The greatest happiness is family happiness

Pat and I had the privilege to spend two nights with the entire Ryan clan at a very bright, pink, beach house in Fort Morgan. It is the trip of the year for their families and everyone looks forward to it for the whole year. The number usually ranges between 16-20 people. I have had the opportunity to be there for the past three years and it is always a blast.

This year we got there on Saturday afternoon and spent the day on the beach before the rest of the families arrived. We were greeted by a very excited carload of kids ready for the pool! We spent a couple of hours with Kelly, Cotton, and Jenna Kacy playing categories and throwing them around in the pool.

We headed back to the house in anticipation of a delicious dinner, soothing showers, and a night of fun and entertainment. To our surprise, a massive storm came through Fort Morgan as we were finishing dinner and…we lost power. Not only did we lose power, but we lost it for THREE HOURS!

Now, I know losing power in a house full of people in the beginning of the summer sounds pretty miserable. We had hyper children, tired adults, and some teenagers in need of entertainment with NO lights and NO air conditioning. As awful as the circumstances sound, it was one of the best nights I have had in a long time. No TV, no phones, no distractions. Just time with my new family.

We told stories, sang songs, tried to watch Jenna dance in the dark, pigged out on gummy lifesavers, and laughed until our stomachs hurt. As we lie on the tile floor all sharing pillows, I realized that we desperately needed some pictures to document the time we spent in the dark. Here is what came out of our little “photo shoot”:

Attempt 1

Attempt 2...scarrry

Attempt 3...we suprised the camerawoman =)

Attempt 4...who knows??

And the winner!!

The power finally came back on at 10:48 (I know this because we celebrated!) and we all realized what a great time we had. We hit the bed so we could have another beach day on Sunday. We had another pretty day, delicious dinner, and a great annual trip to Scoops.

We were sad to leave yesterday- but we had to come back and do married people, adult, stuff (like school and work) Booo!