The Reunion

Once every couple of years we have a family reunion in Mount Baldy, California. Everyone looks forward to this time to hang out at Grandma Cottrell's house, play with endless amounts of cousins, eat like crazy and do some really fun things together. Here's a shot of most all of the cousins hangin' out by the pool at the cabins where we stayed in Baldy. They spent a lot of time playing there in the few days we had together.

Ciera and Chloe heading out on Lake Mission Viejo the day we arrived. The kids love this place, it's just down the street from Eric and Jenny's house...how lucky.



The girls had a blast together.



Here's the big rock the kids love to climb on at Grandma Cottrell's house down by the campsite.



Gathering to eat was one of my favorite times for sure. Here we are at Grandma's house just getting started.



Next we headed up the mountain to the trout fishing pond...yeah, kind of cheating on "fishing" but the kids had a blast. The only downside is that they charge by the size of the fish so we were kinda hoping for the smaller sizes to happen...not so much, everyone was pulling out 14" to 18" big boys. It was an expensive day.



Liam was getting prepped to fish.



We just watched the kids have fun.



Eli getting things ready.



Oh, yeah.



Liam's prize

I had to capture a shot of the camera crew that was standing by for all of the action.

You have to squint a little bit with this shot to see the plethora of trout-wow.

We headed to Crystal Cove beach on the only day it was overcast and had a high of about 54 degrees...in the middle of July. As soon as we were driving away to come home that day, the sun finally appeared. Go figure.

Well, when the water's a bit too cold to get into you might as well bury someone. Here's Jake taking it like a man.

We spent most the day creating sand creatures. Here's our alligator we were working on.

Here's a sand crab that suddenly appeared when we were burying Shannon.

Million dollar smile

Eli's sea turtle

Eli finishes up the alligator...

Then he starts looking for the weight room...heh, heh.

Brothers

Spencer liked hanging out with Eli quite a bit-they became good buddies.

The Beach Boys

The day we left to come home, Daren busted out the motorcycle and gave rides to all the kids. Kate is still talking about that ride Daren. I love this picture.

I can almost hear what Liam is thinking here: "one day..."

Another priceless photo.

We are looking forward to the next reunion in 2 years-we have so many great memories from this trip. Thanks to Dad, Mom and Grandma Cottrell for making it happen-we love you!