Trip to MO - Week 2 the Family Reunion

We had such a fun week at the cabin!  We had a mini-Owens family reunion and had not only all of my siblings there, but we had aunts, uncles, and cousins come all the way from Kansas City, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, and Florida (But my sister, Nicole, wins the "I came the farthest for the reunion" reward, coming all the way from Australia).  A lot of our family had never met Duncan and hadn't seen Mitchell since he was a baby, so it was really nice to show the boys off:)  And Mitchell LOVED all the extra attention he got from his cousins.  Rhett (Nicole's youngest) and Mitchell became fast friends and were connected at the hip most of the time; which was so cute to see since they are only 3 months apart.  Of course, maybe I should call them frenemies instead... Haha, they quickly went back and forth from playing together to fighting with each other, then back to playing with each other.  But no matter what, the first thing Mitchell wanted to do each day was be with Rhett:)  It was so great seeing all of our family and we really hope we can make it to this annual reunion again next year!

The boys just chillin'!  Mitchell loved being with all the boys!  Bodie, David, Richard, Mason, and Connor.

Grandma loved snuggling with Duncan.

Cousin Rylan was so cute with Duncan.

What's better than cuddling with his Aunt KK?  Cuddling while chewing on Nemo.  Lol!

Mitchell wouldn't let Duncan be the only one being babied.  And Kathryn was happy to oblige him:)

Duncan liked relaxing in the pool, but he didn't like the bright sun in his eyes (but who does, right?).  We did our best to shade him though.

And bonus... his raft doubled as a place to nap by the pool:)

Mitchell was a little jealous and decided if Duncan could nap in the raft, so could he.  Haha, it didn't quite work out the same for him.  Lol!

Getting a group picture of the cousins is hard.  "Hey everyone!  Look this way and smile!  Everyone!  Come on, look here!"  Lol!  So, this is as good as a photo gets.

She loves her baby cousin, and he loves her:)

Cousin Gina brought her karaoke/stereo equipment to the reunion, and everyone had a blast belting out their favorite songs.  Rylan and Bodie sounded beautiful!

Grandma and Christine laughing poolside!

Cousins Jared and Connor (with photo bomber DJ) enjoying our late night swims.

Uncle Richard, Connor, and Rylan decided to put their feet up and relax IN the pool.  Lol!

Staying close to his precious ladder.

Aunt Jeannine and Kelsey just hanging out!

Mitchell getting in on the karaoke.  He sang Dock of the Bay:)

Mason is just the coolest, wearing his sunglasses at night!  Lol!  Haha, and I love Rhett's scowl:)

Movie night with the cousins leads to late night shenanigans.  And yes, that is our child, Mitchell, who dumped all that popcorn out on the floor.  Gotta love toddlers!  Lol!

Beach days at the lake:)  Mitchell stayed by Kathryn's side.

Kathryn is such a great cousin to the boys!

Ok, well, all of Mitchell's cousins are great to him!  He's so lucky!  He loves following around Kathryn, David, and Connor.

He loved playing with Rhett.  Of course, he also kept a close eye on Rhett to make sure Rhett stayed away from his ladder!  Lol!

Duncan also enjoyed relaxing by the pool.

Rhett kept practicing with that water gun and got pretty good with his aim.  Lol!  We're so thankful to have this sweet boy in our lives!

It's photos like this, with all the kids having fun together, that make me wish even more we lived closer to family:  Bodie, Colton, David, Kathryn, and Rylan.

Sometimes Rhett and Mitchell fought (Hell have no fury like three year olds who don't do what the other one tells them to, haha!), but most of the time that sat or played with each other like this; they were such good buddies:)

This picture cracks me up!  We always put our hands up when we drive under the bridge (I have no idea why, Lol!), so everyone was having fun doing that, except Mitchell and Colton.  Haha, they look like they're getting a bit too much wind:)

Of course, it's not a proper trip to the cabin without some cliff jumping.  Here is Kathryn mid-jump.

Richard decided to dive off the cliffs.

Rhett and Uncle Richard were good swimming buddies.

Mitchell chickened out and decided not to jump off of the cliffs (Haha, of course we never gave him the chance), but he loved swimming around the lake all by himself.  What a huge turn around from his "death grip" days just a week before!

Owens family partying on the lake!

Lake life!  Farah, Aunt Sherri, Tanya, Jared, Dana, Kelsey, Reagan, Erin, and Richard.

Kelsey ever so kindly gave up her chair to her dog during game night.  So sweet:)

One of our last nights gathering by the pool, singing, chatting, and laughing... always lots of laughter with this family!

After a week of nonstop swimming, boating, splashing, running, and playing with cousins and family, this kid crashed!  Lol!

Duncan was spoiled by everyone!  But Aunt KK, really knew how to make him laugh:)

Mitchell and Rhett quickly became best buds!  One of their favorite games was to pretend they were choo-choo-trains.  They did this all night!  Lol!  They are only 3 months apart, so they were destined to be best friend cousins:)

But, being as close in age as they are to each other, has also created some friction, frenemies, let's-test-each-others'-limits type moments like this one.  Rhett chooses to yell and hit to let his frustrations known (not good).  Mitchell is a bit sneakier and chooses to quietly push Rhett's buttons when no one is looking (Also, not good.  And which actually worries me a bit more... it's the sneaky kids you always have to look out for.  Lol.).  So, what this video doesn't show you is Mitchell just minutes before, knocking down Rhett's chair when no one is looking, knowing it would make Rhett mad (Sneaky Mitchell, Lol!).  But, what this video does show you is how quickly the boys hug and make up.  They always made up easily.  And they have way more fun, laughing, and playing nicely moments together than mad moments, but I just thought this was funny to share:)

Here is Mitchell jumping to Nicole (my niece's friend) and swimming across the pool!  It is so crazy that he went from being afraid to let go of anyone to swimming across a pool by himself in a matter of days.  And the rest of the week he was such a water bug!

Hahahaha!!  Trying to get a group picture of all the kiddos is almost impossible.  Be glad I have any pictures at all to show you.  Lol!

Our Owens side of the family LOVES karaoke.  In fact, it's not an Owens party if karaoke is not involved.  Lol!  Here are Rylan, Bodie, and David trying out their singing chops.

You have to have Reba, right?!  These are my cousins, Tracy and Dana, doing Reba justice:)

First, Uncle David and Aunt Sherri belting it out, then Dana keeping it going, and Tracy bringing it on home!  This was such a fun night!

"And we're rolling, rolling, rolling on the river!"

Even Mitchell and Rhett got in on the karaoke action.  Well, he lip-synced anyway.  Haha, but in his defense, I don't think Mitchell knew the song too well.  Lol!

This was a very unexpected, hilarious moment.  Mitchell loves blowing out candles.  He'll blow out candles at restaurants (mood lighting), at people's houses (air fresheners), his birthday candles multiple times (we may relight them over and over for him since he loves it so much:), etc.  If there is a flame around, Mitchell will blow on it.  Well, my Uncle David was trying to relight his cigar and Mitchell just ran over there and blew it out.  It was so funny!  So, of course, I had to get a video of it:)

Once Mitchell became pretty good at swimming, he liked to just swim off by himself where it was quiet and he could ponder the world.  Haha, at least, that's what I assume he was doing:)

First is Rylan jumping; then after a long wait, after contemplating all the pros and cons, deciding to jump and then talking himself out of it, just to decide to do it again... is Mr. Colton.  We were all so surprised he actually jumped since he never had before.  Yay!  Go Rylan and Colton!  (Bodie, Kathryn, and Richard also jumped off, but I didn't get videos of their jumps).

I thought I would close out this blog post with this funny video.  I asked Mitchell if he was thirsty and he said, "No."  Haha, well, I guess not after he sucked this spray bottle dry.  Lol!  Apparently this is his preferred method of drinking his water.