Sugi Reunion!

4 days of nothing but Sugiyamas was a recipe for TOTAL AWESOMENESS! Everybody flew in on Wednesday night and after Lori and Tad missed their flight we ended up with a late night on our hands. We picked up Taki and Connie, hit up a wendy's for some grub, and then headed back to the airport to pick up Lor and Tad. The drive home was extra BUMPY in the back seat of the minivan which apparently needs some new shocks! barf. Thursday morning we got to work making the T-shirts which was an enormous project! The iron ons were super finicky and it was kind of a total nightmare to make 26 of them front and back, but with some team work we got them done and they look quite good. The rest of the day was spent playing games and going through people's stuff that has been stored in boxes around the house. I LOVE getting rid of stuff, even if it's not my own!
Taki found a bunch of stuff that he's been saving since he was little in hopes that it would be worth something. He found an old Hot Wheels car that he remembers getting at a birthday party and all the other kids opened it and played (like normal children) but taki kept his in the package in hopes that someday it would be worth money. Apparently he's done this with a lot of things because he had a whole box of stuff that he had to look up on ebay to see if he could sell. We even found Taki's old Michael Jordan lifesize cardboard thingy which apparently had been pooped on by various rodents. yuck.
Taki and Connie made some DELICIOUSLY HUGE and TASTY burgers. All of the cousins, aunts, and uncles came over for a great meal and it was awesome to see everyone again. We busted out some family videos and played a few games of Corn Hole. It was a really fun night. Bud didn't make it until 9:30, but he showed up for some good laughs. (yeah, we have big mouths :)
Friday morning we drove out to Sparta for some blueberry picking! We got a tip off from the Richmonds for a GREAT place to pick and we were not disappointed. The berries were huge, juicy, and sweet. There were tons of them and it was great pickin.
Everyone kept claiming the biggest berry award and of course Taki claimed that all the biggest and sweetest berries were his. Some people obeyed picking etiquette and took their time making sure ALL the good berries were picked, but others raced ahead to get the biggest and best.
We were all startled to hear an extremely loud air cannon go off at random intervals. Even with warnings from those that were trying to track it's timeline we all still screamed (some of us louder than others). There was some berry throwing and a LOT of berry eating. After just an hour of picking we went to weigh in our booty (but not before the owner came out to check our bushes and apparently we didn't do so well because she picked 3 big handfulls off one branch that we supposedly had done...oops).
We were embarrassed, but we left with almost 25 lbs. of delicious berries.
After a brutal hour of working the fields we headed home to soak up some rays by the pool. Toshi even joined us for his first time ever laying out just to lay out! He did great :)

Taki and Con had some fun in the pool with a little shark attack (very little because Con ran out of breath)and some slide action. Mom even joined us by the pool, while dad vacuumed up his loose rocks! What a nut.
After we got a little pink we went in and started working on the Japanese food! It was NEW YEARS in august! All the rest of the family joined us and it was a big ol' party with matching shirts and all!
The food was AMAZING as always and we all enjoyed some HILARIOUS old videos of our family "nerf wars" from years past.
We enjoyed a LOT of laughs. Afterwards we hit up some games in the front lawn but the fun ended when the mosquitos came out! Then we all sat around the table and enjoyed some family stories.
Saturday was CRAZY AWESOME! We started it out right with a brunch at CRACKER BARREL! A day started with their french toast can only be a great day. We followed it up with some POISON COOKIE!!
It was completely exhausting, but ridiculously fun, as always. Once we were all hot and sweaty we headed out for some BUCKET BRIGADE (or holy bucket) whatever you call it, it's awesome!
We filled 2 tubs with water, and had 2 buckets with holes in the bottom of them which we filled, put over our heads, and ran over to the 2 empty buckets that we needed to fill.
It was nice and refreshing for those of us that did it correctly! We followed it up with a water balloon toss that was easily won by the team with the smallest balloon (Lor and Tad).
And finished it off with some good ol' TUG OF WAR.
We headed back home to meet up with Bud and Jane for some fun at the lake. One of the super nice neighbors let us borrow her kayaks, canoe, and row boat. The ladies chose to take a ride in the stable row boat, while the boys went out in the other boats to race.
Bud and Tak had some trouble and decided to hand off their valuables to us, but things went better once they got the canoe turned around the right way :) Tosh ended up on the wobbly kayak which he lost control of during one of the boy races and into the lake he went, glasses and all! It was pretty hilarious. Kylie arrived and basically showed us all how kayaking is done.
A rousing game of badMINTon followed and although Lori claims it's a Japanese sport, apparently none of us inherited that ability :) Although apparently it's not a white person game either!
We arrived home in time for some DELICIOUS grilled steaks and an assortment of salads and sides. The steaks were great, but a little hard to cut around the bone so Taki did what he had to to get ALL the meat off. Classic.
Also classic.

Sunday we found that Connie's careful placement of a mouse trap was a success! But no one wanted to get rid of the poor little guy. We all had a chance to go to church together, which was great. Taki and Connie had to leave after sunday school and since our class went over we didn't get a chance to say goodbye...lame. After church we played some games, although people were so tired it was hard to get into it. BUT Preston stayed alert long enough to BEAT LORI AT SCRABBLE. It was basically a momentous occasion. Afterwards most people took a nap while I got some kabobs started.
Tim came over to grill them and it was delicious. Suddenly it was 9:00 and we realized that we had our crap spread out all over the house so we got packing. I tried to stall for Tad to get home so we could say goodbye, but he never showed, so we had to go to him and I got a quick hug on the street.
It was SO MUCH FUN to see everyone, including the extended family for a few days. I LOVE MY FAMILY and we had a TON OF FUN. Yeah for reunions!