chex 2009

it has been a big year for my parents. they both started new jobs, celebrated their 60th birthdays and last weekend was their 40th anniversary. what an amazing milestone!! so we thought we should have a little family fun to celebrate. how about a tournament with a variety of games that include the whole family, young and old? we called it CHEX.
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the name "chex" stands for "crane house extravaganza." (young madeline and connor named mom and dad's house the "crane house" when they visited while the house was being built and a crane was at work. the name stuck.)

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after much trash talk leading up to the weekend, we finally had to walk the talk...

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we competed individually and as teams....blue v. red.

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the day began with a clever scavenger hunt where we had to follow clues and take pictures with our team at the answer location. here's the blue team demonstrating an "under dog" on the rope swing...

the next event was the much awaited hula hoop tournament. we knew the toughest competitor was madeline...

3 hoops!!!

i couldn't catch her high score!!

grampy also showed some great, and quite unexpected skills with his hula!!now we know where ava got her hip shaking skills...

next was the chipping contest. here's uncle bubby preparing to chip his ball over the tent and into the pool. tricky...very tricky.

then the modified horseshoe contest... the obstacle course started off great...

but deteriorated pretty quickly...

throwing a bucket of water wasn't part of the course!

the final outdoor event was the frisbee bulls eye challenge.

after lunch the little ones snoozed....

and some big kids too...

we had a wii fit competition. preston was the wii fit master with his extremely high soccer score, but connor was the most fun to watch.

then we had a bingo match, a phase 10 card game and an awards ceremony. the competition was pretty fierce, but the overall winner for the day was madeline. check out all her bling...

we all had a great time!!

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happy anniversary mom and dad!!!!!!

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certainly not to be forgotten are those that weren't able to make it to the celebration. uncle duane, aunt robin & william were definitely missed!
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here are some more snapshots from the day: