College Reunion: Family Style

 We planned a reunion to get some of our families together from my college friend group of about 10 close friends that I've kept up with over the past 20 something years since I met them.  We knew not everyone would be able to come, but decided that we should just plan it and people come if they can.  We had five of us on board, but two had last minute issues and weren't able to make it.  So we had two big cabins and three families to split between the two.  My two oldest boys ended up sleeping over in the other cabin to even out numbers a bit.  We met at Jellystone Park for President's Day weekend.  We had three couples and 13 children, almost half of which were mine.

We are missing three kids here, but almost got the whole group together for a picture.

There were lots of outdoor activities like playgrounds, jumping pillows, basketball, volleyball, Gaga ball, and putt putt golf to start.  There was also an indoor pool since it was February.  In the evenings we grilled and roasted marshmallows for S'mores.

There were cute kids everywhere.  I was in heaven!

 Some of the girls even let me braid their hair!  I played lifeguard in the pool and rescued that cutie in the photo above when she dove in head first with no floaties on.

Then there was a glow stick "Hey, Hey" Ride scheduled for the second night.  The kids were so pumped about the glow stick hay ride.  Unfortunately, the glow sticks were not provided and cost $2 a pop at the front office, but we didn't find that out until the tractor was ready to go.  I thought for sure we'd have some fits about that amongst the little ones, but no one put up a fuss at all.  Bobby had brought his sword glow sticks from home that he'd been saving so he was the only one with any.  Also thought that may be a problem, but it wasn't.  The kids were also sad to find out that the hay ride was spelled "hey" on purpose.  There was no hay, but we were supposed to say, "Hey, hey" to people that we passed.

May the force be with you!

The moms got to sneak away and get some coffee together and we had loads of fun chatting after the kids were all tucked into their bunks.  All in all, I wouldn't do a Jellystone park again, I don't think, despite the obvious conveniences.  It is overpriced for what you get, and I think the kids would have had just as much fun at just any old cabins in the woods with no planned activities or playgrounds.  (The boys did spend a tremendous amount of time playing with water bottles, after all.)  Well, everyone except for Hannah.  She is not much of an outdoorsy person anyway though.