Family Reunion and my Grandma's 80th Birthday!

In addition to being able to see my awesome brother come home from his mission, we also came to Utah for a Taylor Family Reunion in celebration of my Grandma's 80th Birthday. My grandma is in one of the kindest and thoughtful people I know, so I loved being able to celebrate such a great life. Even though she has about 40 grandkids she has a way of making all of us feel like her very favorite.

So here is a rundown of the activities for the weekend:

1. Friday night: bowling then a late night dip in the pool
2. Saturday morning: My Aunt Carolyn planned a really fun game of Where’s Waldo. My aunts and Uncles were dressed up in some crazy disguises, and we wandered all around gateway mall trying to find them. It was so fun to watch other people walk right past “waldo” because the disguises were too good. Reed and I had to tell my dad to turn around and look a little harder when he walked right past my mom (who was dresses as an old women complete with a walker and a humongo bootie) without a clue that it was her.
3. Saturday Afternoon: We all went to Liberty park, had lunch, and then headed to the aviary. The kids got to feed fishes to the pelicans. After one try Lilly thought the fish were way too slimy and refused to participate. It was pretty funny. Then after watching a fun bird show we spent the rest of the afternoon playing soccer and volleyball. Teresa and AnnGee were nice enough to watch my kids, so I could play soccer. Boy am I out of shape.
4. Saturday evening: We had dinner and a program for my grandma. My mom planned a bingo game that we filled in based on things we had in common with my grandma. She also shared some great stories from my grandma’s life. Because my grandma always loved dodge ball the night was finished off with some vicious rounds of Taylor competition.
5. Saturday Night: Somehow the boys found the energy to play a few games of basketball. Then we all ended the night with another swim and soak in the hot tub.
6. Sunday morning: church
7. Sunday afternoon: once again some yummy food and then my uncle did an FHE lesson on the importance of families. At the end he gave everybody a chance to say what they loved about my grandma until my grandma stood up to say she couldn’t stand it anymore. She is such an unselfish person, she never needs to be the center of attention.

That day ended with a flight home for all us Allen’s and now we are back to a quite life here in Denver. Hopefully we can convince somebody to come visit us soon ‘cause boy do we miss you all. Every morning my kids go down the list of everybody in my immediate family who were there (grandma, grandpa, brian, Madelyn, mike, Teresa, Anngee) asking where each one of them went. We love you all and had so much fun with the Taylors last week!

And I didn’t take any pictures from the reunion, but Madelyn has some good ones on her blog.