We went to Texas to play with the nieces and nephew for a Zavoral Reunion during June 8-15, 2021.
This was my first flight since my back flare in Nov 2020. I took all my remedies and tools with me for the week. We went very slow throughout the airport. I did all my PT everyday, too. I'm happy to report that even thought the trip took a toll on me, I didn't have a big flare and only had to use IB profin a few times!
As soon as we got there, we met up with Hill family. We've managed to see them every year since Tanner was born! The kids had a blast playing at this cool park together in downtown Austin. Katie's family tagged along with us. Then, we ate at a Tex Mex place and then over to the bridge to see the bats!! I was so excited. This was the time of year when the mommies were giving birth to their young, so they left the cave after sunset. It was harder to see them, but it was such an amazing experience. Tens of thousands of bats, you guys. So cool.
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We topped off the night with some gourmet donuts. They were yummy, but wow, lots of sugar. (I had about one bite from each dish, and that's all I could handle 😆). Then, we got settled at Katie's house. As a I layed down that night, I realized that this day had more activities than I was used to doing in a whole weekend. So I fell asleep pretty quickly.
On Wednesday, we played with the Garrett kids while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive. We loved the chance for some down time. Tanner got super creative with the twins, creating games and crafts with Carly. Dallin had fun learning gymnastics from Brooke and making silly faces with Millie.
That afternoon, the festivities began with a family meeting.
Then a fun game at the church. This was my favorite activity of the whole week! Zach created an obstacle course that had to do with family traditions, memories and character quirks in the family. The kids learned a lot about their aunts and uncles and grandparents in this game and it was a lot of fun!!
Katie did an excellent job with that.
Grandma made everyone these cute t-shirts. Dallin won for getting his dirty the fastest.
Then we had a giant family photo shoot.
Look, I'm not gonna sugar coat this part of the reunion. I believe in telling the truth according to my experience, even if it might hurt people's feelings, because sometimes, history should not have to repeat itself.
The photo shoot was way too long for 12 young children and 8 exhausted parents. For me, it was agonizing. There are better ways to get large family photos, and I need to remind myself and others that my family can't go through this again.
Katie and Katrina asked everyone to keep their opinions or ideas to themselves and to let the photographer do her job. I am proud of myself for sticking it out and showing that I can keep my mouth shut. Anyone that knows me, knows that this is totally against my nature, so it was a very hard thing for me to do. I hope Katie and Katrina appreciate the inner strength it took for me to stay quiet!
I admit it was a bit confusing to see other parents crowding around the photographer giving their feedback and yelling at their kids instead of letting the photographer do her job. I was also intrigued that the photographer's assistant is just sitting on a stool looking at her phone. Ha!!
These shots on my own phone turned out pretty great!
During some of the grown-up photos, Jon and I got the kids playing duck duck goose. I took some candid photos of that because the kids had natural smiles and expressions and were having fun. In my humble opinion, I think that most of a large family photo shoot should be spent just taking pictures of us all playing and having fun with each other.
Back at the house, I taught the girls how to play a few simple songs on the piano. They kept begging me to teach them more. It was fun to connect with them like this, especially after doing music lessons with them online during the pandemic. Now we could be together in person!! I really treasured this type of down-time at the reunion.
The next day was Thursday. We did family softball at the park, swimming at the neighborhood pool, and then braved the trampoline park.
I laid low with the littles during softball. It was so fun connecting with them. Zoey fell in love with my ukulele. At the pool, Zoey kept swimming by me at the steps and we played "swimming lessons" where she was the teacher and I was the student.
At the trampoline park, I enjoyed watching all the fun tricks the big kids figured out how to do. Note that Steve and Melissa were really sick today.
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That night, I saw a chance to give my special gift to all the nieces and nephew. So we rounded them up before bed, and I read and sang the new cousin book to them. The kiddos seemed really excited about it and were glad to each get their own family copy.
On Thursday, Steve felt better, so we did a big day at the lake with his boat.
The kids had a little bit of time to do free-play together while the boat got loaded up. They really enjoyed that and a part of me wished that they could have had more time to just play together.
At the lake, I laid on the ground most of the time to help keep my body from flaring. The weather was really nice and there was lots of yummy sandwich food to eat all day. That evening, Zach made everyone brisket. We also made ice cream with the kids, then played family feud after the kids were asleep.
Making the ice cream was a bit overwhelming for some of the kids and adults. Jeremy was a good sport to help all the kids.
Tanner and these cousins were really glad to get outside where it was quieter. It was really hot out, but the kids still managed to make a big dose of ice cream for themselves. Dallin isn't in these ice cream photos because he chose a different desert for his sugar quota that day.
A few cousins and more adults got fevers by the end of this day, so I gave my boys extra doses of all my hippie medicine to help them stay healthy. I also remained very strict with limiting Tanner and Dallin to one dessert per day. Dallin got a low-grade fever a couple days later, but everyone in our immediate family was otherwise fine. Some people got super sick with lots of congestion, cough, etc.
I made sure to get a photo of these grown-up brothers. I think Matt is finally done growing. He looks the tallest to me, but every time we measure him and Jeremy, they are the same height.
That evening we played a special game of family fued that Zach put together with questions that had to do with the family and answers that came from all the kids. Another night we played the Newlywed Game and Jack Box.
On Saturday, we had a lazy morning playing around with the kids.
Special note that throughout the week, we had to watch out closely to help Tanner with his sensory and social stressors. We found that taking breaks away from the group to check in with him really helped reduce the amount of difficulty he had with processing and decompressing at the end of each day. Overall, it helped him stay better regulated.
Then we had another pool day at the neighborhood pool, this time with the access to the club house. We also played on the playground, where I played restaurant and pirates with most of the nieces and nephew. In the clubhouse, we had fun eating BBQ, swimming and doing raffles. Jeremy felt bad for some of the kids that didn't get a prize, so he added items to the raffle- like cash, tuna and trips to the gas station for a treat. He made sure every kid got something either from him or the other prizes. Brooke and Carly won the trip to the gas station and had a really fun time going later that day. Jeremy took them each separately, which I thought was pretty cool.
Sunday afternoon we started saying our goodbyes and took more family pictures.
Dallin received a really thoughtful gift from some of the Aunties. It was a Minecraft cookbook and he has used it so much this year, cooking his own snacks and meals.
Zoey had to get her last turns playing the ukulele.
That evening, the reunion was officially over. The following two days we spent at the Hills a few miles away before heading back to San Diego.
What a week!!
