2010 Hasler Family Reunion

This may be picture overload, but we had such a great week at the Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp for the Hasler family reunion, it's hard to cut it down. Here's the whole crowd taking a very quick picture in the rain.

All of the grandchildren with Nana and Papa. Everyone's laughing or looking confused because all the other adults are dancing and making faces to get everyone to smile.Mike was in charge of burying a hidden treasure in an old mine (yes, this was safe!) and he had a great time telling the kids a whopper of a story about the O'Mally family who had stolen a pirate treasure chest and left it here. The kids got totally into it and were so excited when they found the treasureWe opted to fill the chest with necklaces and fake money rather than candy. When Papa came out with the box all the kids started yelling, "Chocolate!!!" We were a little nervous, but everyone was very excited with their pirate booty.Who is this kid? He cracks me up!We had a great time taking the canoes and kayaks out for a spin on the pond. Andrew loved it so much he woke up every morning at 6 a.m. so he and Mike (and whomever else he "accidentally" awakened) could go canoeing. Mike's a really great sport.
Most of the kids and adults loved it, but I'm not quite sure about little Marcus!Here's the crowd on the shore waiting for turns or hanging out with babies.The camp has a ropes course that was enjoyed by most...except for Tanner and Reid! I'm not quite sure what their problem was, but they just couldn't get into this. Andrew had a great time, but it took his brothers a while to warm up.One of the favorites was this big balancing platform. First we did it as teams, then we had fun putting two people on at a time. I love Rachael's face below!Three mamas with three the three new babies!Our fishing day was definitely a highlight of this family Reunion. We had such a great time and EVERYONE caught a fish!! Some were more excited than others. Above: Reid's fish, he was excited.Andrew...also very excited.

Tanner...not quite sure what to think of this sport.

Here's our family after everyone was done fishing. See the clouds behind us? It started raining shortly after we headed back to camp. We drove up the winding dirt road to the camp with lots of rain and then hail! We sat in the parking lot for nearly an hour waiting for the storm to pass. You can see in the picture below how the parking lot turned into a river with all the hail piling up on the sides. It was crazy!

These two are the greatest friends! Andrew and Miriam have so much fun together and were so excited to be together after a summer apart.

This picture, as well as the one below, remind me of pictures of my family when we went to Aspen Grove as children. By the way, the dining hall is one of my favorite things about this reunion. I get almost giddy about feeding my family pretty decent food that I didn't have to make, nor clean up! It makes the reunion so incredibly enjoyable!!!

It was sad to say goodbye knowing that we won't see some of our family for another two years until we do this again. To prolong our time together, I strategically killed our van's battery on the morning of departure. Ha! Luckily, Josh and Whit had cables and Jarin was kind enough to clean off our battery and give us a jump.
I felt really dumb about the whole battery thing, meanwhile, my boys didn't mind hanging out a little longer.

We really had a great reunion! Other highlights not pictured:

-Adult conversations/games after children went to bed!

-Hearing about Dad's retirement and Mom's completion of her mission.

-Family reunion T-shirts that read "Family First, Ice Cream Later"

-Whitney's chocolate cake

-Just being in the mountains...we love Colorado mountains!!

Can't wait to do this again in a couple of years!!