Keith Family Reunion '09: Lincoln City, OR

We had a blast this past week at a Keith Family Reunion "adults only." Of course, we ended up bringing Kodee since Ari is still nursing, but he was the only grandchild (under 18 of course) that was there. We missed all those kiddos running around, but it sure made the reunion relaxing, and low key. I'm so used to everyone fretting over their kids and not really being able to sit down and have some "chill" time- and that's how the whole reunion was. Kodee was a gem during the trip. He absolutely LOVED being an only child for 5 days- and he loved all the attention he got by being the only "baby grandchild." I swear the kid is all smiles. . .we couldn't go anywhere without the flight attendants telling us how cute he was, how they wanted to adopt him, and how we should submit his picture to baby contests everywhere! (one of the flight attendants was a little overboard).

It was sad to leave Jaxon behind. We decided to have him stay with the Green's until Grandma and Grandpa Leinbach were able to fly in and pick him up. They were so nice to come down from UT and stay with him a couple of days! (Great grandson/grandparent bonding time.) When we left Jax he was so happy to be playing at the Green's and Debbie said he didn't even ask about us or miss us the whole time he was with them. They took him to the Pioneer Day Celebration too, so he had a blast there. I called and asked if they lost him. She said no, but that he had worn out all the kids running after him, and they couldn't believe we deal with his energy on a daily basis. I'm so glad we have such great friends to be able to leave him and trust that he's ok.

We set off with Kodee and went straight to the airport. We met up with Nancy at the Pawlowski's in Gilbert and then met Joanna and David at the Alaska Airlines terminal. Mom's friend, Frankie, was able to get us all discount tickets if we flew standby and everything worked out perfectly! Kodee didn't sleep much on that first flight to Oregon, but he wasn't all that bad either. I think he could just tell we were going somewhere and doing something exciting.

Brian picked us up at the Portland airport and we all went back to stay the night at their house in Scio. Jill's house is BEAUTIFUL and we loved seeing all the hard work and beautiful decorating they've put into their place. I swear, she could host her own show on HGTV for home decorating.





By this time most of us were gathered together and we were able to go to church the next day at Jill's ward. We made quite the entrance. Uncle Dudley was given an upgrade at his car rental place- a brand, spanking new mustang convertible.

Joanna, David, and I all drove to church with Dudley and arrived in style. The laughs were nonstop from the moment we were all together.

After church we had pizzas and fruit and packed up for our trip out to the coast. Jim and Kim were the only ones yet to join us. . .they were still with Kayla and wouldn't be able to meet up with us till Sunday night in Lincoln City. The drive was beautiful out to the beach, only about an hour and a half. When we arrived, Kelly and Nancy had planned a wonderful treat in the convertible on the way over. This is how we were greeted at the beach house:




A synchronized swimming routine of some sorts. . .

The first matter at hand was to assign rooms and sleeping arrangements to everybody. Because we had Kodee, we wanted to be able to set up camp somewhere that would be accessible to everybody and where everyone would be in case we were putting him down for a nap. We decided to have Grandma, Dudley, mom/dad, and Ari, Kodee and I, stay at the main house. Everyone else went down about 20 blocks to the other beach house. This one had more stairs and would be harder for grandma to get up and down in. There were more than enough beds for everyone, and we set to work on dinner right away. Jill planned some AMAZING cuisine for us this reunion- since she was in charge of it. She did a fantastic job, and all of us couldn't have been more impressed. Are first dinner menu was salmon, talapia, squash casserole, and rolls. Who ever knew fish could be so great! We don't cook enough of it in our house!

Following dinner, most of us went down to the beach to get some sunset pics. Jill planned this "mini-amazing race" scavenger hunt for us. All of us had a blast working on it through the whole reunion. If any of you are planning reunions for the future, this is a definite must! We'll be doing this for sure at all our next reunions. On the list were items we had to get pictures with: a sunset, Betty Boop, Devil's Lake, Crab Shell, The World's Shortest River, 6 Foot Tall Soldier, Hand Shaped Bench, Pier 101, Surfboard, Mermaid Statue, Sandcastle, Hometown License Plates, Starfish, and a car in a tree (which no one was able to get because it was too far out of town.) We were all super competitive about the whole thing and it was crazy fun- but the best part was all the pictures we were able to get in the whole process. Some of these pictures are PRICELESS- I think some of Jim's take the cake! We put all our pictures together at the end of the reunion and had a sweet slideshow presentation. We were ROLLING. . .I don't think we've laughed this hard in years!

Sunsets:

Betty Boop Pics:

Devil's Lake:

Crab Shell:

World's Shortest River:

6 Foot Tall Soldier:

Hand Shaped Bench:

Pier 101:

Surfboard:

Mermaid Statue:

Sandcastles:

Hometown License Plates:

Starfish:

Anyway, back to the sunset pics. Jim and Kim arrived and we were ready to begin our reunion. After the beach we were all pretty pooped from all the traveling, so decided to call it a night. Both beach houses had hot tubs, so they were much enjoyed!!

That night I got a 24 hour stomach bug. Yuck! Not a fun way to start a vacation. Luckily it only affected me and I was able to get over it pretty quickly. Most everyone went to breakfast to dad's favorite little cafe out there, "Otis Cafe."





Oh yes. . .and let us not forget the meeting of the little people:




Mom and Uncle Dudley were kneeling down and having a very animated conversation. It was hilarious and we all died laughing.
Following that we all went to have a picnic lunch at Boiler Bay. We were all in separate cars and frantically trying to find the landmarks we were supposed to take pictures of along the way. It was pretty funny, because I thought we were the only ones doing it, but of course everyone else was too, and we were kind of secretive about it. Boiler Bay was beautiful, and Jill's "peanut butter" sandwiches were amazing. (FYI, Peanut Butter was the name of the cow Jill and Brian had slaughtered to get roast beef from. . .yum! We joked about Peanut Butter contributing to our meals throughout the reunion.

After Boiler Bay we went down to Depoe Bay. It's a famous spot for Whale watching, and also a place my dad's mom and dad used to go on romantic vacations. We got some pics down by the docs they used to make out on:) While we were at Depoe Bay we went shopping at all the little nic nac shops and went on a scavenger hunt frenzie trying to take all the pics we could. We had a blast, and had no idea the sun was burning us so bad. Nancy and I in particular got a bit fried. Luckily we bought a hat for Kodee and that saved him most of the day. He was SO good, and loved having all the fun. All the girls bought Depoe Bay hats for a great pic, and we all bought tons of Salt Water taffy.




The view was amazing.

Next we went down to check out the Devil's Punch Bowl. It's a natural bowl looking landmark that resulted from two sea caves caving in and leaving a big bowl. We got some great pics down there as well, once we were able to get there. Dad was getting pretty frustrated with the coastal highway traffic and the one way turns.

We all went back to the main house to have a yummy dinner of enchiladas: shrimp, chicken, and beef (peanut butter once again.) They were AWESOME- probably the favorite meal of the reunion (especially those shrimp enchiladas.) You'll have to ask us for the recipe. After dinner we all split up and went our separate ways. Some went down to the beach. Dudley, Joanna, David, Nancy, and I went out to get our last, missing scavenger hunt pictures.


What resulted was a HILARIOUS night of frenzied photograph taking. David had found the long, lost mysterious naked mermaid statue by googling it and asking locals. When we found her, Uncle Dudley said, "Look it's a mermaid!! And she's cold!!" you can imagine. . .We also found a surfboard wave photo-op, and I stopped traffic by taking off my shirt and posing. WHAT HAD COME OVER ME!?? We're talking Jordan, the ultimate self-conscious guy, posing with my shirt off on the highway. We're lucky I didn't get arrested for indecent exposure. . .just kidding.

We also took pictures of the locked up Betty Boop statue, and 6 foot tall soldier

That darn hand bench was such a mystery. Turns out it was right next to the soldier and mom and I were so preoccupied with that we didn't see the benches.

That night some of us played Imaginiff back at the main house. Grandma was a hoot. You'll have to have her say "Grey Poupon" sometime, it's a riot! No wonder she was dressed in yellow for the last two days of the trip!

Tuesday was another lazy day in the morning. Since I was feeling better, Ari and I decided we'd take off and go to Otis Cafe. It was a good breakfast, but we were out in the sun cause there was no covered seating, and I fried my fried skin just a little more. Oops. Then Ari and I went around and took some more pics that we were still lacking for the scavenger hunt. Everyone else went to lunch at Dory Cove, but we were still full so we stayed back and watched a DVD we had rented from Redbox. Sad story: on our walk back to Safeway to return the DVD, it fell out of Ari's purse and we couldn't find it anywhere in retracing our steps. Bummer! Uncle Dudley found us on the side of the road and took us to the naked mermaid statue ice cream parlor, for some AMAZING ice cream. Kodee sure loved it!!



Then we had our last night in Lincoln City. We had a hamburger barbeque, and all sat around enjoying each other's company. Dad shared an amazing testimony with us and we had an emotional, spiritual night. In talking about our next reunion, Kelly has decided to take it on and we're all (and I mean all of us including the 29 grandkids) going to head up to Cove, UT and stay in a cabin in High Creek. We'll also spend some of our time up in Bear Lake. . .EXCITED! Can't wait to see the scavenger/amazing race Kaleb puts together!

After hamburgers we went down to the beach to have a bonfire and smores. . .yum! We played some fun group games and everyone was really hyper!! It's so fun to get the family together! It was back to the house to play Charades X's 3- funnest game ever! Ask us about it, and play it at your next party. . .you'll love it!

Then it was goodbye everybody!!

Ari's annual "baby on the plane pic"

Phew. ..what a reunion. . .glad we made it back safe and sound. Jax sure missed us, and we missed him! Next time he'll get to join in all the fun- wow, I can't believe he'll almost be 5 then. Yikes! I was telling Ari at the next one, she'll probably be pregnant or we'll have another nursing baby. Can't wait!!!

I'll leave you with a slideshow of some of our favorite pics that didn't fit into the category of slideshow's above!

LOVE YOU FAMILY!!