Drake Family Reunion 2019

This last week we got to celebrate the 4th of July with all the extended Drake Family. It was so fun.
We arrived Tuesday night and the fun started Wednesday July 3rd.
We started our day at Papa's boxing gym. Three days a week Papa boxes with a group of Parkinson's patients. He is part of the "Rock Steady" program and its amazing. He is such a rock star and it was so fun to see him doing his thing. The kids loved it. 

They loved getting to box with the trainer and see Papa do all the circuits. It was so fun. 

Dad's trainer also took me through the ringer and I was so impressed with how tough the program truly is. I feel like I am in decent shape and I was breathing deeply a couple times. But honestly, it was so fun to see my Dad working so hard and being so strong. 

After we boxed with Papa, we loaded up and drove to Blanchard Springs Caverns.
We use to go here almost every summer with our cousins, so we felt like it was the perfect way to start our reunion. 

These two cute cousins are the best of friends. They are inseparable.

The kids really enjoyed the tour. We learned a lot and they asked some great questions. 

Can you see the titanic ship in the picture? I've been taking this tour since I was a young kid and this is still my favorite formation. 

Tanner even got to help the tour guide open the secret door. 

I was cracking up at this picture. I asked Joseph to take a family picture for us and when I looked at it, he had totally cut out Benson. He was sleeping quietly in the stroller and he just forgot about him. 

Of course when we retook the picture, Tucker made a weird face. But do you see that sweet sleeping Benson. 

After we finished the tour, we waited outside for the bus. Benson was out cold. Sweet sleeping boy. 

Then we drove over to waterfall and natural springs. I have so many memories of this place. It's so fun to take my kids there now. 

After his short nap, Benson was up and ready to play. He loved exploring. 

After exploring the waterfall, we drove over to the springs to play. Benson had the best time floating around and swimming. He was making me anxious because he has zero fear and he would just float down the stream without a care. We had to keep chasing after him and bringing him back. 

Bailey loved playing with Grant. She didn't mind at all that he kept slapping and splashing her. 

The big kids had fun bluff jumping. Tucker surprised me when he decided to jump too. He's getting so brave. 

We headed home from the Springs and ate dinner at the Air BnB we'd rented for the family in Cotter, AR. At this point, most of the family had arrived. We got to hang out with the Speers, Lanoys and Deguees.  We were just waiting on the Richters to arrive later that night. 

Thursday morning, bright and early, we met everyone at Cotter Springs. 

We played at the springs, ate and played at the playground. It was so fun to see all the family. 

Tanner was even brave enough to do the rope swing. Chris and Tanner both did it. I was too scared! 

But we had fun playing in the creek!

Chris did the rope swing  a couple times. He did a huge cannon ball and the kids loved it. 

I couldn't believe how brave Tanner was. 

He was such a rock star. 

Benson just loved playing in the water. 

Bailey did too.  She had so much fun playing with all the cousins her age. 

Tucker also loved the creek. He had fun swimming with the current like a little fish. 

I had fun just snuggling cute babes. 

It was a very fun morning with the cousins. After we finished at the springs, we drove back to Nanny and Papa's to get ready for the water games and fireworks.
Growing up Uncle Clark always bought tons of fireworks on the 4th and put on an awesome show.
He has bought so many fireworks over the years that the man at the fireworks store  actually remembered him. Lol.
We set up tons of water games, made home made ice cream, blew up balloons for a balloon arch and laid kids down for naps. 

Tanner loved playing slip-n-slide kickball. This was a huge hit with all the boys. It was so fun to watch. 

A lot of the kids enjoyed playing in the mini pools we used for bases. And some of them played on the inflatable water slide. 

Next we pulled the plastic sheeting together to make a huge slip-n-slide. 

This thing was massive and the kids loved it. 

Zach and Trevor pulled the kids by a hose and they had so much fun. 

The hose was so long that all the kids could  hang on together and slide together. It was so fun to watch. Their faces were hilarious. 

I love all these little faces so much!

Then Zach and Trev had the kids pull them down the slip-n-slide. This was even funnier.
They couldn't get them to budge for the longest time and then with a little help they pulled them down inch by inch. 

Next up was a massive 700 count water balloon fight. SOOO many water balloons.
The kids loved it! 

Happy Fourth from these cute patriotic swimsuit babes. 

Then we ate dinner. We had burgers, hot dogs and all the fixings. 

We snagged one family photo together too. 

Next, it was time for fireworks.
Benson enjoyed both the pop-its and the sparklers. He took his job very seriously. 

I mean, Look at that face. 

Tanner is getting quite proficient with the punks and lighting his own fireworks. 

I got to help Benson with some sparklers too. 

We ended the night with home made ice cream with all the fixings and we watched Uncle Clark's amazing firework show. It was a wonderful fourth of July. 

The next day we woke up early, met at Papa's office and the loaded up to drive over to the river. We left Benson at home with Nanny & Aunt Michelle. He was a little young for the river and it was less stressful with him safely at home. 

We got our canoes and loaded up. 

We had so many canoes because there were so many of us. It was quite the site to behold. We were a fleet!

Tanner ended up in a canoe with Papa and Uncle David and it was basically a dream come true. 

Papa got to lounge in the front while Uncle David and Tanner paddled. 

Dad took Bailey and Tucker rode with me. 

Tucker was the cutest canoe mate. He loved everything about being on the river. He listened to my directions, helped watch for rocks and paddled when I asked him to. 

I love this picture. It's so quintessentially a Drake Family canoe trip.

He even got out sometimes and floated next to canoe. 

He was so brave. 

Bailey enjoyed canoeing with Dad. 

She also loved hanging onto the side of the canoe and floating. 

These kids did so great on the water. We were so proud of them. 

After a couple of hours, we stopped for lunch.
We made sandwiches, ate chips and treats. One of the best parts of the canoe trip is the treats.
Aunt Lynnette always buys the best snacks. 

This picture is so funny. Tucker was feeling pretty tired at this point and he laid down to rest while he ate the last of his lunch. lol. He was so worn out. 

Tanner and Papa enjoyed lunch together. I love this picture. It's one of my favorites from the day.
I have so many memories of my Dad taking me canoeing so it was so special to get to see my kids sharing those experiences with my Dad too. He's the best. 

Bailey happily ate her food in the canoe while she watched everyone around her. 

After eating we floated the rapids. We use to do this as kids and it was fun to take the kids. They loved it. Especially Tanner. He went with Aunt Sarah the first time and was grinning the whole time. 

This kid is so cool!

After lunch and floating the rapids, we loaded back up and floated for a couple more hours. 

We took it easy and enjoyed the river. Some of the teens caught a baby river turtle and gave it to us to keep in our canoe. This was probably the best part of the trip for Tuck. He loved that little turtle so much

 The turtle was named Tug and it was so fun to watch Tucker enjoy it. I was so proud of him when he happily shared the turtle with Bailey. He handed it over to her without fuss and let her keep it in her canoe. That's love!

 

He also gave Tanner a chance to see the turtle before we released him back into the river. 

We had so much fun canoeing with the family. We can't wait til Benson is a little older so we can take him to do fun things like this too. It was a blast. 

After an awesome day on the river, we went home, showered and drove over to Cotter for family pictures.
How lucky are we that we have such an awesome family that loves and supports each other, but more importantly, gets along with each other so well? It's kind of amazing!

This kid enjoyed his day with Nanny while we were on the river and was hamming it up after pictures and dinner. He was cracking us up. 

These two! They are adorable!

After dinner, we took the kids home to finally sleep. It was a long, very full day. 

However, the next day was also full of fun. We woke up early again and met everyone at the boat docks. We rented five boats and our fleet took off on the lake. 

Ride away kids started tubing. It was so fun!

Tucker was so brave. He's never wanted to tube before, but this year he tried tubing and he loved it. Just look at that face!

We also anchored a couple of the boats to stay stationary with the food and let kids stay there playing while others went skiing and tubing. There was a slide off the back of one of the pontoons and it was so fun to watch the kids play. 

Tanner was so brave and jumped off the top of the double decker pontoon. I couldn't believe it. That kid is crazy brave. 

We also unrolled the aqua pad and let the kids play. This floating yellow pad was such a hit. It was 20 feet long and so many kids could play at once. It was awesome. 

look at all those cute cousins!

Benson loved the water slide. He would slide down, hit the water, pop back up and yell "again". It was so funny. He's pretty fearless.

While anchored, we ate lunch and relaxed. Benson even snuggled up with Daddy and napped. He also snuggled up with Tucker. They were so cute. 

Then it was back out for more tubing.
Bailey loved it and  tubed so much!

Tanner joined her once. 

Max and Bailey tubed together too!

While the kids were skiing, Benson enjoyed sitting with Dad and enjoying his coke. That boy is such a Herb. 

Eventually we passed Tanner off to another boat so he could tube with some of his other cousins. He really loved the Allen boys. My cousin Shannon  has the sweetest boys that are very close in age to Tanner. They had so much fun together all weekend. 

Before heading back to the doc for the day, Bailey got to try skiing. She really wanted to try but she was also really nervous. Thanks to Cousin Matt's instructions, Bailey was able to get up on the skis and I was so very proud of her. 

I mean, look at that face- she was so proud of herself!

It was such an awesome day on the lake. Seriously, we couldn't have asked for a better day on the lake. We had a blast!

After boating, we went back to Nanny and Papa's to shower and change our clothes and then went out to Cotter to eat our last dinner with all the family. We shot off a few more fireworks and just hung out and enjoyed each other.
It was such a fun reunion and we had a blast.  I can hardly believe its over.
We went to church yesterday and then drove home after wards.
We are all a little tired but so happy. It was a wonderful time!