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!
