Well, Hello Dolly!

Okay folks, just the pictures you have been waiting for! Rachel dressed up as Dolly Parton (I even wore fake eyelashes). We had our Family Reunion over Labor Day Weekend, which includes my dad and his siblings. My dad was in charge, that really means Tori, my mom, and I were in charge. We chose a Western theme and had a blast. It was so fun to have so many people dress up and humor us. There were about 50 adults, and most of them dressed up for dinner. We had the Laura Ingalls group, Kissin' Kate, Unsinkable Molly Brown, Woody and Jessie from Toy Story, a Mountain Man and his squaw, assorted cowboys, a few shady ladies, and others you will see as you go.

My mom will be embarrassed by this picture because between all of us getting dressed up, keeping Kendal busy, and getting ready to feed 75 people their dinner, we trashed her house.

Okay, some of the ladies of the family. My mom was dressed as Marshal Dillon's Mistress, I was Dolly, my sister Tori was a prostitute named Big Nosed Kate, Kelsey was Annie Oakley, and Taylor was Sacajawea. Kendal was supposed to be Shania Twain, but she wouldn't keep her boots and hat on. She turned into a dirty-faced girl with a mini skirt on. This is just a warning about an upcoming picture, you may not want to see it. So just click off now and visit another day if you will be appalled and offended by a not very well dressed kick-in-the-pants cousin in law of mine.

Matt dressed up as Pat Garrett. He was a super guy throughout this 4 day ordeal. He did alot of the cooking and I love him!

Here is my mom and dad. Don't they look so cool? They are.

Okay, here it is, the picture I am not sure if I should post, but how can I resist? I did ask his permission to post this, but I won't tell you his name. He is dressed up as a character Woody Harrelson plays in some cowboy movie made a few years ago called The Cowboy Way. This guy is so stinking funny. We all just about choked on our baked beans when he came walking through the gate. A few of my aunts probably dropped their plates. I hear he made a little money from his brother-in-laws for this double-dog dare.

This is a picture of most of the kids in my dad's perfectly-mowed-for-the-occasion pasture. He moved the steers out the week before to avoid fresh cow pie collisions. We have definitely learned that lesson over the past few years the hard way. They are playing broom hockey and as you can see, there was a lot of 'high sticking' going on! But they had a blast. The adults usually play and that gets a little fierce, the brooms have to be reinforced with sticks and duct tape during the game!

This bunch of cousins dressed up as the Earp crew. They are so cute. My aunt Dianne is the short one on the back row. This is 1/2 of her crew. Look closely at Dee Dee, the snaggle-tooth, unibrow, saloon girl. She won our costume contest.

This is my sister Tori and her Jared. They are so cute!

After dinner the night we dressed up, we played Family Feud and had fun talking about our costumes. Over the weekend, we also played Horseshoes (a tradition) which thankfully I got out on the first round, a massive Treasure Hunt for the kids, Texas Hold Em Poker, a mean crabapple fight (you should have seen Dolly chucking those apples, she almost lost her wig and stuffing a few times), a few crafts for the kids, had an adult skeet shoot, a BB gun shoot (they wouldn't let me participate since I was over 12!), and just plain ol' visiting and eating. Of course, we had our 'raffle' and I had to give away the quilt I made to Kissin' Kate. I was hoping to win it, dang it! But it is going to a good home. I also wanted to win the AMAZING aspen log queen size bed frame my cousin Mike made. The headboard and footboard were gorgeous! But, again, no luck! We made the cutest WANTED posters for everyone in attendance like the one I posted last week of Kendal. We had a super weekend and had a great time. My kids had a blast too, 9 1/2 acres of space to run around in and not get in trouble! Thanks mom, dad, Tori, Jared, Angie, Matt, and everyone else!