July, 2008

I'm only 6 days late getting out my July update. I think I'm like the kids and am in denial that it's really August already. None of us are ready to admit in a few weeks summer is over.

The big highlight for July was the McAllister family reunion. We spent a week up in Sodus Point, New York, on Lake Ontario. With 19 kids and 14 adults to accommodate, my parents had rented 2 houses...the "Big House" and the "Little House" aka the "Prozac House". The Big House was where you would go if you wanted all the excitement and chaos that 19 cousins can bring, and the Little House is where you would often find Grandma and Grandpa reading a book or taking a nap!









The girls got the loft and they came up with quite a punishment if any boy came up!

It was a nonstop party with everyday being a different holiday. Some of the highlights were: an Easter egg hunt, Christmas in July where everyone got to open a present from my parents, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, a big birthday party (on my actual birthday) complete with a pinata and white elephant gift exchange, and the 4th of July celebration with water balloon games and the traditional flag waving parade. Every morning the kids would wake up and ask what holiday it was. We packed a whole year of celebrating into one week!

We also had some very neat spiritual experiences during the week. On Sunday morning we drove to Great Bend, Pennsylvania, where our nephew, James, was baptized in the Susquehanna River by his father. It was the same place where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry baptized each other. My Uncle Brad, who was the Stake President of the area, showed us the exact spot that President Kimball said John the Baptist had appeared to them and restored the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a beautiful peaceful area and I think made a neat memory for all of us. The rain that they had forecast even held off until after our picnic lunch, but it made the 3 hour drive back a little scary.









the branch meeting house










Just wait boys, your turn is coming!










John and James (where's Peter?)










Cousin Brian, Barr, Grant, John, James, Uncle Brad, Rick, Colby, Dad

We spent one day touring the church history sites at Palmyra. They have added quite a bit to it since the last time we were there about 11 years ago. The kids were really good during the tour guides' descriptions of the Smith family homes and the Book of Mormon printing site. We were having a little too much fun though in the sacred grove so decided to divide into families to continue our walk through it. No one said a word for 15 minutes which seems like an impossible feat for our group!









Cousins in the Sacred Grove

Another day we took turns going to the Palmyra temple. Our grandfather had prepared dozens of family names for us to take. Several cousins did baptisms in the morning, and then the adults split up the other ordinances in the afternoon. There was one name in particular that Barr had a powerful witness that he was there and accepting the work. It was a neat experience for him and a wonderful testimony of temple work!










Colby, Heather, Grant, Anna, Becky, Laurel, Dad

That evening we drove back to Palmyra for the Hill Cumorah pageant. Our cousin, Megan, was in it this year, so it was fun to see her before the show. It is so well done that I was glad I was able to stay awake for the entire thing this time! Our kids didn't quite make it, but hopefully got something out of it before exhaustion took over.

Here are some other fun memories of the week:

Laurel teaching us Zumba in the front yard of the Big House. It was great because the little cousins got into it as much as us old parents. The music was pretty loud and we hoped the neighbors didn't mind, but later they commented on how much they enjoyed watching the exercise class. It reminded us all of Dan in Real Life!

Unfortunately the part of the lake we were on didn't have the nicest water. Many of the days the beach was actually closed because of high levels of E Coli! Barr didn't seem to mind though and enjoyed several early morning swims (If you look real closely at the picture, the dot in the water is him!). The girls and I would walk down with him and skip rocks or count the dead fish while he swam. Brittany wanted me to buy an air freshener to take with us!

There was a beautiful light house we could see from our front porch. There is nothing quite as serene as a lighthouse at sunrise. If we didn't know where someone was, chances were pretty good they were on a walk to the light house.

You can't have a reunion without shopping, so one evening all of the sisters and a few nieces went to the outlet mall. We were having so much fun that they had to kick us out of the stores at closing time. One store was nice enough to let us back in after knocking on the window promising that we would make it fast.

Uncle Colby was persuaded to use his army skills and have a mini boot camp for the cousins. As an expecting first time dad, being around 19 nieces and nephews for a week, we thought he would enjoy getting tough with them! And by that point, all the moms needed a little discipline exercised. He did a great job drilling them and marching them, and putting up with their whining and snide comments. I'm not sure any of them would make it in the army, but it made for a fun activity.

One day we drove down to the finger lakes and took a ferry ride. We could see why the homes there are some of the most expensive lake front properties in the country...it was beautiful. Many of us were wishing we were out on the motor boats skiing instead of on the ferry watching!

Barr was able to keep up on his triathlon training by bringing some bikes along with us. He took Ben and Bradley on a 15 miler one day...one step closer to earning the biking merit badge. And a few mornings he and I were able to go for a run and enjoy the sticky humidity of upstate New York!

On our drive home we stayed a night in Kirtland so we could tour the many sites there on Sunday. The flu bug that had hit a few of us during the week got me that morning. I felt pretty miserable but was still able to go on the tour of the Visitors' center, the temple quarry, the Newel K. Whitney store, the Whitney home, and the Sawmill and Ashery. The Church has done such a good job at building Kirtland up and restoring that historic village. We were going to do the temple tour, but we arrived at the same time as 2 tour buses of Spanish visitors. We decided to drive to the Johnson Farm instead of hearing it in Spanish. We learned that the Community of Christ's operating hours aren't quite as long as the Church's and we couldn't make it back to the temple in time for their final tour. I wasn't too disappointed because I wasn't sure I was up to anymore touring that day. I was grateful to be able to just sit and rest for the drive home.

That wraps up the family reunion update...now for the rest of July if you're up to it!

We have been fortunate enough to have a few visitors. My sister, Laurel and her family drove down for the 4th of July weekend. They arrived just in time for John to help Barr put a new grill together for dinner. Then we had perfect seats in the front yard of the church for the Dublin fireworks show. The last of the sparklers were fizzing out as the first fireworks went off.













Lining up to march in the Dublin parade. It was cold and rainy and now I appreciate the saying "Don't rain on my parade!".

The next morning she talked me into doing a cycle class and a Zoomba class at the gym. She teaches both of those in Michigan and enjoys getting new ideas. I felt a little self conscious swinging my hips around and shaking my booty, but she makes it look so natural and easy. I think I'll be sticking with Boot Camp and Body Sculpting! We then spent the afternoon at the pool getting the kids worn out so we could have a movie night.

Then last weekend our good friends, the Andersen's, from Indiana came over. We love when they visit because everyone has a buddy and they just go off and play. They even brought their new dog so Max had a friend to play with! They were good sports to try the Dublin Irish festival with us. We realized too late that it would have been better to do it without kids. After an hour everyone was ready to go back home. We had a contest to see who could count the most cups of beer on the way out. I was glad when Brigham asked me what beer looked like. I lost count after only a few minutes. I guess that's how the Irish party.

Ben was able to go to Boston with a school group for 4 days in July. There were about 35 students that took a big charter bus up to Niagara Falls the first day and then over to Boston. They did the Freedom Trail Tour, the Old North Church Tour, the Paul Revere House Tour, the Duck Tour, the Harvard Tour, the Buckman Tavern Tour, Bunker Hill, the Plimoth Plantation Tour, and the Mayflower II tour. I asked Ben what they did when he got home and all he said was, "We went to Wendy's"! I think for him the highlights were swimming at the hotel, mini golf, movies on the bus, and of course eating out for 4 days. He had been earning money for several months to have some spending cash for souvenirs. He was so excited to show us all what he had bought for us. He wouldn't let anyone open their gift until everyone was awake and that happened to be the one morning that Brigham decided to sleep in until almost 9:00! It was torture, but worth the wait.

I know this is long, but I forgot to mention Barr's big concert debut. He performed at an outdoor arena with Jared Haley, the next big musical talent just waiting to be discovered! I'll leave it at that and hope that Barr can attach some footage that I took so you can see for yourself how awesome it was. Jared even let him do a drum solo which was pretty impressive. I had never heard him practice that so I'm not sure if he just ad libbed it or what.










Until next month...
Becky