Saturday, June 20, 2009

Texas!!!

We had a family reunion in Texas last week. My mom's side of the family got together in San Antonio, and then my family spent a few extra days at my brother Kendall's house in Houston. We had a great time! It was a little rushed because I mixed up the dates that we were supposed to fly out, so Joshua and I flew out a day before Cody did. We finally all got there and, though Cody had to do homework most of the week, we still enjoyed ourselves. It was hot and humid, of course (hey, it WAS Texas), so most of the activities were inside where it was cooler, but we did do a few things outside--most notably a waterpark, where some people got horrible sunburns and will hopefully never forget to put on sunscreen again (I'm looking at you, Kirsti and Rich! =P). Anyway, on to pictures!

First, here are two pictures of the group that was at the reunion. The first was taken at the Alamo at beginning of the week, before the Allemans arrived. They are all wearing a shirt made for the reunion, which was a tradition for us when I was growing up. I won't bother with naming everyone; just know that there are several generations here--most of my cousins have spouses and children of their own already.
This second picture was taken at the end of the week, after a trip to the San Antonio Temple. Some of the people in the first picture had already left and others had arrived (like us!). FYI, the reason some of us are in jeans is because we were needed to stay behind to watch the little kids.
Now let's get to the pictures that are in semi-chronological order. First off, here's Joshua in his reunion T-shirt on our first day there. I took this picture on my cell phone to send to Cody, as it was his first full night away from Joshua (and also my first full night away from Cody since we got married...it was weird sleeping alone).While waiting for Cody to arrive on Wednesday, we took the opportunity to do something he wouldn't really have enjoyed: we went up the Tower of the Americas (Cody is afraid of heights). It was really high and offered a fantastic view of San Antonio. You can kinda see the Alamo in one of the pictures--500 points to anyone who finds it!Cody finally joined us on Wednesday, June 10th. Sadly, he had to do homework for a lot of the trip...I took this picture to show where he spent most of his time at the hotel:
Kendall (my brother) and Rich (my brother-in-law) playing Wii in their orange shirts:
Here's the San Antonio Temple and a few pictures of Joshua wandering around the grounds, waiting for everyone to come out so we could go get some Rudy's Bar-B-Q:
Here's my mom and two of her four brothers that came to the reunion. L-R: my dad, my mom, Mike (my mom's oldest brother), his wife Donna, Brent (second oldest brother--and yes, he's 6'9"), and his wife Suzanne. And lastly, my family! Well, all the ones that were able to come, anyway. My brother Dana and his family were unable to attend, mostly because Dana is a high school teacher and the reunion was during the last week of school. L-R: my neice Audrey, sister-in-law Shelly, brother Kendall, nephew Damon, me, Joshua, Cody, sister Brianne, my mom, my dad, sister Kirsti, and brother-in-law Rich.After the reunion, we all headed up to my brother's house in Houston (well, technically Humble) and spent a few days enjoying family. I didn't get any pictures there--why, I don't know--but we spent most of the time just talking and playing Puerto Rico (which, by the way, is an awesome game). Joshua, Audrey, and Damon had a lot of fun playing with their grandpa, too. Families are great!

5 comments:

The Hulls said...

What a wonderful trip! Looks like Joshua had fun too!!

kari said...

Excellent summary, Carina! We DID have a great time, didn't we? Special thanks to Cody for joining us, even tho he had to work so hard. We are excited we had so many come, although we did miss Melissa and Dana and Luke and Sydney. All in all, it was a terrific experience. Thanks for documenting it, Sweet Carina!

Svedi Pie said...

Looks like you had such a good time! Joshua is looking so big!! :) I heard about Rich and Kirsti's sunburns - OUCH!!

Glad you had a good time!

Mamapierce said...

So jealous! I wish that I could have been there!!! Thanks for all of the pictures - it's nice to see that everyone is doing well. :o)

Brianne said...

I have to be frank...Kendall looks pretty creepy in the picture of him and Rich playing wii... but there are definitely some good pictures otherwise =) that was fun, wasn't it? word.