The HALL PARTY TIME

There is very little better as a mom than seeing your children altogether, interacting and laughing--playing games or (our newest activity) watching the grandchildren play.  We had some of those opportunities in April when Tosha and Austen flew from Oklahoma City to spend almost two weeks in Utah prior to their relocation to Okinawa.  (They fly out on May 20 from OKC to start that next part of their adventure.)  They were here from April 16th to April 28th.  They stayed up at his Grandmother's house which is kind of a central place and then we saw them for different days through out their stay.

Saturday, April 18th, we planned our first G&J Hall Reunion.  We started off the day with family pictures at 8:30 a.m. in east Layton.  It is even more work to get clothes coordinated for an extended family, but everyone was darling.  Ashlee Hair who was my visiting teacher and has a photo business did our pictures and she was great.  We are so excited to see the final product and don't worry, I am sure some of them will make their way into the blog.  I forgot to take any pictures of the process until the very end when we were taking a few pictures of the grand children with this yellow chest.  Here are they.......

       
    .........  and this is what they were looking out--their parents and grandpa waving things and making silly noises.  It was quite entertaining. 

A special shout-out to Jessica who was a good sport to allow us to take family pictures when she was 36 weeks pregnant.  I am kind of a nut about family pictures and our last one was taken in 2010.  We have added some people to our family since then and it might be 4 years until we are all back together again.  (although we are hoping that we see Tosha and Austen in 2 years as they do get one home leave during their 4 year stay.)

After family pictures, we headed to Kneaders for brunch.  There was not enough room to sit all together outside so Gary and I enjoyed a "quiet" brunch together at one table....

While our kids were at the other table.  I had spend time with Tosha, Austen and Niki on Friday but this was the first time that everyone else had been with them.  It was so fun to hear them laughing and talking together.  It was made even sweeter that Ben felt well enough to join us.

Clockwise from Scott (red shirt), Chantel with Scarlett, Jessica, Elessia, Tosha,
(Niki is asleep in his car seat), Austen, Jena, and Ben.

The afternoon we all took naps except for Austen, Tosha and Niki who headed up to Tremonton, UT to attend the funeral for his great grandfather who had passed away earlier in the week.  Austen felt bad that they had to take some time away during our Hall Reunion but I was glad that they had the opportunity to be here and share this time with his family as well.  And a nap was great!



Flag flying day!
I want our grandkids to connect flags to our house.
We are glad to be Americans.

In preparation for the kids coming, we bought a baby swing and here is a shot of Jena and Scarlett swinging together.  Both Niki and Scarlett enjoyed the swing.

 

We played some games with Grandpa and Nana Giberson and then headed to Dragon Hills for dinner.  Again, I love watching my kids interact.

Grandma Hall was also going to join us for afternoon games and dinner but she also had a funeral to attend in Springville, Utah.  Just when we were leaving the restaurant she called to say she was home so we all headed over to spend some time with her.

While there, Scott decided to help Grandma remove a magpie next from a tree in her backyard.  magpies are very aggressive birds and Mom Hall is always worried that they will hurt one of the great grand children some day.  They have attacked both her and Charon at different times.  There were two eggs in the nest which made her feel sad but she hoped that it would discourage them from building in her trees.  (Update:  No such luck.  They began building at a frenzied pace in the same tree.  This past week Scott went over and pulled it out and it also already had some eggs in it.  Determined birds!)

Niki and Scarlett decided to check out the mirrors together. Scarlett was more interested in Niki this time than looking at herself.

We headed home for a bit longer and watched the kids play.  This is what Grandma's house looks like when two grandkids come to play---actually it looks this way whether Niki or Scarlett is there.  We love to play toys and read books together.

That ended our first day together.  There were more to come!