Being an aunt rocks my socks

So pretty much being an aunt is one of my favorite things in the world. Actually, when I was younger and would have the irrational, silly fear that I would never get married and have a family of my own, I would comfort myself with the thought that I could just be the coolest aunt who ever lived. And it really did make me feel better! Even though that fear was not realized and I was lucky enough to find Brennan, I still think it's cool to be an aunt. And Brennan and I work hard at securing our spots as the favorite aunt and uncle. Sometimes I even think our hard work is working. :)

A few weeks ago all of my siblings came to Iowa for our family reunion. A day or two before the reunion officially got started Brennan and I had all the nieces and nephews over to our house for a sleep over. (Well not quite ALL of them, we left the three youngest with their parents. We aren't that crazy.) With 9 kids under the age of 12, it was jam-packed evening full of fun and laughs. After playing at the house for awhile we all walked to the park in our neighborhood and played tag and Brennan is the monster and anything else we could think of. It was just fun to run around and be crazy. I love those kids so much. But we left our camera at home, so no fun pictures.

Then we piled into two minivans and headed to Cold Stone so that the coolest uncle could show off his mad tricks. (Let's face it, when it comes to coolness, Brennan beats me hands down. The kids worship him, I swear.) Brennan went behind the counter to help make all of our ice cream and so he could throw it across the store, a highly anticipated event. That left me with the responsibility of corralling all the kids and getting their ice cream ordered before they changed their mind for the tenth time. It felt like pure chaos to me, but we made it out of the store with no major incidents. And the kids loved watching the ice cream throwing. Again, forgot the camera, so no pictures. Lame.

After devouring our ice cream we went home and had a very serious and long voting session to determine what two movies would play. And which one would be upstairs and which one downstairs. Whew, it was a lot of work, but we finally got it figured out. We then did what any good aunt and uncle would do and filled them sugar during the movies. Luckily they all still fell asleep during the shows or shortly there after.

Watching the shows:
In the morning it was like walking into a war zone. Bodies everywhere! Haha, kids certainly get into interesting sleeping positions.
His neck is going to be sore...
The rest of the kids were so excited to show Gavin how he had been sleeping with his head on Henry's bum.
Silly girl.

After everyone woke up we had a healthy breakfast of donuts and juice and then showed off our musical abilities on the Wii. Pretty cute to watch.
Such concentration.
Almost all of the kids in the same shot. Almost.

After hanging out outside for awhile we headed off to meet up with the rest of the family. It was certainly an exhausting endeavor but so much fun. I never really remember having much of a relationship with any of my aunts and uncles. I certainly don't remember interacting with them at that age. That has certainly been one of my motivators in trying to have relationships with all of these kids. I want them to know me, and me to know them. I feel like that could be a valuable relationship to both of us. So by doing these crazy things, I hope I am creating memories for them that will help make that possible. I really do love these kids, and I am afraid of one day not really knowing them other than a report a hear from their parents. Hopefully, I can keep that from happening. Because being an aunt rocks my socks...whatever that means. :)