There’s nothing quite like a good family tradition. An event that your whole family looks forward to and brings everyone together. This past weekend we continued a tradition that my family started over a decade ago. The 11th Annual croquet tournament! Once a year, my mom’s side of the family comes together for a friendly, but quite competitive, croquet tournament! 

One person that was particularly fond of these annual games was my grandfather. So when he passed a few years back, we made sure to keep this tradition going strong and named it after him- The Jim Adams Croquet Classic. Each year the competition and the grudges grow stronger, especially towards Branden. He usually takes home the trophy, so it’s usually everyone’s goal just to not let him win. So the family wasn’t too disappointed when they heard he had to work and wouldn’t make it out this year. Sorry babe! We still love you! So here’s a recap of this years tournament!Teresa has always been the leader of the games and re-explains the rules before each tournament. Who knew the game of croquet could be so complicated??  Then we randomly split up into 3 teams and play on one of the 3 courses set up in my Aunt Bonnie’s back yard.  We may be family, but we aren’t so kind when it comes to ‘bumping’ each others balls as far as we can!   Cousin Alison couldn’t be there in person, so she joined us virtually! The top two from each of the 3 games then go on to play for the trophy in the final round! This year we changed locations for the final round and headed over to Aunt Susan and Uncle Mark’s house where we also had a delicious dinner courtesy of Chef Mark!   Not making it into the final round ain’t so bad- you get to sit back, drink beer and spectate!  Tommy has been after the top of the podium for over a decade now, so he was pretty excited to win it all this year!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grown man so excited to wear a pink princess crown and sash! My mom is one of 7 kids, so it’s not often that all 7 of the Adams kids are all together in one place, but this year they were all there! So after the games were over, we headed down the street to the Lion’s Bridge to recreate an old picture from their childhood. All 7 of them grew up right down the street from this park and spent much of their childhood climbing on these lion statues. Now we just need to find the original picture of them on it! This was also a spot where my mom brought me and my 4 siblings quite often to play, so we had to take our own recreation picture too!   And we have countless photos and memories in this awesome climbing tree right across the street!  There’s a picture of us 3 in this exact pose and spot from almost 20 years ago on my parents fridge! The size ratios are pretty much reversed now.