The Jones Family Reunion

This last week has been crazy, but one of those good kind of crazy's. The Jones Family Reunion was held June 13-June 15 at the home of Reid's parents in Elgin, Illinois. Between getting ready for our trip and enjoying ourselves while we were there, we were very busy. Here a few pictures from the week.

Wednesday June 11 : Getting ready to go meant cleaning the house. It's so much nicer to come home to a clean house! Kai helped by redecorating the dining room and stealing mommy's strawberry milkshake oreo.


Thursday June 12 : A hectic morning spent packing and last-minute cleaning. We managed to fit all of our stuff into only 2 suitcases and a diaper bag (for carry-on)! Unfortunately, that meant we had to check the camera and so we have no pictures of Kai making friends at the airport (including walking right up to flight attendants, etc.) while wearing his monkey backpack-leash, and enjoying his chocolate ice cream that mommy bought when the plane was delayed. Probably for the best as I'm sure I wasn't Kodak-ready with chocolate ice cream smeared in my hair!

Friday June 13 : Most of the day was spent meeting cousins and playing. A family outing was taken late in the day to Elgin Lanes for a game of bowling. However, Kai was so exhausted from getting in late the night before that Kai and I opted out. I hear it was a good time. After bowling we enjoyed the beginning of our international food fest. Kara made some delicious kalua pork!

Saturday June 14 : More playing with cousins and preparing for the family Olympics. Here is Kai during the opening ceremonies.

Kai watched the Olympics from the sidelines while enjoying his applesauce. He was still very tired, but well behaved. Later that night the boys all went to a baseball game, complete with skydivers, tumblers, and fireworks, while the girls had a night out at Olive Garden. Kai was a handful!! When he gets wired, he is wired! But we had so good help with all of his cousins and aunts and I even got some time to make tiramisu for dessert. It seemed to be a hit.

Sunday June 15 : The entire Jones family attended church together. It was fun to see two rows full of family! After church we took some family pictures. Poor Kai had been sleep deprived all weekend and so he chose that moment for his afternoon nap.


It was Sunday night when Kai decided that sleeping in his playpen was no longer an option. So, we went from being mildly tired to exhausted for the next two days. Kai took over our bed and forced Reid to the hard floor!

Sunday night was also the family "Academy Awards". We eached taped a video segment a couple of minutes long which was presented to the family, as well as a slide show of the weekend. I, unfortunately, missed out on the event as Kai had decided not to sleep in his playpen and so I was tending to him.

Monday June 16 : While the reunion was over, we were all still there. Kara's family went to Great America and so we spent a more quiet day with Reid's parents and Kristi's family. The day was topped off with a trip to Golden Corral for dinner. Kai had his own plate of macaroni and cheese and I got to indugle in sweet potato casserole! Yummmmmmm!

Tuesday June 17 : Departure day. The morning was spent visiting with family and packing up our belongings. Before heading out we autographed all of the family T-shirts. Luckily our flight was on time this time and we arrived home around 10:45pm.

Wednesday June 18 : Recovery. Reid went back to work and Kai took as many naps as he could.

Well, that's our week in a nutshell. As you can see, we're getting back to normal and are happy to be home. Most importantly, we're happy that we're all back in our own beds--especially Kai in his crib! I almost forgot that he knows how to sleep through the night and it was so nice to have him sleep from 8pm to 6:30am this morning. Thank goodness for little things! And thanks to our Heavenly Father for such a wonderful extended family.