2009 Campbell Reunion

I really look forward to this reunion. I love my moms family. It's low drama and they are all very excepting! We all just really get along well. Plus they are all so dang talented!
The reunion officially started at 6:00 pm on Friday, August 7th. Everyone arrived into town and met at the clubhouse. We ate Quizno's sandwiches and enjoyed an evening of talking and music.
River and cousin Rena.
Amanda, Lorelai, Ryan.
River and cousin Cheryl.
Cousins Keisha and Robbie, Victoria, Lauren and Roger.
Spencer, Royal and Zach.
Dad, cousins Ashley, Cynthia, Jon and Sean.
Cousin Cynthia.
Cousin Jarom.
Ivy and Mom.
Cousin Katie, Aunt Rochelle and cousin Rena.
River, Kas, cousin Marcy, Flower, Gregg and Sandee.

Victoria.

Lorelai.
Royal.
Cousin Jon.
Cousin Josh.

Cousins Tanya, Keisha and Robbie.


Uncle Richard.
Little Miss Marcy's about the cutest thing you've ever seen. Her voice and everything about her us just sweet.
We had two different jars of which to guess the number of their contents. One had Starbursts, the other Life Savers. Victoria and I had very similar strategies and spent time discussing them. She took more time initiating hers because my ADD mind got board! It paid off for her! She guessed exactly right on the Starbursts at 200 while I got second place of with a guess of 213. She also only one off from the Lifesavers, 235. Awesome!


Cousin Tanya and River.
River was passed around and played hard plus it was past her bedtime. Poor thing.
Roger and Zach.
Cousin Melvin and Flower.
Cousin Keisha and River.
Amanda and Ryan.

Uncle Bob. I love this man. My grandpa died when I was 12 so he's always kind of fit the bill for me. He is such a mellow, loving guy and very talented in his work shop. We have always been close to their family. My Aunt Peggy is my mom's sister so obviously they are close and she is the amazing quilter. We spent lots of time at their house in the summer. The three of their kids that we've been the closest to are Bobette, Cheryl and Melvin. They are all just awesome people and so kind. Bobette and her husband make the best homemade fries you'll ever eat. She is also and amazing seamstress and makes beautiful wedding dresses. Melvin is awesome with the kids and got his dad's mad workshop skillz.. And Cheryl is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet as well as crafty! All are always willing to offer a place to stay when we go visit. They are all some fo the oldest cousins and I am one of the younsters so they took care of us as well. :) I just really love them.
My mom's family is very musical. We brought our piano over for Aunt Peggy to play. Uncle Newell had his guitar. We all stood around them and sang.
Uncle Dirk from Colorado couldn't make it so we Skyped with him on the computer. He played his guitar and piano right along with us. It was pretty cool. We missed having him there.

.::SATURDAY::.
Some of the men and one boy went golfing bright and early at Foxtail Golf course. The rest of us met at the clubhouse at 10:00 am. Uncle Bob, Kevin, KG, Melvin, Uncle Garth, Mike and Nat went to the Main Street Auction. Aunt Peggy and Aunt Rochelle went to Quilting shops. My mom stayed to rest and nurse a headache. The rest of us ladies(and Joey) took the children to the zoo! We had such a great time. The photos are self explanatory. :)




Cousins Kaite, Keisha, Marcy, Kas, Jenna, Riley, Flower and Cynthia.
Cousins Joey, Robbie and Cameron with Spencer.
Lomad, Torta and Zach.
Alyse, Sandee and River.
Ah...I love Cheryl!










The lions gave us an awesome show!

We have our awesome double jogger stroller and Flower sees this one and wants to know why we don't have this kind because it's cool. Little snot. We always want what we don't have, no?




Miss Jenna cracks me up!
This is how River spent most of her time at the zoo.
This girlie LOVES puddles. She jumped in every puddle she saw. And the cool thing about her...she doesn't whine and complain about being wet afterward! She would simply stop and dump the water out of her shoes and then head to the next puddle. She was so fun to watch.
The whole gaggle of children.







It was nice of Ryan to take a break from golfing to entertain us in his cage for a bit. :)
She was happy when she was awake!
mmmm, the cat eating it's lunch. Appears to be something with feathers.
On that note we waved good-bye to the zoo.
Half the crew went to DK doughnuts while the other half headed back.
Everyone from all the different activities returned to the clubhouse around 2 in the afternoon.
We ate lunch, went swimming, talked and so forth.
We hired my friend Amanda to come do face or body painting for us. She is so talented! She also made us two pinatas which you'll see later.






Something like this is going to be my next tattoo. I told Amanda my idea of the girls names and showed her a picture I had someone draw and this is what she came up with in paint. I love it.
'River Dawn and Flower Opal'(opal gem in the middle of the flower)
Each reunion we do an auction to help pay for the costs of the next reunion. Everyone brings items to donate.
I really really really wanted these family blocks that Cheryl made. They had photos from long time past reunions with my grandparents, their wedding photo, family pictures with my mom as a child and so on. So neat. Unfortunately my allotment was spent with the quilt. :(Roger and Melvin were the auctioneers and it was actually quite hilarious! They were very entertaining. I won one of the two items I had my eye on, the most expensive in the bunch, my aunt Peggy's quilt! I love her work. When you get up close there is so much detail! We also walked away with some of Amanda's baby bracelets, two t-shirts for the girls painted by Ashley's boyfriend, and a miniature outhouse that my uncle Newell made. It was great fun. Plus we raised over a thousand dollars! Excellent!
River slept, her cute little hands crossed, through the whole show!
The sun caught Torta's hair just right creating a weird glare but otherwise I thought this photo was too cute not to use! :) I love the way Riv is holding Tort around the neck.
Along with the face painting, Amanda also made two 'C for Campbell'- pinatas. The first one was for the kids.
Lorelai.
Cynthia.
River.
Flower.
Jenna.
Zach.
Kassidee.
Royal.
Marcie.
Spencer(I took this picture from Amanda's blog. I love the shadow of Spencer and the 'C' on the ground :) Very cool.)
Victoria.
Lauren.
Robbie.
The next one was for the adults. We had planned to use a blind fold but ran out of time. It was still fun.
Roger.
Alyse.
Aunt Peggy.
Doug.
Opal.
Uncle Richard.
Uncle Bob.
Uncle Newell
After the pinatas we went in for desserts. We did not leave enough time for this! ;)
Twenty six of us headed to the Meridian Speedway Races. That included, my little family minus River, Sandee's family, Roger's family, Melvin's family, Mike's family, my Dad and Cheryl's three kids. We all had a great time! A few returned to their hotel and some stayed at the clubhouse and played Bingo and watched River. :)
That was pretty much the end of the reunion and we had such a wonderful time! Thank you so much to all those that were able to come. We missed all of you that weren't able to make it. We hope all is well with your families. Special thanks to my mom for putting it together this year. Can hardly wait for 2011.

My Birthday!

It actually started the day before when KG hooked me up with a massage! Thanks babe.

I had a really great day. We started off my actual birthday bright and early by going to breakfast at the Chef's Hut.

I then dropped KG and Flower off at Karate. River and I went and wandered through Target until Pearl Vision opened. I needed new glasses. I've had mine for two years and they always bothered my ears. But now I needed a new prescription so it gave me a good excuse to replace the frames. I set aside 7 pair and planned to come back later with KG and Flower since we all had eye exams.

I then picked up KG and Flower and we headed home for some rest. I showered and got ready for the day, just in time to meet Kris for lunch. Because of later plans in the area with KG and the girls, they dropped me off and went to the park to play. We went to La Vie En Rose in the Idanha. Lunch was delicious and I even got my favorite dessert for free. Unfortunately KG came back a bit early because Flower had an accident so we were cut short but I really enjoyed the time to chat. She also gave me the best present. It was very thoughtful and prefect for me!
Check out these turquoise kitchen tools! I dream of having the turquoise kitchen aid to replace my white one as well as a turquoise toaster I've seen. It will have to wait till we are back in a house(and have money just to replace perfectly good appliance based on color :)). But these beauties will tide me over till then. :)
She also got me a very pretty set of towels which I'm already using today. :) Love it all. Thank you Kris. I love you like a sister. You mean the world to me.
After that we went to See Jane Run. I am in dire need of new tennis shoes. I've had mine for 3 or 4 years. I bought a new pair last year and hated them. I just couldn't find the right pair. I heard this store will watch you walk, have you get on the treadmill and decide what your feet need. They were so great to work with and every pair she suggested were comfortable, making the decision tough. I walked out with the perfect pair, and they are pretty too. :) I also got a sports bra but I'm sure you don't want to see that. ;)
After that went to get a shaved ice. :) Then home for naps.

At 4:30 we went back to Pearl Vision.
These are my current glasses, but in black.
I definitely had my two favorite out of the earlier chosen 7. I tried them all on for KG and Flower.

They also just happened to narrow it down to my two favorites which are these two.
After going back and forth and asking the store employees, it was unanimous that the second pair was the winner. These are slightly different than what I'll be getting but I couldn't find the exact glasses online. Mine are completely white on the inside. I've never had more of the square edge before because they are usually too narrow for my face but both of these worked and I'm excited for the change. I will get them on Saturday. Our exams went well and Flower was so cute and funny. The doc was cracking up her entire appointment and he was impressed with her language skills. Big surprise.
Her and KG's eyes are great and no need for glasses.

After discussing what we wanted to do for the rest of the night we agreed just staying in sounded nice. We stopped by Bangkok Thai and picked up two orders of Pad Thai and Fresh Rolls to be eaten later.

On our way home Lynnette stopped us outside the office and gave me a birthday gift. She handed me the bag and I LOVED it! As she said, 'It's so Angee!" :) What I wasn't expecting was another gift inside the bag.
It's a gift certificate for a spa.
I get to go four separate times for four separate treatments! I couldn't believe it! I'm very excited and it feels really nice to be appreciated.
It was really nice to relax for the rest of the night. We ate our dinner and watched Coraline, which I loved but it scared Flower.

It was a prefect day. Thanks to everyone for all the birthday love. I appreciate the cards from grandparents, facebook messages, texts and phone call from Buffalo Dad. ;)
Thanks for the massage, shoes and glasses KG, Flower, and River. You are so good to me. I feel so loved.

KG's birthday!

Holy smokes! It's already the second week of August and I've not written since July. Welcome to August I guess.
We had a great time celebrating KG's birthday. When I asked him what he wanted he replied that he'd like a night alone(that being the clean version). So I surprised KG with 24 hours of fun. The only thing he knew was where we were going to dinner. I decided to be brave and leave River for the first time. We took the girls to my brother's at 5:00 pm. We then had dinner at Famous Dave's. KG's cousin's wife Amber was our waitress so the service was excellent and the food was pretty darn good. After that we went to a movie...one I wished we hadn't. We don't typically watch R rated and I'm wishing we hadn't made that exception. It was funny but I don't think I've heard the f-word so much in my life! After the movie we drove across the street and checked into the Oxford Suites. (I forgot to take a picture so this is a photo of our key:))
They were very nice inside and the beds were very comfy. We enjoyed the nice big tub! In the morning we woke at 7:30 to go enjoy one of the best free breakfasts we've had at a hotel. Then we crawled back in bed and slept till 11:00. That felt so good!
Here we are on his birthday!
We checked out by noon and then went to DQ for a free birthday blizzard before going to Wahooz. We played two games of mini-golf, both of which KG won.

However, I spanked him at the go-carts! I love speed!
I was the only one to pass three different drivers and was on my way to passing the forth but he, being about 11, gave me a good run for my money and we kept slamming each since it was the last lap. We were laughing so hard!
We played 20 tokens of games inside which earned us enough tickets to get Flower a treat of a bunch of tootsie rolls, a dumb dumb and a pop-it toy. Finally we went to lunch at Souper Salad, where KG became jealous of a carrot! Oh yes, I just went there. :)
We stopped to get gas, redbox movies and picked up the girls. River was so excited to see us she practically jumped out of Victoria's arms. She kept alternating between laying her head on my shoulder sighing and beating my arm with her hand and squealing. It was very cute! Flower on the other hand ran out the back door as soon as she us. Later I asked her if she missed us. She said no. I told her I missed her and she replied, "I know but I still didn't miss you". Nice. At least she had fun! I loved having this date with KG. It felt great to feel childess again and flirt and play and cuddle and have fun together.
On our way home we made a stop at Target so Flower and I could go in and get him a few gifts. She kept trying to buy him princess dresses, barbie castles and princess games! We finally agreed on a game they'd both enjoy playing together and I let her pick out candy for each of them as well as the card which was dora the explorer stating the excitement of turning 4! :)
When we got home we chilled for the rest of the night. He opened her gift which was Sequence for kids, a Kit Kat(for her) and peanut M&M's for him.
A bit later we put a candle in a piece of my lemon cake and sang happy birthday.

Then he opened River's gift, a pull-up bar.
We ordered dinner to be delivered from Romio's which was delicious! After that he opened my gift, a Bocce Ball set.
After putting the girls to bed we watched Fast and Furious, when we received a surprise gift at our door(for both of us since mine is a mere three days later) from Shannon and family.
So generous! Extra sharp Tillamook cheese, candy corns, bottle caps, two games, mad libs, and a gift certificate to Delsa's! Thanks guys.
Then we called it a night.
I'd say he's pretty spoiled and he deserves every bit of it. He's the best guy for me and the best dad to our girls! We are so very lucky to have him!