3rd Biennial McCombs Family Reunion

Biennial means an event lasting for two years or occurring every two years. As great as our reunion was, I'm sure everyone was glad it didn't last for two years. It lasted for three days and we loved every minute of it. Except for some of the 2400 minutes we spent driving there and back.

We left on a Monday morning and met up with Liz and Darren at Little America. We bought $0.50 ice cream cones and were on our way to Illinois.

We stopped in Rawlins for lunch and in Sidney, NE for dinner. All of this stopping added up. Our 11 hr. 18 min. drive turned into 16 hours. We didn't get to sleep until after midnight. But the continental breakfast at the hotel the next morning was amazingly delicious and made up for any pain and suffering.

We arrived at Felicia and Nick's house in Illinois on Tuesday evening. They had a delicious dinner ready for us. In true reunion fashion, once the eating started it didn't stop.

The driving families came before the official start of the reunion. Felicia took us to her free local zoo.

 Annie was obsessed with this weird posing. Notice Mr. Turtle exercising in the background.

This picture makes it look like Annie was scared of the python. But she wasn't. The worker in the reptile house was so friendly and informative that Annie was asking her a million questions.

For our reunion accommodations, we stayed at Felicia's house and a friend of Felicia's house. They let her rent it from them while they were away. It worked out wonderfully. Renting one's house to 20 strangers would require a certain amount of bravery on the part of Felicia's friend. I don't think we broke anything while we were there. Anyway, the house belonged to a family of four girls. So there were dresses and barbies and ponies galore. Annie was in cute little 3 year old heaven.

We reunioned over the 4th of July, so we had a picnic at the park. Annie and the kids played at the splash pad, and we stayed up late to watch the fireworks.

 The pose strikes again!

 The whole clan waiting for the fireworks to start.

The next day we went to a water park. The water was frigid, but we all had a grand time. I didn't take any pictures because I wanted to enjoy swimming instead of babysitting a camera.

The next day the cool people went to Chicago while the boring people with little kids stayed close by. But the boring people got to do something really fun. We went to the mother of all children's museums. It was fantastic. Children could be entertained for entire summers at that place. And their workers were cool, too. Usually they charge full price for a one year old, but the lady saw Scotty in his stroller and didn't make us pay for him. We did tell her he was one.

 Annie spent the majority of her time here at this little table playing with these cool blocks. She would have stayed there the whole time if we hadn't prodded her away.

 Wind tunnel!

Scotty's face will tell you what a fun time we had. I realize now, looking at these pictures, that I took hardly any pictures of our cousins and other family. I think that's because we were running out of space on our camera. We transferred pictures over to our laptop, so that shouldn't have been a concern, but I think it curbed my picture taking anyway. I'm depressed about that.

On Sunday we went to church together and ate dinner at Felicia's ward building. It was fast Sunday, so the eating frenzy had a short break, but we dug back in with gusto. Costco makes really tasty apple pie!

Of course we had a talent show at the end. Here are some post photo dump pictures to prove that Aaron and I didn't just go to Illinois to see ourselves.

Of course we took a group picture, but it's on Felicia's camera. I'll add it here when I get it. Felicia and Nick were amazing and patient with planning and hosting everything.We had a wonderful time at the family reunion. There's just nothing quite as awesome as being with your parents and siblings. Even though we don't see each other very often, there is definitely a bond there. And my family members are some of the best people I know.

And our marriage and little family survived 40 hours in the car together! Before we got married, Aaron and I drove from Idaho to Michigan with my parents and Andrew for a Sandberg family reunion. My parents were reminding Aaron of that and asking how he liked being such a cross-country driver since he's been married to me. Aaron said, "I knew what she was when I picked her up." Indeed.

 Did I mention that Scotty barfed in the car? Hence the nakedness.

 That pose!