Another A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. extended Ditto Family Reunion! It sure is awesome how a much of people can all get together every few years and just blend together and enjoy each other's company. Family is everything!
81 Crazy Dittos at Canyon Ferry - Helena, Montana
Birch celebrated his 44th Birthday the first evening of the reunion. 44 candles on those brownies!!
The nieces performed a super cute song they wrote for Birch.
https://youtu.be/z3sB0w-waBc
Birthday hug from Grandma Ditto
Birch and I were in charge of coming up with an activity that would get all the ages and families intermixed the first full day. We packed the morning full of super fun Minute To Win It games. Everyone was such a good sport and had a great time!
Lots of lake time in the afternoons...
Blayre being such a good sport with her pregnant belly taking the kids for a ride.
What does your extended family do at family reunions? Meet the Dittos...they learn a dance in 45 minutes and then perform it to each other for entertainment. This year...THRILLER!!!!
Birch was hilarious -- he's such a good dancer. I love to dance but have found I am a free-spirit and don't follow directions well. I decided to be the camera girl instead. I mean it would be a shame to miss out on capturing President Ditto as a zombie.
Zombie Cousins
Chloe totally got into the outfit
https://youtu.be/Z1IRg3uZ7Iw
Impromptu Skits - we were all divided up into six groups and then given a bag of random stuff to use in a skit we wrote in like five minutes. Ditto Ditto here is delivering twins!
A trip to Helena to go to Grandpa Ditto's gravesite and share storied about him and Ken.
The birthday girl - I turned 42 years old during the reunion. The nieces and Alysee also treated me with a personalized song but sadly it was not captured on film. I celebrated with angel food cake in the evening.
The beautiful Grandma Ditto
More fun...
Awesome picture taken with Uncle Kelly's drone
Grandma Ditto treating us to an amazing super long poem (like seriously super long. Maybe like ten minutes -- all memorized)
All the Dittos by the waterfront. Taken with the drone.
Meet the Aldridge-Cox family!! When Brooke and Corey married last November our kids were super duper sad that they didn't get to come to the wedding. They've all been begging to see everyone again and so we were delighted to be able to make that happen. Our Ditto Reunion was in Helena, MT so we were able to stop in Missoula for four blissful days.
Our first stop was Silverwood Amusement Park. We spent all Saturday at the park. It was PACKED and hot and our cell phones didn't have any reception (made splitting up and meeting again difficult). So you can imagine there were some stressful parts of the day. Even though we only did like six rides the entire day (11 am - 10 pm) we still had a great time. The first part of the day we spent at the amusement park side and then the afternoon we went to the waterpark side. With some luck we were finally able to meet up with a few cousins for the rest of the day. This was super fun!!! We road a super fun waterslide all together. The one and half hour wait for the waterslide was much more enjoyable with cousins. After a couple of hours at the waterpark we went back to the amusement park side and waited nearly two hours for one last ride. We met up at 10 pm and then loaded in the car to head to Missoula.
Silverwood with Ditto cousins - waiting for a waterslide side
We didn't arrive until 2 am on Sunday morning. We all were exhausted but everyone bounced up at 8 am when we woke them up for church because they were so excited to see everyone. Surprisingly we made it to church by 9 am. It was kind of crazy to be back in our old church building from when Birch and I lived in Missoula eighteen years earlier.
What a beautiful family!
Together AT LAST!!!
The next several days just flew by in a blurr. We stayed up late every night, eating dinner around 8 or 9 pm as the days were packed with fun. The kids entertained themselves with the trampoline, riding scooters, watching movies, talking, singing, etc... There was even some dress up action...
Colin (designer), Saggy West (aka Chloe), Maui (Eli), Victoria Duvet (Abbey), and Alysee (designer)
The boys went on their annual "Sheep Lake" hike to Black "Sheep" Lake. The girls slept in, ate out, crafted, did facials, watched movies, etc...
Abbey and Alysee at the pottery shop.
Chloe and Me painting away
Face Masks
Relaxing Music
Don't I look like I am getting younger and more beautiful?!
Poor Coop got stung on the neck and head and so Nate had this ingenious idea of wrapping his head in a blanket in order to secure the ice to the stings.
FAVORITE!!! Rafting down the Blackfoot River
Colin was the first one brave enough to jump
Carlie, Abbey, Alysee, and Chloe
There goes Tyler
Nate and Chase - no fear
Show Off
Eli digging away
Alysee and Colin ready to start rafting. Can I just say that it was NOT a warm day - like in the 70s. We were all wishing for like 10-20 degrees hotter. It took a long time to blow up all the tubes/rafts. Just as we lowered them into the river we started hearing thunder. Like smart parents we decided to take the risk and all 15 of us hopped in the water.
Chase and Nate
Handsome Birchy
It was super fun tying several of the rafts and tubes together.
Tyler
We left the paddles at home so our arms (and flip flops) worked as great paddles!
Kaleb was so patient floating for two hours just like this with Berkeley sitting on his lap.
Chloe saved the day several times. You can see from Alysee's pose that it was a tad chilly.
Selfie!!!
When we got to the end point the kids had a great time jumping off rocks again.
Colin with a beautiful dive.
Nate and his famous backwards twist flip.
Sadly, this is the only picture I have of the two lovebirds. Life is sure crazy when you have twelve kids running around!
Isn't this beautiful!
After rafting we had a late dinner and then sat around and shared favorite memories of each other. It was a highlight for the kids!
That night most of the kids decided to sleep out on the deck. By morning time I think only three were still left on the deck.
Alysee and Colin are so much alike. Both were singing throughout the day. I challenged them to harmonize a song and then perform it for us. There they are in their rendition of "Hallelujah."
Click here if you can't see the video https://youtu.be/HuC0JTJQ6Fw
We sure LOVE this family!!! It was so special to get to spend several days with all of them. We loved getting to know Carlie, Berkeley, and Corey.
The kids last game of "Tangled"
We said our farewells -- the kids were all begging to skip the Ditto Reunion and just stay in Missoula. Before leaving town we drove the kids past our old apartments by the university. Then to see Sara Elizabeth's grave at the Sunset Memorial.
Brooke had bought these bright pink flowers to cheer up Sara's grave.
Even though it has been seventeen years the memories and feelings come right back.
The kids have been to her gravesite a few times. This time I felt that they had deeper questions as they have matured.
It's was an odd experience re-living our Missoula days. I find a have such a fuzzy memory of our time here and I wonder if it has something to do with the stresses we experienced (2 car accidents, burying a baby, terrible hemorrhoids, colonoscopy, getting my wisdom teeth out, extreme poverty, working odd jobs, the repercussions for Birch and Alex after we had our bad car accident, etc....). As I type that all down I am thinking how wonderful it is that I look back on our time in Missoula with positive memories -- but I am also reminded that it was a really tough time in our lives especially thinking we had only been married two years. Deep thoughts....
Anyway, Missoula was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. -- The Cox-Aldridge Clan was W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L. and we're all counting down until our next visit!!!
