Family Fun

Whew! I'm exhausted... but in a good way. We just wrapped up a three-day family reunion with my side of the family at the Homestead Resort in beautiful Midway, Utah. This event has been in the planning since last November and I have to give my brother Mark all the credit! You see, my family is quite large in numbers and like most families, spread out all over the country. I have seven siblings and there are a total of 129 family members (with 4 more great-grandkids on the way). We were lucky enough to have 91 people be able to attend this get together (for at least some portion of the 3 days). My mom & dad are in the first photo holding Connor -- they have the destinction of being the oldest and youngest participants. My dad turned 89 last Sunday, my mom turned 86 last March and Connor turned 1 months old on Tues.

This was our first ever official family reunion and we did it up right. Everyone checked into the resort by 4 pm on Monday. Then at 6 pm we had a nice sit-down dinner. After lots of "meeting and greeting" my brother Kent MC'd a delightful evening of interactive games designed to help us get to know a little bit more about each other and break down any self-consciousness (basically make us all look a little silly). Then we got serious for a minute or two and each gave sweet tributes to my parents.

Tuesday was full of water games for the little ones, swimming in the crater for the bigger ones, hanging out at the pool and lots of catching up. That afternoon a photographer came and took family photos. You can imagine what it was like trying to get every imaginable combination of familes large and small and hopefully catch one or two acceptable shots. We missed Clark and LaRane in our family group... Clark had to work and LaRane was on semi-bedrest with her pregnancy. We were starving by the end of the photo shoot so we thoroughly enjoyed the BBQ at the Wasatch State Park. That evening we reconvened (sp?) for a lively (!!!!!) night of BUNKO! As if tons of kids running around wasn't wild enough we added adults rolling dice and yelling Bunko for a couple hours... but everyone had a great time. Thankfully Mark had thought to hire babysitters. Wednesday morning our in-family chef, Jake, cooked up the most fabulous breakfast you have ever seen... eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast burritos, fruit, hash browns, bagels, french toast ... even fruit loops! After breakfast, our professional Mac make up artist, Casey (boy cousin -- not to be confused with Kacey, girl cousin) gave us a hour long seminar complete a with demonstration on Courtney. Some of the luckier girls even got make overs during bunko... aren't families great!!! After that hugs were shared along with email addresses and then it was over too soon. BIG, BIG thanks to Mark for planning this event, Marsha, Kent, Suzi and everyone that accepted assignments (I was in charge of the two dinners and then Mark just did them so I didn't really end up with any responsibilities -- kind of a nice change). It was a huge success and so much fun to see each other and spend a little quality time together... after all, Families Are Forever!