A Family Worth Fighting For

WARNING: Though not classified, this post is extremely long!

My nephew, Jayden, in his reunion shirt (yes, we know there's a spelling error -- you wanna FIGHTH about it?)

*photo taken by my awesome sister-in-law, Cherri, a.k.a. Jayden's mom

As I mentioned before, this year's Coles family reunion was military themed. So get ready for a lot of soldierly puns, Private!

We left for boot camp Monday morning, driving to St. George for our first night. This took us over the Hoover Dam, which soon will be bypassed by this:

Hoover Dam Bypass Project - cause the dam ain't scary-high enough as it is!

We arrived in Bountiful Tuesday in time for the opening dinner. Each member was drafted to a branch of the armed forces to create 4 teams for the reunion.

Most of us enjoyed Dad's yummy steak chili, but my nephew, Jake, enjoyed the butter most!

Andrew, Savanna, Johnny, Sierra, Sam, Matthew, Brandon, & Will introducing the branches of service

Our family was spread out over three teams. Everyone got a uniform with a shirt, hat, and dog tags!

The first full day of training began HERE:

with some roller hockey, inflatable bouncy stuff (that's the technical name) for the kids, and laser tag.

My niece, Adelyn, showed up ready to work up a sweat for the Navy team!

That evening all the adults had dinner at Rooster's. They had an amazing dill carrot soup! I love date nights. Double dates are even more fun. Deca-dates just plain rock!

Isn't Chris' family gorgeous! I had to include another picture of my niece, Adelyn, after her daddy, Paul, gave her her first taste of lemon.

Thursday we were transferred to a new base in Paradise at Dad's cabin. We packed so many fun things into those next few days that's it's mostly a blur. Chris made an awesome water obstacle course (which I only was able to get video of - and not really any good video, either.) Nights at the cabin were spent fireside with guitars.

We also had a BB gun shooting contest:

raced go-karts:

Brandon, Sam, and their cousin, Johnny

and built and shot rockets:

Most of the men and children camped in tents in the backyard. Apparently the tents were two feet over the property line, thus upsetting the neighbor. The rockets later upset the neighbor on the other side, resulting in two police cars. The police seemed to like our rockets just fine.

*photo taken from my sister-in-law, Tori's, blog

As Tori's husband, Jon said into the family megaphone, "Paradise - it's not just a place, it's a state of mind!"

At some point the girls found time to make the cutest little clips and bows, courtesy of my sister-in-law, Kim:

Elizabeth and Adelyn sporting the new clips!

Are you tired yet? Sorry, but a long week with family results in a looooong post! I understand if you need to take a nap and come back later. . .

My brother-in-law, Adam, holding his daughter, Rachael, and Elizabeth somehow sleeping with nineteen other children running around.

Our last day was spent at a tiny lake with Dad's new boat. What could be better?!

Matthew playing with mud

Elizabeth strutting her stuff with another new hair clip

"I'm sailing! Ahoy!" - can you identify this obscure movie quote?

Of course, the best part was in between all the organized activities when we just got to visit each other!

***

Thanks, John and Kellie (and Kim!) for all the time and effort you put into planning a great reunion!

Chris' older brother, John, and his daughter, Morgan

At ease, soldier.

THE Brandon and his cousin, Andrew, taking it easy and waiting for rockets

END