The Legend of the Duck Derby

A week after our return we flew north for a mini family reunion in Logan.  Out of the 8 Bush kids, only Elijah and his family were unable to make it home.  We missed them, but it was wonderful to be with the rest of the family who could make it in.  As always, the week was packed with lots of great conversation, food and activities for all ages to enjoy.  

(Aggie Ice Cream run with a handful of the fam)

Mom and Chelsea planned a deluxe Hawaiian Luau our first night home complete with flower lays, fresh fruit smoothies in plastic coconut shells and IZ serenading us in the background.

  

The next morning Burke, Karl, Dixon, Daddy and I hit Birch Creek Golf Course early in the morning only to find that we had been scheduled a T-time right as a tournament was scheduled!  They gave us a couple of complimentary buckets of range balls to warm up on as we waited and we were able to enjoy a gorgeous morning on the course despite the extra wait.  Burke had been talking about golfing with my Dad for months (seriously, since before we left for Paris) and was pretty upset when we discovered an hour out of St. George that he had left his clubs at home!  It sure didn't look like he was playing with borrowed clubs - he and Dad were kickin my Bush tush as we played best ball...I never got to play my own ball. :)

(Look at Burke's dorky hat on the bottom left, complete with drawstring tight under the chin.)

One of the great additions to our trip was being able to have my Grandmother Ellsworth at home with us.  She recently celebrated her 92nd birthday and is still up for all the craziness at the Bush household.  On the second day Chels, Cassie and Mama had an "Unbirthday Party" for all the grand kids with water activities, "Drip-Drip-SPLAT" (water version of duck-duck-goose), gift exchange and cupcakes.  

I loved these pictures of Grandma E at the party, especially where Caleb is hanging out under her chair as GG observed the party, completely unaware of the little man beneath!

(More shots of the fam at the unbirthday party and Zakia trumping Gabe in chess)

Now, if you know my Mother, you know that she has a small obsession with ducks.  In fact, since I can remember, we have always had plastic lawn ducks on the front law in front of the flower beds.  With each grand-baby born she has bequeathed the infant a duck blanket.  And as a teenager, we were each given a rubber ducky key chain on our 16th birthday.  This visit mom surprised us all with a bowl full of plastic rubber duckies that she instructed us to decorate however we chose to be entered as contestants in the "Duck Derby" as the culmination of our mini reunion.

   

We actually had a blast decorating our ducks!  Above you can see Chelsea's WWF duck (under the jumbo belt the "pants" are stars on one side and red and white stripes on the other...awesome) and in the background you can see my little French duck in her beret, scarf and sailor stripes.  Below are all of our duckies featuring a Hawaiian, a missionary, a pirate, and a biker duck from the "Hells Ducks" gang just to highlight a few.

The big event took place at Merlin Olsen Park where the ducks were dropped from one bridge and carried by the current down the canal, the first one under the arched bridge to be declared the winner.  The kids loved it, although the competition was fierce and a couple tears were shed!

We had so much fun, we caught the duckies in a net and raced three times!  I believe the winners were Caleb, Lydia and...oh shoot, I can't remember if Gabe won illegally or if we had a draw.  What a creative and fun event Mama!

My favorite part of the trip was time to just sit around and visit at night, play with the kids during the day, sing and play guitars and just enjoy each others company.  It was the first time that our family got to meet my sister Chelsea's first child, Desmond, who is now 7 months old and absolutely darling!  I wish they didn't live on the opposite side of the world so we could see this little guy grow, but it was such a pleasure to play with this happy chappy while we could.

(Desmond and Emmett both love music!  While Gabe was playing his guitar, Emmett had the ukulele in his lap and kept bobbing up and down to the music.  I also love that picture of Emmett using the back massager on me in the bottom right hand corner...I could barely feel it!)  

We're getting to be such a big family with all the in-laws and grand babies, I imagine that we won't be able to all fit in my parents home much longer.  I'm so glad that we were able to make the trip and can't wait until Summer 2011 when we can all be together again!