Sunday, July 24, 2011

Mission Farewell for Elder and Sister Brown

So Mom and Dad had their Mission Farewell this weekend… which I found out about on Friday. Since they don’t have speakers on Fast Sunday, and the week before that is a special missionary Sunday for our ward, then the only other available Sunday was this one. I love my family! With only a few days notice, Brad and Lisa both arranged their schedules so they could come, and they both drove here and back home again the same day. It was fun having Aunt LaWana there for this special occasion too! Things seem to moving too quickly for me. I’m thrilled that they’re going to go on another mission. They were so sweet together when they came home from the last one, and I think it will make our whole family stronger. But, I’m going to miss them! They truly live what they teach, and I love them for their example!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

MACKLEY FAMILY REUNION... Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

My favorite part of Wednesday was skit night. Chris and Tricia brainstormed and came up with a few random skits that we cast with the next generation of little kids, and I opened the night with a little joke.  How many Mackley cousins can you fit in a jacuzzi? How many of us are there?! Linda and Karyn and then the little girls did a hula, Todd's family did a lip synch to "Another Tatoo" by Weird Al, and my personal favorite: the reenactment of looking for a camp site for 2011 Mackley Reunion.

We had Chris be "Aunt Jan", Josh be "Uncle Brownie, and Lisa, Tricia, and I were "sis" since Mom can't keep us straight when we're all together. We made name signs on paper plates, which incidentally were used by little kids to feed the fire when we were still getting ready for the skits :). We had Chris go up to a pretend house and say that this was a lovely house made out of straw, sticks, or brick and would be perfect for reunion. At each house she would say we're looking for a place for reunion in 18 months, 1 year, or next week and ask if we could stay there. They'd tell her, sure!, but we'll need some money, which she gives them, and then they tell her, "By the way...." The first place had code violations and sometimes no water at all. The second place the home owner's association wouldn't let them rent out anymore. At the third place Chris poked Josh and told him, "Brownie, give the man your Visa." That got a good laugh. Kaylun listed all the little adventures we'd had that week: the sprinklers go off without warning and every time we'd congregate to the pavilion, there were fees for everything!, Bear Creek cabin had a chipmunk in the building, and on and on and had us ALL in stitches. *sigh* Good times! 

We tried to do a few skits that were reminiscent of previous skits like Jamie, Todd, Karyn and Linda doing Kookie :).  And, like the last skit where we had about seven little vignettes of the week interspersed with the chorus from "We Are Family" (originally it was "Mama Said").  We had 1) Devon and Tyson Jerauld play air hockey and Devree kept walking by asking what they're doing,  2) Livie, Skyla, Dane, and Shay swat mosquitoes, 3) Skyla, Wendy, Livie, Dane, and Tricia do Zumba, 4) Chris gathered all the kids to the pavilion and Shay "turn on the sprinklers," 5) Chris, Erica, Jacob, Tricia, Devon and Skyla drag bottom on the raft, 6) Wendy, Skyla, Livie, Devon, and Tylson Jerauld come out with a tarp and a dutch oven and then remember that this was the wrong  year, and 7) Chris, Skyla, Dane, and Shay reenact the three sticks we used for the pinata.  The night really reinforced to Chris, Tricia, and I that through the years, whether it is is the past, the present, and we KNOW in the future, will will have fun when we are together no matter the circumstances!

That night we played cards and sat in the Jacuzzi (each cabin had one) and visited until 2 in the morning. It's so hard to say good bye to everyone that we just kept moving from room to room. We'd get closer to the door but it took a couple of hours before we finally left and went to our respective cabins for a little nap before we had to get up, pack up, clean up, and hit the road. 
 
 



Thursday we talked a lot about the next reunion in 2013 in Washington and our plans to see each other soon. I'm hoping I can go to Missouri next summer for 4th of July with Chris and Tricia (and maybe Josh too! since he had so much fun with his 2nd cousins). We dropped Tricia off in Rexburg but first we stopped at Sammy's for a cupcake ice-cream shake, a burger, and fries (I had the raspberry lemonade cupcake shake, Robi's South of the Border burger with pepper jack cheese, bacon, guacamole and pico de gallo, and the sweet potato fries). Aunt LaWana came back with Mom and Dad and stopped in Idaho Falls to visit Aunt Irene and then stayed with us until Sunday. Todd, Shana, Devree, Shay and Dane were heading home to Nevada and decided to stop in Burley for the night. We met them for dinner at Mom and Dad's house and then went to the theater to see Harry Potter. By the way, I thought it was EXCELLENT and can't wait to see it again :). Angela, Tina, and Jacob took Thursday to drive through Yellowstone and then drove to Mom and Dad's house late Thursday night. Friday was a very lazy day with several naps intermixed with games. It's hard to see everyone go home, but it helps when you can draw it out to last 2 weeks! Six year old Jacob said it best when he told his mom that reunions should last until you're ready for them to end!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

MACKLEY FAMILY REUNION... Tuesday

Tuesday we had everyone doing a little everything. We had some go into Yellowstone, some do a float trip on the river, some visited Mesa Falls, and some play cards and visited. Tuesday, Chris handed out the Mackley memory books. It was a HUGE project and they turned out super cool! She invited everyone to share a memory with each other of what being a Mackley means to each of us and what characteristics, memories, values and ideals that sustain our family and have become the roots of the Mackley family tree. We got some of the aunts and uncles, about half the cousins, and three great-grandchildren to share. Plus, Chris did some research and included some fun and interesting factoids about our grandparents. Lisa and and Tricia were in charge of activities, so Tuesday they did crafts (duct tape wallets and flower hair clips) before lunch as well as games at campfire that evening.   


For Minute to Win It, Mackley cousins, moved cotton candy on their vaselined nose to the other end of the table, shave balloons, and move skittles by sucking them by a straw to the other end of the table.  For Whose line Is it Anyway, we had a blind driver, a copilot who only spoke with her hands, and the ill-tempered Mexican wrestler had the walkie talkie... it's a miracle they made it to the reunion. (They had to change costumes and roles every 30 seconds). Improv is just one of the many skills exercised at reunion :).  We also had Kaylun as an Elvis impersonator with a crush on the host, Dane was an astronaut needing directions, Skyla was a disco dancer needing the host to be her dance partner, Jamie was a cowboy wanting to get the host's secret recipe for potato salad, Shay was hypnotized to think he was a chimp whenever anyone used the word "and", AND (Insert chimp noise here) Poor Erica was the host... GREAT JOB EVERYONE!


I borrowed pictures (in no particular order) from several family members (Tina, Lisa, Shana, Tricia, Chris, and Linda) for this post, and I just wanted to say thank you for all those who posted on Facebook!