Don't Mess with a Reynolds!!!!

Morgen, Isaac, and Lucy (Reese's brother's wife and kids) came down for a visit. Some of my favorite childhood memories are playing with cousins. I was THRILLED to see my kids play, play, and play some more with theirs.
An interesting thing happened with the monsters pictured below at my in-laws pioneer party the other day. I made Reese sit down and write out the story, as he is much more articulate than I. Here it is.........

I witnessed for the first time, the Reynolds Mafia mentality expressing itself amongst the young generation . . . and frankly didn't know how to react.

We were visiting Mom and Pops' ward in Sun City, FL for their Pioneer Day activity. Morgen, Isaac, and Lucy were in town from D.C. so it was particularly enjoyable for Payte, as she and Isaac get along like "peas and carrots" as Forrest Gump would say. They were inseparable for a week and unbelievably capable at working out their differences - I honestly have not seen anything like it before.
Anyway, there they were, running in circles in the church gym as Dak ferociously chased them, making his most intimidating monster growls. It was quickly clear to the by standing children where the fun was at, and they attempted to join in. However, Dak wasn't interested in chasing any of these unfamiliar folks, so he continued only to pursue Isaac and Payte. Well, it turned out that one little boy didn't like being neglected by Dak the Destroyer and chose to deal with it by giving a stout, unexpected shove to Isaac that put him directly on his bootie. Isaac was surprised, and so shocked that he frankly didn't know how to respond. Within literally less than two seconds Payte came charging in at the aggressor, the full weight of her most vicious scowl bearing down on the little boy like a ton of lead. She had seen what happened, and it was not going to go unpunished. Dak, bolstered by Payte's convictions and also having seen the shove, redirected his monster growl upon this perpetrator . . . who was quickly regretting his choice of victims. Isaac quickly came around and was suddenly on his feet, shoulder to shoulder with Payte, the three of them now crushing the little boy with stares that one should not see on the faces of kids so young. Then Payte slowly began to move closer, step by step towards the boy, Isaac and Dak inches behind . . . I honestly did not know what was about to happen, and I actually had a moral struggle as to what I would do - I was so stunned by this behavior that my curiosity was just overflowing to see what was actually going to happen. However, I quickly stepped in and "diffused" the situation - after all, it was in the church.
So, after I had called off the dogs and they had justified to their satisfaction their hostile actions, the scared and humbled boy sulked away. I saw real threat in those eyes of Payte, and in Dak I saw a face that said "go for it Payte, I'm in". I waffled between pride in their defensiveness of their cousin and their self-confidence, and the fact that I had just seen them rally the Reynolds gang to intimidate a boy nearly to tears just with their heavy stares.
I'm glad I stopped it. As for right now, I think we're going to reconsider the Karate class Payte wants to join.

Morgen and Lucy

Lucy at the piano. Isn't she beautiful!?!

Say CHEESE! This is Tagg's camera smile. Nice buddy!

Cousins sleeping in a fort.
"like peas and carrots"

Happy 33rd Honey!

I threw a big surprise party for Reese this year. He was SO surprised (probably because I did it three weeks before his birthday). I was thrilled! It's VERY hard to pull one over on him. He can always tell when I'm keeping something from him, and always finds (without meaning to) the presents I've thought I hid in a good spot. I think his mom was even more ecstatic that we surprised him than I was.
Reese was out of town and working a lot of late nights on the weeks preceding the party. The night before he told me he felt bad about being gone so much and that he would be coming home at lunch time the next day. I enthusiastically said, "Oh, great! The kids will be so glad!" I was, of course, not so glad on the inside. I called his boss and he agreed to keep Reese at the office for the entire day. Reese was NOT too happy with him, though, and his boss agreed to give him Monday off for not letting him go home early that day. Thank you Kimball and Abilio for helping me pull this off!

This is us on Reese's real birthday. He wanted flan. What the?? I DON'T like flan. It's too eggy. I hate eggs. But, he WAS the birthday boy.

Friends Forever!

Tagg and I briefly visited Utah during the 4th so we could go to the Miller Family Reunion. I don't have pics from that yet so I'll post them later.

I was able to go out with the ole neighborhood gang. I love these girls! Teresa (far left) and I were inseparable during our Senior year. I loved picking rice out of the pot at her house; lots of good times.

I remember once getting splinters all over my toes as I climbed my fence into Andrea's backyard. Do you still have that Karl Malone towel you had hanging in your room? It was a towel wasn't it; priceless.
It was SO fun to catch up with these ladies. So much has happened to us over the years and we've only recently reconnected through blogging. But, it felt like we had never been apart. Friends forever!

This is my AMAZING sister Ashley and my BEST friend from junior high Haley.

Haley and I lived directly across the street from one another. We had the GREATEST times together. I remember dragging a cooler up the hill to sell snow cones to the younger neighborhood kids. We gave them a dinky LiTtLe cup with shaved ice, put some kool-aid on it and charged them 75 cents. We made twelve bucks that day and promptly took our proceeds to Baskin Robbins where we bought a turtle pie. Yum yum!

I don't know if Haley and I were immature for our age, or if we were just trying to hang on to our childhood as long as we could. We spent countless hours playing, or should I say romping. Yes, I think romping adequately describes our activities. We just had a lot of good active fun. Love you Haley!

One of the best parts of my trip was spending time with Ashley. She Is Superwoman (and I'm not just saying that because she has done two iron mans). She spent the night in the hospital just before my family descended upon her. She found out that she is diabetic. But, she is also eight weeks pregnant, and those first few weeks of untreated diabetes increases the chances of birth defects. She prepared a HUGE meal for the family reunion all from scratch, gracefully let us take over her home, took care of her three kids and Great Dane puppy, allowed visitors to pop in and out, and made another homemade meal, pie included, all while she dealt with the joys :) of early pregnancy and tried to get a handle on her diabetes. She did this all effortlessly. She is also a wonderful mom! Her kids are so sweet and mild mannered (at least compared to mine). She does lots of fun projects with her kids and religiously keeps a scrapbook/journal for them. I don't know how she does it all. You're the best Ash!