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!

Lots of Knots

Annie has not yet learned to tie her shoes, but she has a strange, scout-like compulsion to tie knots. Here are some of her latest creations. There have been many, many others of a much greater complexity (and inconvenience). So these are just the ones she's tied since we decided to take pictures before undoing them.

 

Cleaning up after Annie makes me think that Alexander the Great wasn't such a cheat for what he did with the Gordian Knot.

Scotty's 1st Birthday

Our little Scotty boy turned one year old and changed from this:

to this:

It's been a good year, little man. Except for when it was really hard.

We celebrated the morning of his birthday with brown sugar muffins. He is a bit of a finicky eater, but he always packs the muffins in hand over fist.

He didn't even come close to being able to blow out his candle, but he did devour his muffin wholeheartedly.

We gave him a few presents, which Annie helped him to open.

Later in the week, we went up to Grandma and Grandpa Dennis's house to have a little party there. I made a cake that morning before church. Aren't robots the cutest thing for little boys. And how appropriate that I was wearing my Google shirt. I always feel like I deserve a picture with the cake because it is usually ends up being a bit more work than I think it will be.

It was carrot cake of course, a Dennis family favorite. And we dubbed the cake the "Scott Bot."

Scotty did everything he was supposed to do with his cake. And he soaked up the attention like a sponge. Enjoy the winking cuteness at  about 0:22.

Scotty's grandparents gave him some great presents. The part he loved most was the creative wrapping job done by Grandpa (aka balloons). 

Eventually he actually opened the presents.

We love Scotty. He is a sweet, happy boy. But he also knows his own mind...especially when it comes to eating. Meal-time break downs are a frequent occurrence. He loves to be in charge of his utensils, but he hasn't quite figured out how to use those utensils to get food into his mouth. At his one year check up we found out that he is losing weight. So we've been trying to pack in the calories. That can be difficult with his meal time shenanigans, but he's been scarfing down the Greek yogurt. Hopefully that helps.

  Scotty has also been mastering the delicate art of throwing a fit. He can flail with the best of 'em. He takes good naps and sleeps well at night...usually. He often wakes up for no good reason that I can see. But we've come a long way in the sleep department. It seems like Scotty needs a lot of sleep. Many nights he is perfectly happy going to bed at 6 pm. That, my friends is a dream come true. 

He is still really snuggly, and he often crinkles up his little nose and eyes in an adorable fashion when he smiles. He will also just crawl around the house entertaining himself for long periods at a time. He started saying the word dog and he will even do a little woof if he's in the right mood. I think his life will get better and better as he learns how to communicate. We are so happy that he's in our family. 

Happy Birthday, Scottster!

Special thanks to Ben's birthday party for the awesome Mario hat.