as possible before the time was up. I think that this might have been the highlight of the reunion for the kids. Both the adults and the kids had a blast doing this and it was especially funny to review each of the team's pictures as a family after it was all done. Of course, once all of the points were added up Travis and his family won! The rest of us claim that it's because they had a hometown advantage, but the truth is that they never lose at anything! Here's just one picture of the Meldrum's completing their task of wearing lamp shades on their heads.

After lunch the boys stayed home to compete in a "Strong Man Competition" (whatever that is), while the girls headed over to my sister-in-law's house to throw a baby shower for my little sister, Brittany. We invited all of the girl grandchildren to come and I'm so glad that we did because the games were so much more fun with them there! The look on the little girls faces when they opened up the candybar diapers were priceless. Thanks for putting together the games Steph and Whitney.

Later in the afternoon we met up at the church to play some relay games and get out of the heat. I sure kept everyone busy!! We definitely didn't have a whole lot of downtime, but I think that everyone enjoyed themselves!

To wrap up the day we had a BBQ and relaxed back at the house. We also made sure to play a few pranks on some of the grandkids that got everyone laughing! If anybody wants to find out how to play "Ooga Booga" just come my way. John and I had a great time at the reunion and it went by way too fast, but I'm definitely glad that I don't have to plan another one for the next 7 years!

And last, but not least, what would a trip to Nana & Papa's house be without Papa and his toys. The four wheeler, Golf Karts, and Papa's famous train kept the kids entertained for hours. Bentley especially loved riding in the driver's seat of the "train" with Papa. I swear that's how he gets the grandkids so attached to him from such a young age! Nana & Papa got brave and let the kids sleep in their room on the last night. Of course, they couldn't just let them sleep on the floor so Papa constructed a fort for them to lay under. My parents are seriously the best parents and grandparents ever!