Hurray for the Hansen Clan!

Wow!  That went just too fast for me.  It seemed like it was forever coming and then BAM! it was over.  But we had a great time with all of you who were able to make it to the Leland Jr. Hansen Family Reunion over the weekend.  Missed those who couldn't be with us.

We used to do our annual reunion as a three day (at least) camp out.  They were always so fun.  Nothing like the smell of bacon on an open fire, the sound of crickets at night, the pleasure of bug bites and cold toes and hard ground to bond a family.  But some of us grew up.  And that hard ground got harder.  And so our reunions have kind of reduced into an overnight bash once a year.  This year it was my turn to host it and with a whole lot of help from a whole lot of people, especially Stephanie, I think everyone had a great time.

Like all reunions, there was a lot of food, and a lot of candy, and a lot of visiting and teasing and having fun.  Ron shared photos from his trip to Italy.  Kim played the violin and Ammon and Emily sang Book of Mormon Stories, and the next day Brooklyn and Talia shared their expertise with song and Spanish.  And during all of it, Lexi danced.

We had a Family Olympic game, and everyone won a candy bar.  We had a candy launch and we had a pinata and we had guessing jars filled with candy and we had all the left over candy from that just hanging around and all the desserts just hanging around, and I don't dare check my blood sugar levels and I may avoid the scales for a couple of days while I work hard to undo what the weekend did.

But the food was great.   The company even greater!

The weather was perfect for our water games - shouldn't have been surprised that the water relay turned into a water fight.  Not in the least!   We had an inflated water slide (thanks Stephanie) and wading pool and slip and slide safely in Bill and Stephanie's back yard for the little ones, and we had the club house pool for those who wanted a little deeper water.  Everyone who wanted to get wet (and some who didn't) definitely had a chance to.

There was also a golf tournament (congratulations Aaron for winning that, and Mike for getting nearest the hole and longest drive), and a game of ... wooden blocks (Mike, what was the name of that?).  And the little ones were entertained all night by Jeff's girls playing "Duck, Duck, Goose."  (Big thanks to all of you for that!)

Here are a few pictures, but Please, please, please check out my Facebook page where I posted a ton more.  CLICK HERE for the rest of the photos.

Dan, these thumbs up are for you from Nicole, who is a beautiful young woman now.

The little ones had a blast with all the water toys at Bill and Stephanie's.

Just wanted to get Brent and Makinzee in this, too, but they wanted to hide...  Loved having Leslie join us, too.

It was a hot day, and the water was definitely refreshingly wonderfully cool!