Life is a spasm who flow

We've come to the last day of our subscribed family togetherness. These posts have been a pain and a pleasure to work on. I was a very lazy photographer this reunion and it has been time consuming to find, download, transfer and re-upload again the superior photos taken by my siblings. I know it will seem overdone but I honestly held back. There are just so many pictures! I tried to contain the pics to mostly ones of my kids but I did sneak in some of my other favorites as well. I hope the sheer number of photos doesn't overwhelm or eliminate any would-be readers.

During my youth, we had two men from Japan stay with our family for what seemed like weeks but was probably only a couple of days: Mr. Nishi (sp?) and Mr. Yamaguchi. It was the year Mt. St. Helens exploded because one of the two men printed out a picture he had taken from the plane as their flight traveled over the active volcano still spewing ash. From their visit, a few moments seem embedded in my memory: being introduced to the board game Othello, being given a host gift of alcohol (which, I believe, we kept for a number of years until my dad gave it away. Correct me if I'm wrong. I probably am) and Mr. Yamaguchi running to the top of Mt. Helena and back.

He did this in regular street clothes and took pictures along the way and his achievement developed into this kind of family lore of great physical accomplishments. Mt. Helena is a worthy hike. 1.6 miles with 1300 vertical feet of ascent to the summit keeps it from being a stroll in the park. I know non-runners can be easily impressed by runners but when Jay easily conquered this very same feat the first morning of the reunion, I knew I'd need about four times as much time to get to the top as he did. Even more, perhaps. Thus...we left in waves.

All who attempted made it to the top. My mom graciously stayed home to watch Daniel, keeping Jay from having to pack him (you bet he was going to haul those 20 extra pounds and not me. I've got plenty of extra pounds of my own already) and keeping the rest of from having to worry about her having a heart attack. I am so proud of my mom's commitment to exercise. She works out 6 days a week and, as the push-ups prove, is in great shape but she still has an irregular heartbeat and there are some very steep sections of the hike, not to mention rocky footing.

Even though I was in the first wave that left the earliest, most of the kids easily caught up to me. Sam is stayed with me for awhile and thanks to a text message from Jen, who had not only caught up but passed me, we were able to capture a picture of him with a very indulgent deer on the side of the mountain. There aren't nearly as many deer in Helena as a few years ago thanks to the city controlling the population and offering the meat of the killed deer to the needy. I wish they would do that where I live!

At the top. It is so beautiful on the backside of the summit. I am a mountain girl and this view is my perfect.

Henry came up with Jay. I had hiked the mountain earlier in the week with him, before the reunion even started, and it was mommy-torture. Lots and lots of whining and non-stop talking with most sentences ending with a, "right, Mom?" Henry wanted to walk down with me (he didn't get the option of hiking up) and through his repeated display of non-stop talking, I learned that he wasn't free to complain while hiking up with Jay. He revealed, "I couldn't whine or take breaks because I was in his world now. What's your world like, Mom?" So funny. So literal. I told him my world was much less intense. But now I know how to get him up a hike! No mercy!

Jay came up a harder and more dangerous way.

Caleb, Brendan, Henry, Seth, Ansel and Alyssa enjoying the summit.

The four oldest. Seth and his shoulder linking.

Some of my boys.

Sam and Ian.

Look at that blue sky.

All of us with a view of Helena looking east. It wasn't really all that smoggy. I think this camera was set on a higher ISO.

Tara wanted more of a workout so she decided to run down the mountain and continue on to our favorite sandwich stop we planned on visiting for lunch. She allowed these three to follow her. They ran hard to try and keep up with her. Look at those red faces!

My favorite sandwich place in the whole wide world is Staggering Ox. Their sandwiches are built in what is called a "clubfoot" which is basically bread cooked in a metal can. Then, the innards are cut out, creating a yummy "gut" that you can purchase separately. With the inside hollowed out, the ingredients of the sandwich are stuffed into the middle. My favorite is The Mouse Trap with added turkey. Yummy!

Henry eats a gut dipped in ranch.

After lunch, some (the boys) wanted to go to a local fun center and do the go-carts. The girls went to the children's museum for some less competitive play. They each got two five minute turns and their personalities came out in abundance. I was surprised at the reversal of Seth and Sam's normal approach to activities. Sam was hesitant and careful and Seth was...well...aggressive. Kind of obnoxiously so. He kept bumping and cutting off his cousins. Jay says this style of driving comes directly from me. Hmmmm.

Ian, Owen, Connor, Sam and someone else turn a corner.

Seth kept his foot WAY off the brake pedal. He kept his knee bent so his foot didn't even come close to it.

Henry was below the height requirement and needed to ride in the double car. I got in with him but had unfortunately chosen to wear a skirt that day. As soon as I got down, I realized I was going to be inappropriate and asked Christopher to accompany him instead. Can you see the sleeping giant in the background?

After the museum, the girls got some of our old formals out of the downstairs closet for dress-up. Erin is wearing my green satin formal from my senior prom which my dad seemed to notice for the first time was not very modest (it wasn't. I think it was less of a big deal compared to now), Alyssa is wearing Jen's prom gown, Natalie is wearing a dress I bought for a Mo-Town singing performance and Sadie is wearing my sophomore prom gown.

Maureen added her special talent of turning necklaces into headpieces. I remember doing this with my mother's formals. So fun!

Sometime between the go-carts and family pictures, I got in a nasty mood. Maybe it was sleep deprivation. Maybe it was the heat. I know it was in part to my hair not cooperating (could not get it to curl), feeling fat and having to put Daniel's car seat back in the car (it is no easy task and it made me sweat ruining my limp hair even more) and by the time we pulled up to the spot Sarah found for family pictures, I was in a bad picture taking place. Thankfully, Jay was not and balanced me out. Here, he acts the part of JCPenney model.

While getting settings on the camera set, we stopped these three for a funny portrait. It's a family mash-up.

My gorgeous boys.

My brother Jon's family. There are more shots of more traditional poses that I'm sure Tara prefers but this one is my favorite.

Jen's family.

Emily's family.

I show the following two pictures to illustrate why it is inadvisable to be grumpy during a photo shoot. I really could barely bring myself to smile. Sadly, none of us were ready to take advantage of Henry's eagerness.

Honestly, the best of about 20 shots. I pass on my unfortunate experience to help any I can. If you refuse to smile at the camera taking photos of you from a downhill position, you will end up with a worse-than-usual double chin, eyebrows that look too close together and what appears to be a mustache on upper lip. I had to ask Sarah if I had inadvertently been sporting one after looking at these pictures. She assures me I do not have one so I can only surmise that it is from shadows made from pursing my lips. Unfortunate indeed. We'll have to break these outfits out again for a shot of redemption. Because we are a cute family.

The large family shot came out much better. It's amazing really. I think this is the best one we've ever managed and it was essentially a timer shot (Sarah's friend came out to push the button but the camera was on a tripod) I liked these colors too.

Right after family pictures, we hightailed it home and changed for our last evening of fun and what would be Caleb's 14th birthday celebration. Caleb is a huge sports fan so his parents thought it would be perfect to celebrate his big day by going to the local minor league baseball game. What made it even more perfect was when arrangements were made to purchase the birthday package, which included a hotdog, chips and ice cream, the office manager made a sales pitch to spend a few dollars per person more and reserve the just-became-available-due-to-a-cancellation picnic spot. Included for three dollars more per person was an all you can eat barbeque dinner, private seating, all you can drink soda (I knew they were going to lose money with this alone), an endless supply of popcorn and ice cream in a mini helmet for all. It was only $14/ adult and $10/child under 12. A very good deal!!

It was baseball card giveaway night so each ticket holder got a package of the team's birthday cards. They also got a poster of the team. These two players were the only two who came out to sign autographs but it was still a big deal to the kids.

As a guest of honor, Caleb was asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. He did great!

And even tipped his cap to the crowd as a token of acknowledgment and appreciation.

Henry plays with his cards.

We didn't even have to serve ourselves. They had two workers grilling up hamburgers and hot dogs as well as providing fresh condiments, watermelon, and potato salad.

A cute picture of my sister, Emily, and her husband, Jim.

With so much food available, many of the kids left their watermelon on their plates untouched. Tara wasn't about to let fresh fruit go to waste.

They offered Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Coke and Diet Coke. The Sprite and Diet Coke were the hands-down favorites.

I wasn't wrong about getting our money's worth. Here was a guy replacing the Diet Coke container only an hour later. Sadly, he didn't hook it up right and the mix was off. No carbonation. The great manager tried his best to fix it and when he couldn't he made amends by bringing several 20 oz bottles but it wasn't the same. Ah well. We still got our money's worth.

The big boys enjoying some yummy icecream in a helmet.

All the kids except Daniel.

This was the area reserved for our group. It allowed those who wanted to watch the game a nice spot for viewing and those who were more interested in other things to sit and visit. Perfect.

These three don't like each other at all.

More views of our view.

I like looking at this guy.

My dad is never comfortable with messes and cleaned up a popcorn mess. This is so, so him.

I'm not sure I held Daniel all evening. One of the hardest adjustments since returning home has been Daniel's withdrawal from being constantly snuggled with.

With grandma.

With Aunt Em.

Aunt 'Reen, who by the third week of togetherness this summer was pretty much his second mom.

Aunt Jen

And finally grandpa. What's funny is that these pictures were not taken with the intention of blogging about being held by so many different people. I just noticed it when searching through the plethora of pictures.

In addition to the first pitch, they called Caleb out for one of those between inning activities. He chose Seth and Ansel to join him for a race of cardboard cut-out tools that some local shop had sponsored for advertising. Seth had a saw, Caleb a wrench and Ansel a screwdriver.

The saw won! And Seth got his hat back.

Caleb was also presented with a cracked bat. I'm not kidding, this was the best package deal I think I've ever come across in the world. If you're from the Helena area, I would recommend reserving the picnic area with the birthday package!

Even though there was plenty of food and no one was hungry, Tara had brought a birthday cake for the birthday boy. He is such a great 14 year-old.

There were lots of foul balls throughout the night. One narrowly missed Henry's head. Thankfully, I was in the restroom when it blazed past him as he sat at a picnic table, completely unaware, while playing with his cards. I think everyone was more traumatized than either of us. He, because he still doesn't realize what happened and me because I didn't see it. I guess it was quite scary. But, these lucky boys all came up with a foul ball.

The mini helmets that came with ice cream became costume fodder later.

Proof that I was there. Not nearly as grumpy as before. I didn't intend to be a killjoy and not wear the reunion t-shirt but in my fitful post-picture search, I could not find it anywhere.

One of the many foul balls found the windshield of my van. Throughout the evening, several members of the family joked about my car being in danger because of where I parked. I had no idea I was in the "foul ball zone." I honestly thought I had gotten a sweet parking spot right next to the entrance. After a few of the jokes, I decided to go and check on my van and couldn't believe my windshield had actually been hit by a foul ball! I spent the next little while on the phone with my insurance and trying to find any kind of shop open to fix it on Sunday. No one picked up my calls and as it was much too dangerous to drive home with so many cracks in my line of sight, I had to postpone my return trip for one day. I got it fixed first thing on Monday morning and as Sarah was waiting for a ride home, we were off as soon as possible!

Once home from the ball game, we made our way out to the front lawn to watch the fireworks display the city put on after a big outdoor symphony concert. It was such a nice end to a perfect summer day and a memorable finale to end the 2012 family reunion.

Until 2014!

Some say that less is more. You will not find that sentiment here. I realize the number of pictures is probably excessive, especially considering that there were usually 3 or four cameras snapping activities simultaneously, but I have edited the day down as far as I wish to. Every picture tells a story. Here's my take on the third day of our family reunion.

Our morning activity was a guided tour along a section of the Missouri River explorers Lewis and Clark named "The Gates of the Rocky Mountains." I've been on this tour probably a half dozen times throughout my life but not in the past decade and my children have never been. I was excited that they would get a bit of Montana river history. Is it weird that I'm proud that the headwaters of the Missouri River are found in Montana? Somehow, growing up in the state that contains the confluence of the Gallatin, Madison and Jefferson rivers into the longest river in the United States made me feel extra cool. Almost like a personal friend of the explorers and Sacajawea, their Native American guide. Nerdy.

We were a large group and filled up the back of one of the tour boats. We decided to show a united front by all wearing our reunion t-shirts.

These are my favorite people!

Maureen and Jon

The cousins tend to form groups. Here is what I call the middle trio. Owen, Sam and Ian.

My gorgeous mother.

Seth and his trendy flat-billed cap next to Ansel and Brendan. At least it's a BYU cap. You can't be too gangster with cougar gear.

The start of the tour. So pretty.

I was a little disappointed that our guide was more interested in the ecology of our tour than the history of its exploration. He did touch on some journal accounts of Meriwether Lewis but most of his information focused on the formation of the limestone cliffs on either side of the river, and the wildlife that makes the protected wilderness its home. Some of the natural formations were really interesting. See if you can find the elephant...

The monster...

The devil's slide...

There are also several nests of Bald Eagles. He explained how the feathers on this magnificent bird change colors and how eagles under the age of 3 actually appear more gold on their heads than white. When one of the visitors of the tour noticed an eagle in the tree, our guide guessed we were looking at a three year old because of the still visible gold streaks on its head.

There was also some ancient pictographs.

Norman MacLean wrote a book about a tragic Mann Gulch fire that killed 13 smoke jumpers after getting caught in the middle of the blaze. Their tragedy influenced firefighting techniques that are still used today.

Now, finally, we get to these famous gates. Below, you will see what Lewis and Clark would have witnessed traveling upstream while searching for the headwaters. They saw these cliffs, which are much different from the northeastern terrain in which they had been traveling. As they traveled closer they saw these cliffs....opening.

And there you have it. The Gates of the Mountains.

Now, for some brief pictures of adorableness

He was fussy on this two hour boat tour. Thankfully, or not depending on how you view things, there was a much louder fussy toddler that distracted anybody noticing our own little man's whines. And, then, with about ten minutes left, he finally fell asleep.

On the drive back, you get a great view of one of my favorite landmarks, The Sleeping Giant.

Can you see him? This is as easy as it gets.

My parents had reserved their church building from 2 until 9 and most of the older boys went as soon as they could to play basketball for the afternoon. The rest of us did whatever until we all made it over to the church at about 5. While Emily and my mom prepared the Spaghetti dinner, the rest traveled down the street to the state capitol building for some organized group shots. You can see how well ours went and really see the personalities of our boys in these pictures.

Seth is almost always arm linking. He's a toucher. Sam likes to pose. And Henry...well....Henry has his own thing going on most of the time.

This time, he had a slinky won at the family Jeopardy game. He couldn't understand why we didn't want it in our family pictures.

Seth touching, Sam posing, Henry slinking and Jay asks for the slinky.

Big brother Sam takes it from him and passes it along.

And a happy family picture is the result.

We encourage him to forgive us and join the family.

There. But the one single picture doesn't tell the story!

The grandkids in front of the beautiful Capitol.

Now in order of age but definitely not height. From left to right:
Daniel (7 months - me), Sadie (5 - Jen), Henry (6 - me), Natalie (7 - Jon), Erin (7, Emily), Owen (8 - Jen), Ian (9 - Emily), Sam (me - 9), Jonas (10 - Jen), Alyssa (11 - Jon), Connor (11 - Emily), Seth (12 - me), Ansel (13 - Jen), Caleb (one day shy of 14 - Jon), Brendan (14 - Emily)

Grandpa with his grandkids

After walking back to the church with Daniel on his shoulders, Jay came in to show me Daniel's new favorite chew toy. Some ear cartilage:)

We had a lovely spaghetti dinner. Because four if the group require gluten-free meals, we had both regular noodles and gluten-free noodles. We also had gluten free bread and french bread plus both kinds of chocolate cake for dessert.

These girls were always so cute with Daniel.

Now, for the talent portion of the evening. One thing I love about my husband is vision of grandeur. For a bit of back story, Jay had only recently discovered the catchy tune, "I'm Sexy and I Know It." He watched and loved a YouTube spoof of it called, "I'm Farming and I Grow It." It must have been the inspiration for his and Seth's surprise talent. Because they weren't with us, I had no idea what was up his sleeve. After their hilarious performance, he shared with me a bit of the process. Apparently, for research sake, he downloaded a copy of the lyrics with Seth to use to go off of. He admitted it was a big mistake. Then, looking for inspiration for some dance moves, they watched the original video. Yikes. Their version was much more appropriate and so, so great. It got the talent show off to a fantastic start.

I have to say that I hate posting video. Mine are ALWAYS pixel-y and I don't know why. I don't know if it's because of where I live but I don't understand how something that looks perfect on my computer looks like crap on YouTube and I can't post anything to my blog except by embedding it from YouTube. The video link doesn't ever work. Anyways, the quality isn't great but it shows how fun their skit was.

Brendan is a talented musician and plays three instruments including piano, bassoon and tenor saxophone.

Alyssa and Natalie as accomplished gymnasts and performed a cute choreographed dance. If only we had some uneven bars for Alyssa to show off her giants!

My brother is one of the funniest people I know. He has made me laugh with his conducting of Braham's Hungarian dance for years. It was a pleasure to see him do it again.

This group performed a skit about an invisible bench.

The older boys did a skit two of them learned at scout camp. So great.

Maureen did a mash-up of disco songs with Sam. I love watching him dance. They performed "Stayin' Alive," "I Will Survive" and then led the family into a group participation of "YMCA".

It's fun to stay at the...

Grandma did 20 push-ups. Impressive.

Jay helped Henry with his talent. They got some laughs.

Grandpa wanted to teach his children how to waltz and two-step (he kind of hates how we all dance now). Grandma was his partner.

Then we all tried. Most of the kids danced with a parent.

Sam got his grandma.

Henry and Sadie two-stepping.

My dad leads everyone in a bunny-hop.

Ansel and Ian show their fancy footwork during Party Rock Anthem.

Which all the kids later joined. It was festive.

We ended the evening with a family game of basketball lightning (Caleb was the champion. I came in second and Sarah came in third. I thought I might die for lack of oxygen at the end) as well as a family dance. It is a great tradition to have the talent show and dance and I was so impressed by the creativity and participation of the kids. They are getting older, braver and more independent and the evening was a highlight for me.