DeArtons Unite!

On Saturday, Chris and I tackled the fun and exciting job of cleaning out our crawl space. I re-packed the box full of old journals, yearbooks, dance pictures--ah, the hilarity!... I think I am actually glad that Chris and I didn't know each other in high school and therefore didn't attend any high school dances together because he had posing issues... I should really do a blog post about that because I guarantee you would be laughing! Anyway, I couldn't help but read some old journal entries and thinking the "little did we know..." thoughts. Would I really have used an entire two-page journal spread writing my name with a certain boy's last name attached if I had only known that eleven years later, my initials would be ECH instead of EC...? And could Chris have imagined, when he wrote about a letter he received from a redhead in Idaho, that someday he'd be wrestling with their three sons? It's kind of fun to think about.

The real subject of my post, though, is not us, but my parents. Little did they know that nearly 31 years after their marriage that they'd be standing in a picture, wearing funny red shirts, and that all of these people would, in some way, belong to them...

That's right, there are 19 people in that shot. Little Brynnie was asleep in a tent nearby, so counting her, there are 20.

Granted, two of them are my grandparents, so not progeny, but still. Pretty impressive, don't you think?

We're big enough now that we need to have our own reunions, and this year was our first! We spent a weekend camping at Cherry Hill in Kaysville and it turned out to be so much fun! Of course, we DeArtons are very good at having fun, so that part certainly wasn't a surprise!

The cousins had a blast together! Here they are in the back of the van, playing with some light necklaces my dad brought back from Disneyland.



Nonny and Bob brought the little girls these adorable headbands from somewhere in South America. I really wanted to steal one for myself, but couldn't really picture anyone taking me seriously. Oh well. Doesn't Dall look stinking adorable?!



My parents were assigned the fun job of a morning devotional on Saturday morning, so they had us write nice things about each other. These guys look like they're concentrating pretty hard.



Most of Gordon's nice things included the word "enthusiastic".



Nearly our entire day on Saturday was spent in Cherry Hill's water park. Since my camera isn't waterproof, I had to make do with some "before" shots. Gotta love goggles!



Thomas did have a fun little event-- he lost another tooth! Little pirate! He was sitting at the table, nonchalantly eating some chips, and I came up to ask the whereabouts of something I can't remember. His reply: "First, I have an announcement," and he held up his tooth.



Our reunion ended on Saturday evening/Sunday morning, and though it was short, we agreed that it was the perfect amount of time to spend. Everyone had fun and everyone left happy and smiling-- not too shabby for 31 years, Mom and Dad! Can't wait for next year!