| Thurm and I were in charge of his family reunion this year. He had the brilliant idea of making it a two-day competition-filled-fest to find out who the greatest of them all was. This was the perfect plan for their family, who is the gaming-est family I know. The whole event was worth 100 points. 50 points coming from competitions, 25 from written quizzes, and 25 from service sign-ups. The service were things like dishes, picking up family room, taking out trash, etc. Thurm set up twenty something competitions and tournaments separated into adult and jr. divisions: 1-Mile Run 4-Mile Run Swim Dive Talent Show Arts & Crafts Writing Hair and Makeup Boggle Backgammon Bananagrams Just Dance Wii Cook-off (Main dish, Side, and Dessert) Croquet Bocce Horseshoes Obstacle course Bean Bag Toss Lightening Then he wrote five different paper quizzes. These were cool because alot of the questions and answers were about the individual family members. Crossword puzzle Scavenger Hunt Movie Quote Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader Trivia Brain Teasers  The big breakdown in the system was the service points. There were many who weren't that competitive and just didn't do their service or I had to come ask them to do it. That left alot of work for me, which being 8 months pregnant was exhausting. Next time, I think we'd assign jobs by family and the parents would have to either be the task masters for their own children or do it themselves. The other thing we would take into consideration is that the kids really just wanted to go play and swim in the canal. I think we probably needed to do less competitions for the kids and give them alot more free time. It was a really fun reunion, but not being very competitive myself, its probably not one I'd want to do every year. But I think its one that will be remembered for a long time : ) It was really cool of Thurm to come up with it all and put it into action. Thurm has such a great family and they are all are such great sports and know how to make everything fun. It was a huge success!  |
| This silhouette is the pose Thurm's family strikes when they win a game - it was on the mug with the words "Worlds Greatest H**** 2012" |
 |
| Backgammon Tournament |
 |
| Crossword Puzzle-clues involve family trivia |
 |
| Arts and Craft Display--There was some really cool stuff! This was one of my favorite competitions. We also had the writing displayed in this room, which Thurm won. He wrote this amazing essay about his dad called "The House that Thane Built." |
 |
| Quinn & Jens spent most of their week on the trampoline. |
 |
| Bocce |
 |
| Croquet |
 |
| Cook-off Prep The cook-off was another one of my favorite events because we ate some amazingly delicious food for two days! My grape salad won the side dish! Woohoo! Some dishes that really stuck out were BBQ ribs and beans, manicotti, lettuce wraps, roast chicken and vegis, quiche, red pepper pasta sauce..... so many good ones. |
 |
| Aunt Lynette teaching everyone a Zumba routine for her talent. This was hilarious seeing 50 people out on the grass doing zumba. I wish I could have heard what passing cars were saying. |
 |
| Talent Show |
 |
| 1-Mile Race finish line |
 |
| Lightening |
 |
| Bananagrams tournament |
 |
| Just Dance competition |
