"Family: isn't it about...time?"

About 2 weeks ago we had a family reunion in historic Nauvoo, IL. It was a Flake (my maiden name) reunion and we had such a wonderful time despite the horrible heat and humidity.

Minus one brother on a mission, all of my siblings, parents and nieces and nephews were present. My kids LOVED having cousins to play with all day every day! They still beg for their cousins and tell everyone about them.
This is my family: Dad, Mom, Joel and his wife Melanie and their kids Ammon, Preston, Wesley, Natalie, Emery, Savannah and Morgan (on the way), Sarah and her husband Matt with their kids Merrody, Joel, Jackson and Norah. Justin with his wife Kelsey and their kids Eden, Jude and Miles. Austin and me with Luke, Jensen and Eliza. Bethany with her husband Paul and thier kids Grace and Alice. Haley and her husband Greg. Beautiful Whitney. Ashley and her husband Ben and their girl Cheyenne. Derek (not pictured as he is on his mission) Dillon (getting ready to go to BYU and then his mission) and the youngest, Cassidy. These are the best people you will ever meet.


My parents with their 19 grandchildren. My mom made all of the grandkids "Flake Cousin Power" t-shirts, which made them all even cuter than they already are. All over Nauvoo people were commenting about them.

The three newest editions: Alice (born 10 days before Eliza), Cheyenne (born a few weeks after Eliza) and of course cute Eliza. Hopefully they will be great friends.

Here they are again. So cute! Eliza was pretty tired that day. All that touring and not much sleeping. Still pretty in pink though.

The proud mothers: Me (Eliza), my younger sister Ashley (Cheyenne) and my younger sister (by 14 months) Bethany (Alice).

This picture is not of Nauvoo but was part of the family partiest, so I included it. Austin and I are standing on our favorite suspension bridge in Des Moines. You can see the capitol building in the distance. If you look really closely you can almost see Luke sitting just off the bridge on the sidewalk. He has recently developed a fear of walking over bridges...

Me and my older sister, Sarah. A few years ago I dyed my hair brown and everyone said we looked like twins. Now though, we just look like sisters. Good enough.

While we walked on the historica "Trail of Hope," Austin pulled our double stroller like it was a handcart. Pretty rough.

It was so beautiful out there, right by the Mississippi.

We found some shade under this big tree. It was SO HOT and SO HUMID!

Luke memorized a scripture about the Nauvoo House for the reunion. He gave it several times, very proudly. Here he is in front of the Nauvoo House.

Carthage Jail. My beautiful sister, Whitney and I by Carthage Jail.

Jensen was attached to my brother Dillon, so of course Dillon is in this family photo at Carthage. We wouldn't mind adopting Dillon. He's so great!

Inseperable...

My older brother, Justin and Eliza. He said she is his very favorite. (Was I not supposed to tell people that?)

Eliza loved the Nauvoo Pagent. She just hung out with Cheyenne the whole time.

Luke thinks he would have been a great pioneer!

Austin on stilts. Does he really need to be any taller?

On the way home from Nauvoo we got to have little Grace in our van. They all had a blast!

Greg was so good with the kids and even got Eliza to be friends with him. My sister Haley got a good deal!

My sister Whitney is good at entertaining kids...and getting them all excited and loud - ha!

Paul found out his "DJ Name Mixer" compliments of the Reese's Puffs box. His DJ name is Buckwheat Charlie

Bethany and Paul were so nice to stay for an extra day at our house after the reunion! Their daughter Grace loves liberty bells and Des Moines has a small one. She loved it though it "wasn't the real one."

We had so much fun with our family! We all miss them so much. Please come back!!