Saturday Play Day

Our AirBnB was just about perfect, except: they did not have NEARLY enough silverware for so many people.  So here's Ryder eating his cereal with a ladle...

There were no real plans for Saturday morning, so we decided to explore Beautiful Downtown Branson (not to be confused with Bronson!!!  😂).  Craig took Ryder, Colton, Camille and Nicole to hit the go-kart tracks and an arcade!

And Kendra and I went to the Butterfly Arcade!  I took approximately 100 pictures, so consider yourself lucky that I am NOT posting them all here.  But you just feel so chosen when a butterfly decides to hang out with you for a bit!!!  How can you not want to document that???

Before we even got to the butterflies, we spent a few minutes in the aquarium area with various amphibians, reptiles, and skinks.  My favorite were the poison-arrow frogs-- don't these just look made up???

I want them!

Then we went to the butterfly and spent at least an hour there, maybe longer?

This lime-yellow guy!

For most of the time we were there, a man was sitting against the wall aggressively playing a harpsichord.  Then he went on a break and we were like-- We need that music!  It really added to the whole atmosphere in such a lovely way!  Thanks for making it even more magical, harpsichord guy!

Not the prettiest butterfly, but I loved those purple spots

This glasswing with his see-through wings was one of my favorites

Kendra's comment, "Aw, he's so ugly!  I love him!" 

Someone else "caught" this one, but she was very nice about letting me take a picture of it!

There were these huge blue butterflies that no one could catch.  You'd only see the blue when they opened their wings but butterflies usually rest with their wings closed, so you really needed to see them in flight to see how gorgeous they were.  The best I managed to get was this:

See it flying away from me???

And I also liked these two, perusing the rotten fruit:

So, yes, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the butterflies!  Once we'd finally gotten our fill, we went to their mirror maze and I was surprised at how totally disorienting the experience was, but it was kind of awesome!  I'm pretty sure if you could see the entire maze, it was actually really simple, but those mirrors do make it confusing!

There are two of each of us in this shot

While we'd been doing this stuff, Natalie and Cameron had driven back to St. Louis.  They managed to time it just right so that Natalie could drop Cameron off at the airport (he had to get back to work) AND pick up Caleb (who had been in Annapolis attending a water polo camp run by Navy Seals).  Let me tell you-- my boys were SO EXCITED for Caleb to arrive!  And Rachael & Ian and Tracy & Adam had decided to buzz over the state border so they could check Arkansas off their list of states they'd visited.  Apparently they managed to eat at a diner with a very friendly, toothless man sitting on the porch encouraging them to watch out for the "squirrelly" waitress (who turned out to be married to his nephew)!  They said it felt exactly like how they thought Arkansas would be.

Most of us then met back up together to see Dolly Parton's "Stampede" Show!  

We got there plenty early so we could see all the horses-- they were so pretty!

Happy Camille!  (This may be the horse who patiently untied all his ropes while he was getting saddled up?  It was very impressive!)

Pre-Show entertainment

And then we were finally seated in this huge arena, just like Medieval Times, for the actual show!

It was a fun show!  I could have used more horses and less corny jokes, but it was still a fun experience, and mostly I loved how excited Camille was about ALL the horses!

We'd gone to the matinee show, so when we were finished around 5pm, it was like no one knew what to do.  The show included a full meal, but somehow you still kind of wanted dinner?  It was weird.  Rather than eating, we all headed to the neighborhood pools where we were staying and hung out (and occasionally snacked on string cheese and pirate booty) and had a grand time!

Tracy and Nicole

Ryder and Camille on the sides, Caleb, Nolan, and Harrison making the pyramid

Harper, Cora, and Claire

Rachael, Jenna, and yours truly!

Everyone stayed until the pool closed.  Nothing beats sitting around talking with such great people!  All the kids were starving by this time, so Tracy whipped up a huge pan of scrambled eggs and all was right in the universe again. 

Park and Church Day

Tracy and Jenna had planned all the activities for the reunion, and I was so grateful to them for taking charge of this!

The second day, everyone met up at a nearby park.  Tracy had laid out a family tree so everyone could easily see whose kids were whose.  This was especially helpful for all the spouses who had married into this crazy family of mine!

All those people from just one couple!  (One couple who actually would have loved to have had way more kids-- my Grandma was one of ten children and longed for a big family like the one she'd grown up in!)

Almost everyone went hiking.  I started the hike, but I really wasn't dressed for it and as I was climbing down these muddy stone steps in my sandals, I kept picturing myself falling and twisting an ankle or just getting really badly banged up, so I finally decided to turn around and go back to the pavilion that Tracy had rented.  London also wanted to go back, so I got to hold her hand and chat with her, which was delightful.  Ryder (who absolutely hates hiking) had stayed behind with Tracy, so once London and I got back, he was a good sport about jumping off things at the playground with her.  I tried to teach her to say "Geronimo!" as she leapt, but she wasn't a fan of that.  (Tracy pointed out that it probably wasn't politically correct to say it anyway, but I'm pretty sure that's why Ian would have loved it!)

Speaking of Ian-- here he is totally matching my Mom!!!!  (Those aren't actually Ian's glasses-- he found them on the trail and very kindly brought them back to the picnic area!)

I LOVE this picture of Ryder playing with London-- look at her putting her whole body into flinging that beach ball!

And this is a terrible picture of me, but I like to prove that London was my buddy!

And here are a few more of the pictures from the hike that I missed:

There was this nifty little cave that people could explore

Did Colton, Nolan and Harrison all coordinate their shoes???

Once everyone was back from the hike, it began raining and we huddled under the pavilion just hanging out all together.  

Nicole, Harrison, Nolan, Camille, and Hunter all gathered around watching Ryder play Geometry Dash

Here's everyone at the park, once the rain had stopped!Eventually everyone was either hungry or tired, so people wandered off.  The Bentley contingent decided to grab lunch at a place called Billy Gail's, which advertised the biggest pancakes ever.  They took a look at our huge family (I think there were 21 of us?), shrugged and said, "Can we seat you outside?" and proceeded to take excellent care of us!  I was honestly very impressed!

And this was before Natalie's family got there!

I *guess* this is a pretty big pancake...

And then we went back to the house to take naps and regroup.  I may have taken another shower...?  I honestly can't even remember now!

But I did take this picture of all the shoes in the entryway-- it made me laugh!

We ordered pizza for our family (that is, just the Smiths) and then Natalie picked it up, along with the pizza for her family (and possibly for the Aveytuas, too?) and we all met up at a church on the other side of town.

Tracy had prepared a few activities for everyone to do while we ate our pizza.  First was a "get to know you" check off list, mostly for the little kids to run around checking off their second cousins.  Then once everyone had arrived and eaten, she had Uncle Bob and Uncle Bruce draw names out of a hat for everyone who'd completed their checklist.  This was the kind of thing that really doesn't work to describe on my blog, but Bob and Bruce are hilarious, and the whole thing was really so funny!  You just had to be there.  The prizes that the kids won were mostly beach balls, I think, and they were thrilled to win!

Next was Bingo, all about various things that we all did as kids at our grandparents' house, and just reading the activities on the squares made me so happy.  It included things like picking tangelos in the backyard, or sliding down the "hill" in the front yard on a piece of cardboard (every time I go back to my grandparents' house in La Mirada, I'm shocked at how that hill isn't much more than a bump?  I thought it was so big when I was a kid!).  Adding "and many moooooooore" to the end of the Happy Birthday song.  If you've ever used the phrase "final tinkle" to tell your kids to use the bathroom before leaving the house.  If you share a family name with either my grandparents or their children.  Singing the "Good Morning to You" song (or having it sung to you)...  If you've ever eaten at Snelgrove's Ice Cream Shop in Utah.  It was a lot of fun to just think about all those experiences my cousins and I have in common.  What happy childhood memories!

And then we gathered in the RS room, where Uncle Bruce, Uncle Bob, and my Mom all talked for a few minutes (Tracy told them no longer than ten minutes, and they all stuck to it!) about their parents and their childhood.  My grandparents were really wonderful people and it was lovely hearing more about them and seeing old pictures.  Bruce also performed the song he sang at my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary, his own special lyrics to the tune of "It's Only Make Believe."  And finally the second cousins all sang "I am a Child of God."

And then we moved outside to take a big group photo:

Up front, my Mom, Uncle Bob, and Uncle Bruce, with their offspring mostly behind them.  No, I'm not going to name everyone else (but I could if I wanted to!)

That's such a lovely picture, but here are a couple of people trying to wrangle everyone into position and I just love these:

And of course, we always have to do a goofy shot:

And here's a shot of just the grandkids, lined up in age order (my kids are ALL in the back row!!!):

I love Clayton's squinty smile, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hazel (redhead in blue in the front row) and how she is absolutely NOT having it

And then here's one of the Bentley family:

We're missing my Dad, Leah & Brian and their boys Eliot and Theo, Bentley, and Natalie's boys, Samuel & Caleb.  Still, that's not bad!

And one of just the Smith Clan!

Also I just love this shot of Jenna holding her sleeping Hazel!

Once pictures were done, we cleaned up the church building (it was so nice of one of the members to come and open the doors for us and wait around until we left so he could lock up again!) and headed back to our neighborhood (and ice cream!).  It was such a fun day!!!