We are a Happy Family

About a year ago, my sister-in-law Hannah and I were talking on the phone. We realized that it had been two years since our entire family had gotten together - the summer my brother Soren and I had gotten married (not to each other). We had made a habit out of getting together every few years for weddings, but after the last two of us got married, there were no plans to get together again. None. As Hannah and I discussed how tragic this was, we decided that plans were in order for a Michaelsen family reunion the summer of 2009. After countless phone calls, emails, pleadings with in-laws, date changes due to conflicts with school, childbirth, previously planned vacations, etc., we -finally!- nailed down a weekend when we could all get together. ALL 45 of us (plus my grandma and aunt). Admittedly I was VERY nervous about how things would go. I was anticipating drama that, thankfully, never materialized. I was worried about people having a good time, in-laws getting overwhelmed, my mom making us work instead of play, activites not turning out well, etc. I wanted SO BADLY for this to go well so that people would feel excited about the possibility of more family reunions. How did things go? We'll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

The Homestead

If you are going to throw a party and invite a lot of people, you gotta make room for them. My parents did a MAJOR renovation on their house this past year, almost doubling its size. What are they going to do with all of the extra space when we aren't there? The missionaries are now living in the furnished basement. Also, there is always an open invitation to ANYONE who wants to come and stay there. It's a nice pit stop if you are planning on visiting Nauvoo. My parents also live very close to Independence, MO if you are wanting to visit some church history sites. The house sits on twenty-six acres complete with...

A pond...

...and a zipline

There were plenty of other outdoor activites:

slip'n slide kickball

RC truck racing

The track that Kenta and the boys built

inner tube fun

and even some indoor ones, too:

Family swim meet at community pool

waterslide

The fish were biting....

Hadley defies the odds with her Barbie fishing pole and reels one in

Abe gets excited

Soren had the catch of the week - 14.5 lb. catfish

...and so were we

we threw a party for the girls...

...and one for the boys (plus Jenna)

...and we even threw a birthday party for EVERYONE!!

stories were told:

Grandma Madsen (my maternal grandmother) tells us stories from her life

talents were shared:

Grandma teaches Kristin how to crochet

Davis shows us his soccer moves

we sang

and we danced

we laughed

and some of us cried (a lot)

Cousins bonded

friendships were born

Thomas - 5 mos., Molly - 5 weeks, Grant - 9 mos., Owen - 9 weeks

When it all got a little too crazy, there were places to get away from it all and just be alone

Kenta working on his research

And Ben writing his thesis (or dissertation?)

But more often than not, we wanted to be together

After months and months of anticipation, we were finally all together:

And before we knew it, it was all over

I love you guys and already miss you!! See you all again in two years!