Highlights of being at the Bryners

I really didn't take enough pictures while we were at Bryners to capture the whole feeling of being there, but we had a great, classic Prete time together. Top ten highlights include:

10. Allie and Olivia playing princess by dressing up in swim suits...and the post-play condition of the swim suits.....

Conversation between Haylee and Olivia:

H: Why are you two wearing swimsuits (slight disapproval in her voice)

O: We are playing princesses

H: But princesses wear beautiful dresses, not swim suits

O: But we are pretending the swim suits are beautiful dresses

H: I don't know how to argue with that.

9. Emma's birthday on the 29th. She turned 9.

8. Cousin bonding. It was cute to see Preston bond with Garrett and Pierce. In these pictures, preparing to sleep--three boys, 2 beds, everyone wanting to sleep with Preston. They were extremely silly and hard to get to sleep, and though we paid for it, later, I could hardly be mad because it was so cute. Paul, James, Sam and Austin formed another cousin group and did everything together. They especially loved playing "The mysterious Jungle Ascent" the game Brian created...oh, and of course, the Wii.


7. Watching basketball games. Christian and Rob talked lots of sports and watched a couple of games on TV including this one while dad walked on the treadmill...

6. Happy Land--There was one happy land event for the kids on Wednesday morning. Alyssa and Anna did the girls' hair and nails, and they played games with the kids. They also made lunch as Liz had gone to get Mom and dad. In the afternoon, Anna took four kids tobogganing. In addition to one happy land event for kids, there were four staff only functions--movie night, wii night, games night and a staff lunch.

5. Alyssa is momentarily and only slightly taller than Anna.
4. Happy Land Graduation--see separate post.

3. Games, games and more games. Beyond Balderdash was super funny...we laughed until it hurt. Mostly we made up descriptions for movie titles. There were some great definitions about "chorus girls in 1940s romps," "a middle aged woman and her cat on a dog sled adventure finding love in an unexpected place, " several "heartwarming stories", etc, etc. I also enjoyed learning to play Sleuth which is a challenging game using deductive reasoning. I hope to play it again til I can do it well--Haylee accomplished that on the first attempt.

2. Amazing hosting by the Bryner family and delicious meals planned and prepared by Liz. I want to thank the Bryners for sharing their home and their holidays with us. The kids reached out to their cousins and everyone felt welcome and had a good time. Christian helped Rob have fun, too.

1. Just being together. I love my family and was so happy to strengthen relationships with everyone. I also want to apologize if I said anything insensitive or harsh. I was a little sleep deprived on the trip and that sometimes affects my sensitivity level.