Here I am. My yearly post about the good ol’ Barnes family reunion at the coast. I will try to be less wordy than normal. We had another great year: stayed up too late, played too hard, ate too much, got too sandy & wet, rode bikes too much, laughed too much… it was over WAY too fast!! Gratefully there’s always next year :)
Our first 2 days down there it was overcast (not cold though!) and a tad drizzly (is that a word?). That didn’t stop us from going down to the beach though, and there was absolutely NO wind! The kids can never resist getting a bit wet no matter what the weather. Above and below are the two buddies/cousins Graham & Lance. (Cool pict with their reflection huh?).
The kids LOVED collecting wood from the forest to put in the fire…until Carson, without realizing it, grabbed a piece that disturbed an underground hornets nest!! Quite the traumatic experience, thankfully only 4 stings for him & 2 for Todd. Posh took care of the nest later that night with some diesel gasoline, they weren’t a problem after that :)
After the initial 2 days of overcast the weather turned BEAUTIFUL!! We all got the good out of it and enjoyed some splashing and castle building on the south jetty beach.
Todd & I buried Graham and Carson in the sand.
This year Jessica & Daniel put together a really fun “boot camp” for the kids. We all got “Barnes Family Reunion” dog tag necklaces with our names on them (the whole entire group, all 40 of us, wore our necklaces with pride all week- what a great idea!). The kids had the chance to earn extra tags for 3 different areas, “Fitness, Family & Service, and Wildlife.” They had to accomplish about ten tasks to earn each. Above we’re doing pinwheels as part of earning our fitness tag. We all loved this and know it took tons of preparation & planning, a big THANKYOU to Daniel & Jessica for getting it all together and organized. 
This year the low tide was PAINFULLY early!!! So, only the dedicated few braved the darkness of the early morning and went on the search for those delectable river clams… (I slept in with our boys while Lucy and Todd were stalwart. Lucy LOVES clam digging no matter the time). Above & below are pictures of the “cleaning crew” and the “pounding crew.” We got about 8 limits (I think) which is over 250 clams! To hear & see just how loud our pounding gets click on the link http://youtu.be/2hQQkaRV7ks
Our second annual Barnes Family Talent Show was mc’d by Uncle John this year. He took the job very seriously :)
Jodee demonstrated her yoga talent with some audience participation. The kids did amazing!
Jodee demonstrated her yoga talent with some audience participation. The kids did amazing!
Lucy put together a skit with cousins Hannah, Wyatt & Sterling- here’s the link http://youtu.be/CBMBo-HnXC0
Emmett showed off his impersonation of what Chewbacca (from Star Wars) sounds like. It sounds like the real thing!
Paul did a magic trick for us which mesmerized all the kiddos.
Wyatt, Sterling, Hyrum, & Lance worked together to put on one hilarious skit, it certainly had us all busting up :)
Cameron, Julian, Derek, and Little Edie made up the band “3 Clams and a 1/2 shell.”
Maggie played the bagpipes while Molly and Eli (who were supposed to sing along) watched her :)
Hannah, Wyatt, Sterling, Hyrum, Lance, Lucy, Carson, & Graham got together and did an airband performance under the band name “The Posh Posterity Band” Here’s a link to the video on YouTube http://youtu.be/NE5Wk2JnvgI
Posh told a joke which made us laugh, and then he got everyone up front that was a Siuslaw grad, and they sang the school fight song (youtube link http://youtu.be/MbIEDSUndcg)- it was pretty cool! Michelle presented all the participants with fun prizes, and now we’re all thinking of what we can do next year to top this year…hhhhhmmmmmm.
The last campfire before packing up until next year. This year we had this wonderful black gate around our fire to protect those little toddlers we had wandering around. I have to say that at first I really fought this idea, it seemed ridiculous, but I was won over eventually when I realized it really wasn’t that big of a deal and it did help the fire not be so worrisome with little kiddos constantly walking around it.
Here we are at the end of the week… stinky, smelly, tired, dirty… and HAPPY :)
Top L to R: Todd, me, Posh & Molly, Maggie & Eli, Hannah, Gramma, Seth, Michelle & Grant, Soozi, Daniel W., Dylan, Anna & Cameron, John & Presley the dog, and Pat. Middle L to R: Daniel B. & Emerson, Jessica & Emmett, Hyrum, Sterling, Graham, Wyatt, Carson, Kelly & Edie, Lance, McKenzie, Sadie, Julian, Brandy, Derek, Paul, and Renee. Ground L to R: Greg, Lucy, and Jodee.
We truly enjoyed every minute of it and can’t wait until next year! Thank you to all who worked hard to make it happen and make it fun!!
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