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July is our Family Reunion month, and we just got back from our first one. We met with all of Jon's family for a week of fun-filled family time. We played some games in the park on a couple of days, but the favorite activity by far was playing in the swimming pool in the backyard of the rental house. Here are a few highlights. For pictures of these highlights, you can contact us to get our blog address.

All 17 of the cousins lined up in age order for picking equal relay race teams. Our kids will have LOTS of cousins to play with.

Jon was on the "Orange Bucket Team" with one uncle and four cousins ages 10, 6, 5, and 2. They won the first relay.

Vanessa made matching dresses for the four 2-year-old cousins. They were so excited about the new dresses that they wanted to put them on immediately, right over their clothes.

Jon and the littlest cousin wore the same outfit one day.

Chicken Fight #1: Jon and his sister versus their other sister and her husband. Jon's team won this match.

Chicken Fight #2: Once the little girls saw how the chicken fight worked, a couple of them had to try it too. The aunts who were on top in the first match became the bases in this one.

Vanessa was the favorite for a while as she held littlest cousin in the pool while helping two of the two-year-olds take turns jumping in.

A little about Jon's family:

I am the seventh of eight children. I have four older brothers, two older sisters, and one sister that is younger than me. All of my siblings are married except one brother and one sister. My parents are the proud grandparents of seventeen children with the eighteenth grandchild on the way. We enjoy having many siblings, we consider our siblings and parents our best friends. My siblings work in various fields, biology (cancer research), speech therapy, family history, management for a utilities company, public housing case worker, public health and my parents were both educators. We like music, camping, playing games and spending time together doing almost anything else.

A little about Vanessa's family:

I'm the second of seven kids, each two or three years apart from the others. My older brother is married with one adorable curly-topped two-year-old, and a second baby girl just a couple of months old (not pictured). He just finished his M.B.A, and works in Tokyo, Japan. His wife has a degree in communications and loves staying home with her girls. Younger sister #1 is getting ready to start law school in Fall of 2009 while running a small consulting business. Younger sister #2 was married a few months ago, just finished a degree in Music Education, and will be teaching band in a middle school in the fall. Her husband is a mechanical engineer, and can fix anything. Younger brother #1 is a freshman in college, and getting ready to serve an LDS Mission beginning this summer. Younger brother #2 is a junior in high school, has a driver's license, and is finally old enough to date. He plays on the lacrosse team, and enjoys ballroom dancing. He also prides himself on being the "favorite uncle." Youngest sister is in ninth grade and enjoys playing the oboe and piano, cooking, and wakeboarding. Actually, everyone in the family loves waterskiing and/or wakeboarding, except my mom who just loves hanging out on the boat with the family. My dad was an electrical engineer for many years, but is now retired so he spends his time vacuuming and helping my mom go grocery shopping. My mom's favorite things to do are watching her kids perform and reading stories to grandkids.