Crane Reunion 2012

i love family. not just my side of the family, i'm one of those girls who also loves their in-law family. there are only a handful of us. bear lake is something we look forward to all year. dave and pauline, thanks for making it happen. they rented an 8 bedroom place, there were 16 adults and 21 grandkids there. can you believe that??

i'll start with a picture of me and jeff. not a great shot of either of us, not the photographer's fault...our fault.

grandma ruth, jeff's g-ma, has a million great grand children. this is her most recent...my lucas.

although sofia could care less that a picture is being taken of her, i really like the way my husband looks here. hubba hubba. good picture, babe. i don't know at what age kids start flirting with the camera, or actually smiling...apparently sofia is not of that age yet, as you will see from all the pictures of her.

sofia is so tall. i felt like she was closer to the size of her 4 year old cousins, then the ones her age. this is cute seth, they are about 2 months apart. i told you she's a giant.

look at her ponytail! she's about to attack...

then decides to change her course...

goes in for an unwanted hug...

and somehow poor seth ends up on the floor.

no, we didn't put a porta-crib outside for sofia to sleep in. mike, brooke, maddie and matt put together an olympic games of stuff we do everyday. jeff dominates at putting cribs up. i'm so proud.

lucas is a dream. i can't even explain how much i love this kid. he is the best baby i've ever had. sorry sofia, you weren't the best baby. sofia is fun now, but didn't love sleeping as a baby, especially at night.

on sunday, july 29th, 2012, jeff was able to bless our baby. it was a sweet blessing. though my side of the family was missed so much, i'm so glad that his whole family was there to participate.

after the blessing, traci took some family pictures of us. jeff was trying to tickle sofia, which is why her mouth is open in every picture.

here's the picture Traci took of us last year, look how sofia's grown:

and here is this year:

jeff and his bro's are so alike. it's scary.

i hope this family reunion tradition continues when sofia is a teenager. i love seeing her play with her cousins. i know they will be such great examples to her and when she's in high school, she's going to need good friends around to help her. her cousins will be those good friends, i just know it.