How to Crash a Family Reunion

We were invited out to Ibapah, Utah (you will have to google map it...it is in the middle of nowhere) with our friends the Warrs for the Christiansen family reunion. We didn't know anyone in the Christiansen family except for our friend Jesse Warr, but now we have learned all about their history. Jon even stayed awake to listen to a presentation about the parents and 12 kids who lived in Ibapah while the rest of us slept. So, here are some pictures to illustrate the fun we had out in Ibapah.

Jon and Jesse (on the left) were co-winners of the water balloon toss and sole winners of the egg toss. They are pictured here with our new friends from, as one of their t-shirts says, Fresno...Fres-yes! Way to go guys, way to go!

Bethany made a very valiant effort in the gunny sack race; however, when her pants began falling down, she just didn't have the focus to leave them down and win the race.

This is a disgusting picture, I know, so let me explain. They were doing a "Fear Factor" type game and asked for teams of 4. So, naturally Bethany, Jesse, Jon, and I were a team. What we didn't realize ahead of time was that we were the only ones participating over the age of 10. In the game above, one team member had to have life savers put on her face. The other team members had to lick the lifesavers and stick them on her face. Whoever had the most lifesavers on her face at the end of 60 seconds won, so the Lifesavers had to be licked repeatedly. Yes, there is nasty slobber from my other teammates all over my face. But, most importantly, we won! We relished in our glory over these 10-and-under kids.

In this game, Bethany had to put her face in a whipped cream pie and get all the worms out. Yes, we relished in our glory of winning this game, too.

In this game, Jon had to pull "eyeballs" out of pudding goop. As he was placing them in my hands, he was splashing pudding on me. That's why I have the disgusted look on my face. Kind of funny that I wasn't too grossed out by having 3 people's slobber on my face, but I don't want pudding on my shirt.

The last game of "Fear Factor" was the one Jesse did. The plunger IS new. It was filled with chocolate pudding. He had to lick the inside of the plunger as clean as possible. Bethany and Jesse took the plunger home as their prize. They said they needed one.

This last game we did not participate in, but it was absolutely hilarious to watch. There was a long rope with a bleach bottle full of water tied at the end. They put some foam along the rope due to mishaps the year before. One person would swing the rope around their head as fast as they could, and kids would jump over it. Well, first up was the 6-and-under crowd. Immediately, one of the kids didn't jump high enough and the rope wrapped around his legs and took him down. We were all laughing until we realized he was crying because he had the wind knocked out of him. We all clapped when he got up and limped to a chair next to his mom. Then the 10-and-under crowd went and the same thing happened. Only, this kid was as little higher off the ground and got taken down. Again, we all clapped when he finally got up and limped back to his chair. Probably not the safest game, but it was absolutely hilarious to watch.

Well, you are probably thinking about the oddity of Jon and I attending a family reunion of someone else's family. And, I will admit that now that you mention it, it is kind of funny. You are also probably thinking how ridiculous it is that we played games with 10-year-olds and that maybe we should get a life and actually have kids of our own so they can participate in these games. That's okay, you are probably right. Nonetheless, we had a blast and loved spending a little bit of time out in Ibapah! Thanks, Warrs!