Musick Family Reunion

So last week we went to Bakersfield California for a Musick family reunion which was very sunny, very hot, and lots of fun. We left for it on Wednesday the 11, and got back this last Wednesday the 18th. It was Lily's first time doing lots of things, including her first time out of state and her first plane ride!

WEDNESDAY the 11th:
Lily and I picked up Ben from work at 1:00, drove to my parents (an hour long drive) and then left there about 2:30. After another 50 minute drive we get to the airport, where we rush through security and baggage, grab some food for the plane, and board the plane at 4:50 (about 20 minutes later than we were supposed to board, but that was a good thing because we were really rushed for time). Then we sit, and take off about 5:15, and it's a 2 hour 15 minute flight to Los Angeles. Lily sleeps through most of it, waking up to eat about the last half hour. We get there at 7:30, get our bags, get our rental car (don't even get me started about how stupid rental car agencies are! Lying little...) and leave LA about 8:30. After another car ride of over two hours (with 7 of us squished in a mini-van with 7 people's worth of luggage!) we finally arrive at my Aunt Shannon's house! Hallelujah! 

Lily and her Daddy on the plane. Of course, I held her the majority of the time so he could program! ;)

Thursday the 12th:
This is the first official day of the Musick Family reunion, but it didn't start until the evening with dinner and a movie, so we mostly hung out with family, and Ben and I took Lily swimming in their swimming pool. It was fun, more so for us than for Lily, but she started enjoying it after getting used to the colder temperature of the pool. I think she also felt a little unsafe when we were letting her float some (always with support, of course) and that made her nervous. But she got used to it quick enough to enjoy it for a few minutes. Then she fell asleep. :)

We went to the dinner about 5, where we saw mamy cousins, second cousins, and first cousin once, and twice removed! (Ask my Dad's cousin Jeannie about which is which, she's very good at explaining it.) Dinner was lots of yummy lasagna and all sorts of salads, and afterward we all sat down to watch "Enchanted." Some of us might have left early, but it was still a nice kick-off to the weekend.

Lily and Mommy in the pool.

Lily fell asleep while her Daddy held her.

Friday the 13th:
Wow, I didn't realize it was Friday the 13th until I just typed that. Ironic, considering... well, you'll see.

Anyway, this is the day we went to Avila Beach. It was so very sunny, and despite putting sunscreen on twice and spending a lot of the time in the shade, I still got a pretty bad sunburn on my neck and Ben on the backs of his legs. But Lily was ok. She basically slept the entire time. There were times she was awake to eat, and a few times she was awake with my mom holding her (my mom really enjoyed her grandma duties this week!) but that was it. Ben and I spent some time playing beach volleyball,, walking along the water (too windy to get in and we didn't feel like changing into our swimsuits and exposing even more white skin to the unforgiving sun), and helping my cousins dig a very big hole.

I mean, this hole was deep. My cousin Kenny said he wanted it to beat the Grand Canyon. They worked on it for a couple of hours, and by the end of the day it was over 6 feet deep. You can't quite tell in the picture, because it started out wide and then got more narrow, so it looks shallower because the ledge is technically part of the hole too. Anyway, it was fun. Took about 10 minutes to fill it back up again, and that was fun too.

The sad thing about the day(Friday 13th, I'll remind you), is about 30 minutes before we were set to leave, we got told that my cousin Brandon was going to the hospital because he hurt himself. We didn't get the whole story until later, but what happened is that he was climbing a cliff-thing and decided at one point that he wanted to jump into the ocean 40 feet below. He figured he would have to jump in between two large boulders to make it safely down, and well, he didn't. He hit one of the boulders on his way down and broke his back, literally. But fortunately he's not paralyzed, and when we went to see him before we left, he was already out of the hospital and walking around on crutches with a brace on his back. Everyone just said it wouldn't be a Musick family reunion without someone doing something crazy and getting hurt. Last time (ten years ago) it was my cousin Bear who got hurt, curiously enough, cliff-diving. You think we'd learn our lesson. :)

 
Lily laying on Ben's chest under an umbrella. Yes, she's very bundled, but it was very very windy and cold unless you were laying in the sun.

Ben, Josh, Kenny and Jenna in the hole they dug. They actually hit water and it started filling in the bottom foot or two.

Saturday the 14th:
This day didn't really start until about 1:00, when we all met up at the church building for outside games. Of course, Ben and I were burnt and not feeling great, and it was so so hot that we spent the majority of the time inside the church building just playing with Lily. Some of the outside activities included a rock wall and a giant water slide that the teenage boys (and maybe an adult or two!) ended up breaking because there were too many of them on at a time. But it was very entertaining for everyone. We had a BBQ dinner of hotdogs and salad, and then went inside for a talent show. I didn't get any pictures of the talent show, I ended up taking lots of video though with the video camera. We have a lot of very talented people in my family. It was a lot of fun.

 
Dimples!!

 
Lily has a thing with faces right now, it's really cute. This was the day we had to wear our family colors, so the Arthur Musick Jr. Family was all in red.

Lily with her great-grandparents, Lynn Musick and Arthur Hayes Musick, Jr. The reunion was for everyone related to his Dad, Arthur Hayes Musick Sr.

Sunday the 15th:
Last day of the Reunion! We all went to church at 10:00, and afterwards we had a luncheon in the gym ( we were very blessed to have the church buildings to meet in). While everyone was finishing up eating, we had a couple of people talk about their Dads and what they remembered most and admired about them. It was nice to get to hear some things about my great grandfather and great uncles that I didn't know, and also to hear things about my grandpa. I think my grandpa's really special, and it makes me sad that he has to deal with Parkinson's. But my grandma takes really good care of him (she's really special too) and I'm glad that Lily has been able to meet them both and hang out a couple times with them. Whenever my grandpa holds her you can tell he really loves her and that he's happy. It's sweet.

And that's all for the family reunion. Most everybody went their separate ways after that, though my family (Ben, Lily, and I, my Mom, Dad, Anna, and Josh) all stayed until Wednesday to hang out some more. But that's another post for later. This is already too long!