When my parents returned from their mission in the Philippines in 2009, they were a bit surprised when they received a phone call asking them to be in the Accra, Ghana, temple presidency for the next 3 years. It spurred an urgency for family reunions. Since they had 2 weeks each summer to travel while the temple was being cleaned they decided to organize a reunion each summer. This summer we retreated to a lakefront house on Lake Gaston in Littleton, NC. Believe me when I say it was indeed a little town. The house—not so much. Here it is from the back:
Here is a lovely girl waving from across the expansive balcony. She’s Danish. And happy.
Here’s a view of our room. It has doors overlooking the balcony to the pool and lake in the distance. The boys would fall asleep on our bed, then we’d move them to the capacious closet. One night Nicole woke up to a pillow flopping on her head. Then a little body climbed on top of her. Apparently our bed was cooler than the closet…pfft.
Here’s the pool.
The boys learned how to swim using these fancy noodles. They would bounce around on the fancy noodles. They’d jump off the rock diving board with their fancy noodles. They’d take their fancy noodles for walks. Did you know that when Yankee Doodle stuck that feather in his hat and called it macaroni he was really calling it fancy? Look that up folks. It’s real.
Apparently there is a new reunion tradition that includes ping pong -- or for the more refined “table tennis.” There is a tournament and everything. Here’s some of that action. The first one is round 2 action.
Here’s some more round 2 action.
Here’s the final. We took it to game 3 (best of 3) when I lost it. The victor was happy. He’s Danish.
Here’s Mama Empey modeling the victory belt. This is no podunk ping pong tourney, folks. It’s a high stakes, winner take all affair. I mean, look at that belt.
Oh, yeah. There was a lake, too, but the boat was feeling ill. That didn’t stop aunt Angie from blowing up the tubes anyway. Look at that tube. Wow. And what is wow upside down? Mom.
Here is some comic relief. One of my nephews made sure that everyone had a steady supply of bacon mints or pickle mints if one wanted during all the fun. Nicole was never too sure about them and consistently refused. The following picture proves her unsettled suspicions weren’t completely unfounded.
Grandma Empey was feeling a bit pirately-inclined, and commissioned this large scale banner to set the party theme. 
Tattoos, hats, eyepatches. Yes, she was feeling the pirate flow, and so was Everett here:
There was a treasure hunt! Arguably the most fun part of the whole week for our kids.
Searching the boat.
No pirate party is complete without a duel where someone ends up in the water.
So we dueled.
And threw each other in the pool.
And grandma really enjoyed it. She loves that sort of thing.
But when grandma Empey wasn’t playing the pirate she invited kids out to the boathouse for a picnic.
Brookston really enjoyed those lakeside oreos.
All this sort of thing is tiring for a wee young one, and this is what bedtime brought. Except for that one time when we came up balcony stairs to find through the door windows that there had been a ‘poo incident.’ Perhaps a poo catastrophe. I mean, Brookston was up on the dresser emptying Nicks wallet, Everett was jumping back and forth from bed to bed, and oh…. Roz. Poo disaster. It took a few loads of laundry to sort all that out. But yeah, usually it went like this:
And now we’ll say goodbye to the pool at night and see you all next year!
