Surprise Bunker Visit & Summer Days

After the Bartholomew Reunion we had some surprise visitors the next day!  My oldest sister Deborah and her family were going to camp in the Smoky Mountains, but instead took a detour and spent the time with us!  I was sitting at our computer desk and in walks Deborah from the back part of the house. It was such a great surprise!!!  A few years ago we surprised her on Thanksgiving, which was really fun.  I'm so glad they came here instead of the Smoky Mountains!  That Monday night we took a short trip to the library, had family home evening and enjoyed visiting. 


Tuesday we decided to head into Harrisonburg for swimming, free food and shopping. First thing though that morning, Hyrum visited Uncle Lee for an eye exam. 


Hyrum and Elden drying off and warming up at the pool.


After swimming we went to Chick-fil-A to get a free meal!  It was dress like a cow day.  We were the weirdest cows yet.  But I wanted to just use items I had at home, and not spend a lot of time dressing up like a cow. So we taped random colored paper on us!


We were quite the scene.




I did print off cow noses and ears from the internet.




My sister Lena and her family I think won the best dressed cows!  Don't they look so cute?!  Her husband wasn't able to go with them. Yes, she has 7 beautiful kids!  They even had their picture in the newspaper.  Lena is great about putting finishing touches on things like this....me on the other hand we just slapped things together like we were bovine cows or something.


We did a little shopping too which was fun.




That night Deb, Matt, Lee and I went on a double date. We all really enjoyed it.  It's fun that our kids are old enough that we can do fun things like this!  I wanted Deb and Matt to try the chocolate cake at Ciro's.  I think Deb also ordered the chocolate sin cake from the Twisted Fork in Raleigh (the ladies' night out).  The chocolate cake at Ciro's is sooo much better!  I could go for a piece right now!   After cake, water and milk (we're party animals!) we headed to Lee's office and played Dutch Blitz.  Very fun night.  Thanks for coming along Deb and Matt.  Here's to future double dates when you move out here, *wink, *wink. Oh, and thanks Lee for making a yummy spaghetti dinner that night!


Sadly the Bunkers could only stay till Wednesday morning, but we had a great time while it lasted.

We've been up to this and that for the summer.  One thing Lee worked on was getting a new net for our trampoline.  The threads holding in the springs were breaking. The springs would fly off while the kids would jump.  We took down the trampoline since it was unsafe. In the meantime Lee ordered a new net.  








While I was at Young Women's one night Clark made cookies.  He makes some great homemade chocolate chip cookies!


I had my hair highlighted for the first time in years.  Before...


After...not much of a change.  I want to keep going back to make it lighter.  The trick is making sure I want to spend the money on it.  It's expensive!  Right now my hair is light enough from being outside that if I don't go back I don't think it will look weird if I don't return till next summer. 


A little more noticeable on the back...more like tiger stripes or something!


Random photo...


I love going to the pool in the summer. We went a lot and made great use of our summer pass.




One night for a date Clark wanted to make donuts with Lee, and play a game.


More swimming!


One night our town had a little car show.  This is Lee's dream truck...an older truck with a nice paint job.  No joke!








This is out of date, but on July 3rd when I went shopping with Lois and Deb, this is the skirt I found at Kohl's.  I wanted to find a tie for Lee to match my outfit.  One Saturday night after a wedding reception we swung by the mall and I checked JcPenny's.  In the clearance tie section I found the perfect tie for about $9!!!  Awesome!  There is a couple in our ward that always tries to match and I think that's so fun.  Lee and I match sometimes, and though it may seem cheesy, I love it.



Enjoy these last few days of summer.  I LOVE the warm summer months.  I am sad that cold weather is around the corner...

2015 Bartholomew Reunion

Every year my siblings take turns hosting a reunion for our immediate family.  Sadly not everyone is able to come, but whoever goes always has a great time!  The reunion order was switched up this year and my brother Daniel in North Carolina headed it up.  We had a great time with their family and others who attended.  Thanks Daniel and Amy!!!

Daniel put together an awesome schedule beforehand.  Game day would be the last day of the reunion, which included a pie eating contest.  It's tradition to have a pie eating contest in our family!  Growing up my grandma would make little pie crusts for each of us.  Then it would be filled with pudding and topped with whipped cream.  With about 35-ish cousins, not including adults and spouses, that was a lot of pie crusts for my grandma!  I decided to do the same and baked mini pie crusts for each of us.  I made 36.   The nice thing about crusts is that they hold up for a few days.  I made these the day before I headed down to North Carolina.


The girls made their own blueberry pies.


This same day Elden and Shanna had a funny conversation.

Elden: There's no such thing as 10th grade.
Shanna: Yes there is.
Elden: Well there's no such thing as 30th grade. 

Shanna: Yes there is--it's called marriage.

I took several pictures, so I will leave comments to a minimum.  We all loaded up for the trip the night before.  I headed down a whole day early so that 1. Lee could get in another day of work and 2. since Lee drove separately, my sister Stephanie and her family could use Lee's minivan instead of renting a vehicle for four days. 


Oh, and after the 4th of July we did a cousin swap. Cal hung out in Maryland for a few days and Clark hung out in PA for the same time period.  We all met up back in North Carolina.


The kids enjoying Daniel's gecko.


The main activity for the day: a fun bike ride on the Greenway. It's a great trail system in Raleigh.   Pre-instruction time for the kids.








Pit stop along the river.








Random, but something cute Shanna did on Amy's whiteboard.




Late afternoon we headed to our campsite to set up the tent.  Instead of getting a hotel for four nights we opted to camp.  We reserved a group site at Falls Lake Recreation Area.  It was a great camping spot!  Clark and I, and others, helped set up the tent.  We were pretty sweaty by the time it was done.Deb and Lois and families stayed at the same site also.




After dinner we had our annual (or bi or tri) ladie's night out.  Amy picked a really fun spot- The Twisted Fork. 




Deborah surprised all of us with these great gifts. 


An eternity necklace that she put together!  It was so sweet and thoughtful and made the night extra special. I love my sisters and sisters-in-law!


I ordered "chocolate sin cake".  The presentation was great.  But it only tasted okay.  I was kind of disappointed, as the chocolate cake at our local Italian restaurant is SO much better! I mean, it was good enough that I ate it all!


Day two we headed to the Outer Banks.  First stop, the Lost Colony area. These mounds are original from that settlement. It would be un-nerving to come back to the same spot 2 or 3 years later and your daughter, along with an entire village have disappeared.  Nor anywhere to be found.












Next stop Kill Devils Hill where the Wright Brothers made plane history!














This is how a lot of the kids felt.  It was hot and humid and they didn't want to hike up to the monument, but we did anyway.






Next up the beach at Nags Head.  No shark spottings! And once I saw the lifegaurd swimming quite a ways out for training I definitely wasn't worried about a shark attack.






























After about an hour, the rest of our family joined us at the beach.


Last minute on the way home we decided to stop at Wendy's with Darrell's family.




Friday we headed to William B. Umstead State Park for a five mile hike. I thought it was a perfect activity that day.  It was warm again out, but practically the whole trail was shaded.  Since the hike was so long, the kids had a chance to talk, catch frogs, throw rocks, etc.  It was great being outside.






















After the hike the kids were playing in the wooded area by the parking lot and eating watermelon.  Shanna and Rhett accidentally disturbed a hornets' nest.  Each of them were stung several times. A nice roadbiker stopped to help out and we think he notified the ranger about the incident. Jeff was stung by helping Rhett and when he went back to show the ranger where the nest was.  The ranger gave us some medicated swabs to help relieve the pain of the stings.  He also destroyed the nest. Later I found out that my nephew Anthon was stung before the hike in a different area.  Poor guy!


That evening we headed back to our campsite.  The kids played at the lake.  That evening Deb and I hosted everyone for dinner.




Haley's "turtle".








When the time came to heat up the beans we realized the pan wasn't there, so we improvised.  They eventually heated up!






Saturday, the last official reunion day, we joined everyone at the church for games.  Daniel and Amy have lots of fun board games.  We all brought snacks and enjoyed playing and visiting.








Movies played in the other side of the gym for whomever wanted to watch.




Lee and I made two big batches of pudding for the pie eating contest!  We made too much ha ha. 


Before we arrived at the church for games, some of us stopped at a fun jewelry store, Charming Charlie.  I've ordered a couple things online from there, but had never been to a store.  What a cute shop! I let Shanna and Haley pick out something.  Shanna decided on these slippers.


Next up, the infamous pie eating contest!  The contest is for different age groups.  For adults we split it by gender.




Clark won the 12 and up group.










Cal won the 8-11 group.










Rhett ate the pie the proper way.


Lisa won the younger kid group and Elden placed second.


Dun, dun, dun......




Stephanie just barely beat me.  I really couldn't believe.  What a blow, ha ha.  Nice job Steph.  There's always next year!












Darrell won the guy adult round.






We think Lee placed 3rd.


Rewind a little: before the pie eating contest we took a group photo.  I timed it to see how long it would take.  Daniel propped his cell phone up on his vehicle and snapped just one photo.  Turned out pretty well! I love how big my family is.  And four siblings and their family aren't even there.  Someday we'll get a picture with all of us!


I picked up some prizes to hand out to the winners. Soon after the pie-eating contest I drove Steph, Andy and Maggie to the airport.  Lois tagged along too and we had a fun visit.  It was so great that they came to the reunion!  We loved seeing everyone that was able to come!


Last minute I coordinated a late night reunion hurrah.  We met at Bruester's for ice cream.  We missed having Daniel and his family there, and Steph and Andy.  It was fun talking, watching the kids hoola hoop, and enjoying the night.








I joined in too for a little bit.




Lisa is quite the hula hoop pro!






Sleeping in the tent Saturday night was the best. We actually needed to use the sleeping bags.  It was too hot to use anything the other nights.  Thankfully there were barely/no mosquitoes in our tent. We enjoyed the campsite and it would be fun to camp there again someday. 

Sunday we took down camp and enjoyed church with the rest of the family still in NC. We took up three rows of benches in the chapel, which I loved!  I should have taken some pictures on Sunday after church.  I thought I did, but didn't.  Attending Relief Society with my mom and two of my sisters was really nice.  We used the microwave at church to make some cheese quesadillas for lunch, popped some popcorn, changed and took off for home.  It's nice because Daniel's house is only 4 hours away.

When we arrived home some packages were awaiting us.  Not all of this came while we were gone, but I grouped stuff together to send a picture to my mom and sisters. We were gearing up for a bathroom renovation!  Our first one yet!  Pictures coming soon! We're basically done with it.  Just have a couple finishing touches that I want to finish before I post pictures.  It will motivate me to complete the job. 


These two ice cream containers came in the mail.  We've been using our ice cream maker more this summer and I bought these Tevolo containers to store the homemade ice cream. Especially so since I've been finding cream for a great deal at Sharp Shopper!  We like them, though I wished the lids would snap on better once the ice cream is in the container.  Though the ice cream seems to stay great in them even if the lid doesn't snap down all the way.


I love summer time, and I love being able to visit family!  Thanks everyone for the great family visits!