Johnson Family Reunion

My family had a reunion this past weekend. It was a lot of fun being with family but we missed the Hawkins family. Kimball did surprisingly well playing with all of the girl cousins, but it would have been even more fun with the boys cousins there.

The Group


Our first day we hung around my mom's house. (We actually all managed to sleep at the house and find plenty of bathroom time. It wasn't as bad as one would think.) Here is a picture of Kimball with some of his cousins playing whiffle ball. Kimball had gotten pegged in the head with the ball and you can see the huge welt on his forehead if you look carefully. Joseph and I both missed the action, but it was reported that Kimball took the hit very stoically.


One day we had a cook out at the park and then the kids played and we looked at the farm animals.





Kimball sitting on a huge tire at the farm section of the park.


We didn't do anything earth shattering, but we took a lot of pictures, played games, ate good food and just enjoyed visiting.

The kids did fairly well on the trip considering the lack of a nap schedule and waking up early most days. The car trips went fairly well too.

Our family took a side trip to Cahokia Mounds while we were there too. Joseph has wanted to see the mounds since he discovered that Cahokia Mounds is a World Heritage Site. It was neat to visit and we were able to stay about an hour before the kids gave out. We would love to go back again sometime when the kids are older.

Joseph and Kimball with the Monk's Mound in the background. This is the tallest of the mounds. We climbed maybe 100 stairs to reach the top. I carried Rebecah even though she desperately wanted to climb the stairs.

View from the top of Monk's Mound. I'm on the stairs with Rebecah.

Annette in front of the stockade.

I love this picture of Kimball. He was watching a Lots and Lots of Trucks movie while we waited for Joseph. He loves this movie and we have checked it out from the library multiple times. He sings along to the movie bobbing his head with a little smile on his face. I wish I could have caught him on video.



Joseph had all of the kids entertained at the top of the stairwell in the hallway reading a Value Tale to them. I don't think Joseph had ever read a Value Tale and didn't realize it would take 30 minutes to read it to them. The picture didn't turn out great, but it was worth recording.


Joseph and Spencer spent a good portion of their free time working on this 3-D castle puzzle. They managed to get it all put together which was surprising to me since I'm not good at puzzles. The best part of the whole puzzle was when I was sitting with Kimball in a different room and he looked at the framed puzzle above us and told me it was the same castle as the one Joseph and Spencer had just put together. I didn't give it much thought I just figured Kimball noticed it was a castle just like the other puzzle...nope...exact same castle. Joseph pointed it out to me and sure enough, it was the same and Kimball realized it. That boy frequently amazes me.