Kath Family Fun Weekend

Oh, man...did we have to pack our entire house into our mini-van for this trip!  This year, adding one kiddo, we had more with us than we left at home - how crazy.  We went up to Breezy Point again and had great weather for a change.  Last year, it rained all year.  This year - mostly great.
The kiddos had a great time.  The girls love playing with their cousins and Grady was a chill little buddy.
A couple most memorables...The girls got to get their picture taken with ELVIS!  And, Jorey got a high-five while Macy was hangin' with Hanna and Chase on the boat.  And, Jorey told Macy she got a high-five approximately 32 times.  :)

We had lots of fun in a pool with a curly slide - guess who the biggest kid was?  -Yep, Ken.  He'd come down 90 mph and splash everyone...he was having such a good time :)

All the kiddos loved the slide.  In lower left, it appears Kate will perish, but we fished her out of there safe and sound.  Nobody was harmed in the making of this photo page!

The first time down the slide for Jorey took about 5 minutes...we were all crying, we were laughing so hard.  She didn't really want to go, but I may have forced it upon her a little.  She doesn't know what she likes, but I do, so she's going to have fun whether she likes it or not!  ;)  She got to the top, said she wouldn't go, and got pushed down...once she started, she did the crab walk the rest of the way.  But, once she went down, she realized it was awesome and went about 50 more times.  Macy was all about it, as long as her face wouldn't go in the water...these girls need more swimming lessons!  phew.

Kath Family Fun Weekend 2010

Again, this year, we went up to Breezy Point Resort for our favorite little family get-away.  We always take off a night early and go stay in Baxter so we can avoid driving for days in the crazy traffic on the way up on Friday.  This year was probably the most fun we've had at the water park.  Jorey was so brave!  She actually went on all of the slides - tube slide and the big red one that Mom and Dad could go with her on.  It was great.  Macy has always been a bit braver around water, so we had no fear about her ability to loosen up, but after a bit of hard-nosed coaxing, Jorey was flying down the big slides with a smile on her face.  Of course, we spent our fair share of time in the kiddo-friendly hot tub, as well, because Macy loves it.  She always has permagrin when she gets in and walks through the suds up to her chin.  We even enjoyed ice cream as part of our package for staying there.  It was fairly exhausting for all to be in the waterpark for 2 whole days, but it was great fun.

The kiddos always have such a great time playing together.  It's fun for me to watch generation 2 of the insanity that is always present when a large sum of small children are given all day to choose what they would like to do!  Macy and Norah were inseparable.  Those 2 had the most fun just being geeks all day.  It reminded me of Kory (Norah's dad) and I when we were little.  Just give us an hour together.  We'll figure out how to have fun.  They did.  Jorey and Jackson seemed to play well together.  Sometimes, I feel bad for Jorey - she's just in a strange age where the little ones are too little and her big sister shuns her.  Oh, well.  She'll survive.  She seemed to have a great time with anyone that was interested in playing for a while.  We spent the first day on the beach, in the sand.  Orange Papa was attacked by Norah and Macy until he started fighting back.  It was giggle-attack time, then.  They thought that battle was hilarious.  The 2nd day brought rain and clouds, so we hit the indoor pool.  Macy and Norah had jumping contests off the side of the pool until Macy scraped her foot on the bottom of the pool...then, there was trauma and mom had to try to carry two ladies home in the rain...Uncle Steve came to save the day and grabbed Macy from me...Big, pregnant 2x4 mom and 2 big girls = near heart attack.  We all had a good time. 

There's an Elvis impersonator that plays up there - he's pretty darn good and you can sit on the beach and boogie.  There was a lot of dancing going on.  We played lots of cards, some beanbags, washers, golfed.  It was fun and entertaining.  We drew for golf teams and my team had to name ourselves "Team Underdog".  We were, Rhonda, Alix, Marshall, and unskilled-me.  Well, I have to say our 4 over par was pretty fabulous for our team.  And, I bet we had the most fun! I'm definitely giving Jason the "best stance" award for tossing bean bags.  That's funny.  And, Andy was looking so fabulous as he tried to prevent grease stains while cookin' up the taco shells for our delicious dinner.

On Saturday, Kork & Mitz had purchased Joke Jelly Belly Jelly Beans.  These were hilarious and awful all at the same time.  There were a couple flavors of the same color, but the joke was that some tasted like cockroaches, boogers, pencil shavings, skunks, and multiple other nasty things.  I had to eat a booger, skunk, cockroach, and I don't even remember what else, but those were the worst.  Yuk.  But, as you can tell by the faces around those that were suffering, it was pretty funny.

Christmas with the Kaths

The Kath family Christmas gathering is one to marvel at.  We gather about 50 people (majority Type-A personalities) into one home.  We have soups and snacks, Tom & Jerrys, and a lot of talkin' smart.  Santa always comes for the kids.  This was the year that some of us 2nd generation parents said, "Let's just skip Santa" - it's a hassle and the kids don't really embrace it in the garage, there's always a lot of trauma, etc.  Oh, lordy...the old farts in the Kath Fam weren't having any of it.  So, he came.  It was the best year we've ever had.  Almost every kid was happy to see him and thought he was super cool.  Jorey even sat on his lap and smiled and seemed content to be on his lap - it was awesome.  We had a new member this year - Alix - Brody's girlfriend.  Amazingly, she survived and seemed unscathed...she may even come back for Kath Family Fun Weekend.  Lord help her.  :)

Kath Family Fun Weekend

We love Bacation! (as Macy and Jorey would say).
The girls can't get enough of "stay at home days", so Ken and I decided to take off a night early and head up to The Lodge for some waterpark fun the night before arriving at Breezy Point to join in another festive Kath Family Fun Weekend.
The weather was a bit chilly and the sun sure didn't shine much, but between Jeff's fires, uncle Steve's secrets, and a number of other entertaining events, we had a great time. When you pack 35 people into one house, you're bound to have some entertainment.
Macy really wanted some goggles, so I bought her a pair. When I first put them on, they were so tight that one eye was pointing up and out...and another was smashed shut. This is when she was still being a good sport...before she realized I was taking pictures of her struggles.

She went down the big slide with thunder and lightning with Mom and Dad. She thought it was pretty cool. The first time down, she got to the top and threw a fit and cried...leave it to mean ole mom to just throw her in the tube and say, "There's no going back, now." She covered her eyes the whole way down and then laughed like crazy when we were done, saying how much fun it was.

Jorey, on the other hand, wasn't so into the water park and just likes to dip her toes in. After a while, she got brave and walked in. We were playing ball and splashing when all of the sudden, her feet went out from under her and she flipped forward into the water...we suffered quite a set back on that. "I want you to carry me" was repeated incessantly after that. She's a bit stubborn...no idea where that came from.


After arriving up at Breezy Point, we had to play a little pfeffer...and Orange Papa had to teach Macy, Jorey, and Norah how to play a little game of war...they did great and I don't think they fought at all! It was amazing.


Orange Gramma and Macy really enjoyed the Elvis show. He was a hunk-a-hunk-a-burnin' love! We all had a good time dancing on the beach and listening to him sing all of Elvis' greatest songs.

On the final day, we finally took a second to get a nice family photo...complete with the girls wearing their 'pack-packs'.

Following Kath Family Fun Weekend, we went up to Lake Osakis for Fry Family Fun Weekend. It was a good time and none of us wanted to go back to work or daycare!
I'll get those photos up, soon, but the Fry photos are updated on our shutterfly site through KFFW at http://fryswiththat.shutterfly.com/