Thursday, August 12, 2010

Family Reunion Recap

Since I have pretty much given up on  sleep...here are some posts about things that happened in the last six months.  First up - Family Reunion Recap.  My family gets together every other year - the even years for a Reunion.  Each time, one sibling and their spouse (if they are married) is in charge - meaning booking the place, coordinating activities, meals, etc...Two summers ago it was our turn, this year it was Geoff and Kristen's turn.  They did a great job.  The most difficult part is deciding where everyone is going to sleep.  Families with babies generally get priority - we are having another baby before the next reunion for this reason alone.  (Ha, ha ha)  Once everybody is assigned a room, switched rooms and finally settled in, the rest is easy. 
 
First, a  picture of Daniel getting injured during the picture scavenger hunt.  Geoff and Kristen ran this activity, it was a lot of fun.  Our team probably should have won, but I think they gave it to Daniel's team out of sympathy or something. ;)  We were supposed to get a picture of our team carrying another team member (Daniel).  Too bad for Daniel that he arrived at the reunion with a serious bruise to the ribs and we (Christopher) did more damage.  We thought he was teasing, but as his face clearly shows, he was in a lot of pain. Chris and I were talking later and remembered that when we saw his brother and kids at Bear Lake (same location) a few years ago, he broke his brother's ribs also.  Hmmmm....  Better watch your back, it might be you next time.

Daniel and his family - Miriam, Eva and Alexander.  Miriam is due next month, but they think the baby will come any day now.   Their activity was World Cup related - we watched a lot of World Cup while we were there, the kids loved the word search with Daniel's color commentary. 
Grandma and Opa with all of the kids.  Paige loved Garrett and still talks about him.  Cute kids, right?  Grandma and Opa were in charge of Family Home Evening.  
Geoff is getting ready to catch a baseball (distraction method) not telling us to stop taking his picture.  Is Cameron getting ready to catch the ball or hit his dad?  I think Kristen has run like 300 races this year and my mom said the other night that she is doing a triathlon this weekend.  Go Kristen!  They were great planners and I think when our year comes around again, we'll just pay them to do it for us. 
Andrew, Carly, Beckam.  I have been bribing Maggie to braid her hair on the side since the reunion thanks to Carly.  She didn't believe me that it was coo, but you know if Carly does it, it's cool.  Carly and Andrew planned a game -kind of like Jeopardy.  It was really fun and reminded me why sibling relationships are so important to me - we have a lot of history and I really like all of them and now all of their spouses.  Plus, how cute is Beckam?        

It was fun to get together and see everyone.  It takes some serious coordinating and some sacrifice (Geoff's kids missed school, Miriam was pregnant and uncomfortable, Carly's parents had just left town etc....) but it is really so  worthwhile to get everyone together.  We had some structured activities and some unstructured time and it was all good.  Some other highlights:

* riding the boat around the lake - the water was still sooooo cold - it wasn't really swimming temperature yet.  But almost everyone still jumped in off the boat - including Maggie and Ashlee.
* the guided tour of the nearby caves - we lucked out and got an accidentally hilarious  guide.  We will still be quoting him and talking about it at the next reunion. 
*seeing Andrew, Carly and Beckam be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple before the reunion...

Time always goes by so quickly, I am already looking forward to the next time we get together.  Sorry, no pictures of Jennifer and Heather - I didn't take very many pics...

4 comments:

MiriamR said...

Great recap. I plan on not being pregnant at ALL or even close or anything for the next one because it made me grumpy the whole trip (not just the reunion) The getting priority on where you sleep because of babies not really worth it either :) but we will have another two year old again. Maybe we will bring a tent and sleep out side :)

sharron yeates said...

Love seeing the pictures and hearing about the reunion. Maybe you guys and spearhead a Yeates reunion!!!

MiriamR said...

Daniel here
If I remember correctly you and Chris got the best room besides the master. It was the only one with 2 beds, a couch that was big enough for someone to sleep in, its own bathroom with a tub and a shower, and it was upstairs away from all the noise. So I your comment about families with babies generally get room priority is unsubstantiated. Miriam also wants to know when you are going to post pictures of your new house.
Regards
Your brother with the special needs children that can't sleep below a hard wood floor with kids jumping up and down and chairs dragging across the floor.
Daniel

Heather said...

Daniel - Weren't you the one who made the room assignments?