Our Family Reunion

Our Family Reunion June 24-25, 2006

On Thursday the 22 I spent all day long making treats to take to the reunion. It was an all day project. Everyone really enjoyed them and I’m really glad I did it. I did find out that I can’t stand up all day yet but I can surely stand much longer than I used to could. My back did bother me at times, but I was able to keep going most of the time. (I actually got the recipes typed up and e-mailed out to all our children today.)

Friday morning I put the chicken salad together so we could drop it off at Karen’s along with the other treats on the way to Grace. We got to Blackfoot about 4:00pm or so. We were there about 45 minutes. We dropped off the airobed, extra clothing as well as the food. Michael & Tanya and children were already there. It was good to see them. We got to Grace about 6:45 or so. We had dinner then Karl started on the lawn trimming around the pipes and mowing the barrow pits and pulling some weeds etc. He worked until it got dark. I visited with Mom and worked on Eprhiam’s “I’m a Child of God” plaque. We went to bed about 10:30 or so. I woke up at 1:30 or so and had to go up and use the bathroom because I had a little ice cream and cake about 9:30. That was way too late. I was able to go back to sleep and slept to just after 6:00. I got up before 6:30 and got my shower etc. we had breakfast and got ready to go. We left by 9:00am. We got to Blackfoot in enough time that we got gas and stopped at Wal-Mart so Mom could get some vitamins. We got to Karen & Kent’s about 11:10 or so. Jessica drove from Provo and stopped and brought Grandma W with her. It was so good having both grandmothers there. (Of course counting Karen and me there were four grandmothers there in all.=)) Bryan & Sandy and children were all there. They got to Blackfoot before 9:00 the night before. They made good time. Sandy sat in the back seat and just took Jason out of his chair, nursed him and then put him back in his car seat. They drove straight thro’. Didn’t have to stop for anything but gas. I’m glad it went so smoothly for them. Jason isn’t quite 3 months old and it is quite a ways to drive with such a small one. They said that he was very good but got kind of fussy around Soda Springs and then fussed the rest of the way to Blackfoot. But that was just the last hour and a half or so of a 16 hour drive. Richard & Téa weren’t able to come. We missed them. It would have been all of us if they could have been there. We were minus 7. Shani & Jon are living with Karen & Kent right now so they and Macie were there too. Kim & Kimberly got there around 2:00 and my sister Joy and her daughter and son-in-law, Heidi & Joe came about then too. Her daughter Emily came about 4:00 or so with her daughter Kaylynn and her three week old baby boy, Travis. He wasn’t due until July 13 but Emily had really bad toxemia with multiple organ failure so they had to take him C-section to save her life. He weighed 6-1 that morning. He weighed 5 2 at birth so he would have been a b-i-g baby if he went to term.

Michael & Bryan got the chicken, potatoes and cherry & peach cobblers ready to cook dutch over style. They did such a good job. It gave Karen time to get the tables & chairs around and delegate any thing else that needed to be done. They worked so well together. It was good to see them coordinating and working together. We ate about 2:00. The chicken and potatoes were suplimented by various salads. It was all very good. After we ate, we sat around and just visited and took pictures of everyone. Kim brought his tripod and set it up by the evergreen tree and took pictures or the individual families and then a few pictures of everyone because he has a timer on his camera. He said he would put the pictures on his website but I’m hoping he will e-mail some of them out, at least those of the individual families. Some of our children I don’t think have access to their website. Kim & Kimberly and their children left around 5:00 or so. Michael & Tanya left shortly after. It was so good to see all of them. After we all rested a little Karen brought in the treats from the cooler. Everyone really liked the cereal mix one. Grandma W said it was just too “moreish”. I said, “What do you mean by that?” She replied, “Oh, you know, you just want more and more.” I tho’t she was referring to the Moor people of Spain and couldn’t make a connection. The cherry-a-let candy they really liked too. Especially the young people. They really enjoyed it. Grandma W told me many times I shouldn’t have made them. It would make her blood sugar go up. (and mine too.) I told her the only time I could make it was when many people would be around to eat it.

We headed for bed shortly after 10:00pm. Karen and Bryan had gone out and set up our air bed in the office and got everything situated. Karen even took a touch lamp out there for us. She is so tho’tful. She always takes such good care of us. I woke up about 3:30am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I rested but that was all. I got up just after 7:00. Their church starts at 9:00 and altho’ they had three bathrooms, we had to start early to all get our turn in one of them. We all went to sacrament meeting. The speakers were a woman who had been a single mother while raising her five children because her husband had died of cancer at a rather young age. She had been married to her present husband for three weeks and he has moved from Shelley to here home there in Groveland. They talked on the importance of the family. Both talks were very good. We all enjoyed it and were glad we were there. We all went home after sacrament meeting except Shani & Jon. Kent and Karl went back for priesthood meeting. There was enough chicken left over from the day before that we just put some bar-b-que sauce on some and some terriaki sauce on some more. Karen made some funeral potatoes to go with and there was enough salad left over that we had a complete meal. It was all very good. After dinner we took a five generation picture with both sides of the family since Macie is a little older. She wasn’t very old and one couldn’t see her very well in the first five generation pictures we took. Jessica consented to take GrandmaR back to Grace on the way back to Provo. So they along with GrandmaW left about 2:30or so. We were thankful that she did that for us. That way we were able to stay there and visit. We all rested for awhile. Macie was tired but she wouldn’t settle down. Karen brought out a quilt and some toys for her hoping she would settle down and go to sleep. But she had other ideas. She just kept going. After everyone got up we decided to have a ping pong tournament of sorts. Bryan & Chris played first. Bryan had to work at it but he beat Chris a few games. Karen & Kent played. Kent beat Karen rather handily in the end but he had to work at it at first. Karen & I played two games. I could even serve pretty good. I hadn’t forgotten that part anyway. She beat me rather handily altho’ I was a head by a point of two at the beginning. Neither on of us has played in more than 20 years. We had hot dogs cooked over a fire in the fire pit. Along with some of the left over salads. More people played ping pong. Everyone ended up playing at least one game except Sandy and Jon. Jon said he had never played and had no desire to learn. (Karen had borrowed the table and net etc. from some friends.) Bryan was the only one who didn’t lose a game. So I guess he was the champion. Karl had gathered up everything out of the office. We were going to sleep in the house. It was easier to pack it in the car and drive the car around than carry everything into the house. After all he had everything in the car he came and told me he was ready to go home. I told him I wasn’t surprised and I was willing if we could stay until dark. We started to get around to leave about 9:30. We knew that Bryan & Sandy would be leaving as early as possible the next morning and Kent & Jon would have to leave early for work. And it would feel so good to sleep in our own beds. (which it was. I slept 8 hours straight and as much as I could tell I didn’t move the whole 8 hours.)

It all makes us realize how blessed we are to have the family we have. They are all good parents and teaching their children to walk up rightly before the Lord. It is rewarding to see that. We were thankful that our mothers, the grandmothers, were able to be there too. It was one of the few times they would be able to see all of our children. We haven’t been all together since Shani & Jon were married three years ago and we haven’t have a formal reunion for five years. It was good.