Reunion Recap

Friday, June 20 we had a family reunion for DH's side of the family. It took place at a campground in Heber Valley. This was the first reunion since I've been in the family that hasn't taken place at the grandfather's house in Perry. With the passing of DH's grandfather a year and a half ago and the house up for sale a change had to be made this year in format and location. It was decided to try out a campground here in Utah that has tent sites, cabins & RV hookups as well. My husband is not a fan of camping and neither are many of his family members so this format was definitely more of a challenge for them. Some of DH's cousins & aunts & uncles are much more equipped for the whole camping thing and seem to enjoy it a lot more.

Anyways, because of M&M's tumbling performance on Friday evening we decided that DH would go to the campsite with the 3 middle kids and get the tent and sleeping bags setup while I attended the tumbling performance with M&M and Baby K. My parents were going to be at the tumbling performance as well so they could help out with Baby K while I videotaped the routine.

The family left much later than we had been planning on to get to the campground so my husband was still setting up camp when I got there around 9 p.m. - which unfortunately caused the family to miss some of the events scheduled for that evening. It was a lot of work for my husband to setup the tent by himself and the kids tried to help but there is only so much that a 7 year old, 4 year old & 3 year old can help out with.

M&M's performance went well and my car load left as soon as her group was finished with their routine so we could try and make it to the campsite before dark. We didn't have any time to eat dinner before the performance so we stopped at Arby's before we hit the road and got something to eat. I was surprised at how short of a drive it was to get there - just over an hour! Luckily Baby K was good in the car and slept for most of the drive.

After we got to the campsite and helped finish setting up we got long pants & jackets on all of the kids and then headed over to the family campfire to roast marshmallows and make s'mores - YUM! We also had glowsticks for the kids to use and play with. The exciting part at the campfire was when we saw a skunk that was hanging out under the pavilion (probably scavenging for food)... :-D

After s'mores we headed back to our tent to settle down for the night. The kids did pretty good and after the initial excitement of the tent & sleeping bags went to sleep fairly quickly. Our biggest concern for the night was that it was getting very cold very quickly. We ended up bringing Baby K's car seat into the tent so she could sleep in it and I wouldn't have to worry about her being stepped on in the night. The only thing that I wish I had brought was a hat for Baby K. I kept waking up to check on her and to make sure she was warm enough. Finally partway through the night I picked her up out of the car seat and brought her in the sleeping bag with me so I could keep her warmer. She did great though and only woke up once to eat at around 5 in the morning. Kitty and M&M woke up at around 6 for some reason and were wide awake. I tried to get them to go back to sleep and M&M convinced Kitty to get into the sleeping bag with her and then she ended up sleeping for quite a while longer.

On Saturday we had breakfast and the kids played on the playground for a while with their cousins. We went for a hike in a marshy area near the Provo River. The hike ended up being longer than we thought and it was getting really hot. There were not many shade trees there in the swampy area. Luckily on the way back we were able to hitch a ride with one of DH's aunts who was driving back from town at the same time. :D



Next came lunch and then the Unbirthday Party started. Luke, M&M and DH had a lot of fun with that and then we were all given water guns which ended up in a huge water "fight" with the whole extended family.

After the water fight we had some much needed down time to get dried off and to get out of the sun for a little while. Next came dinner and then some game time followed by more s'mores at the campfire. We left that night because of 9:00 church the next morning. (We all took naps after church with the exception of Luke...)

(The shirt that Baby K is wearing was given to my by an aunt...)

All in all we had a good time at the reunion. Luckily the skunk didn't spray while we were there and no one in my family got sunburned, but we each (with the exception of Baby K) came away with a couple of mosquito bites even though we used bug repellent. The kids' favorite parts were playing with their first cousins, the water fight and sleeping in the tent. It was a lot of work for me with packing for a family of seven and especially with having a newborn. I was pretty limited on how much I could help out with the various events and meals, but thankfully my husband helped out a lot and the kids all did great. It's nice that the older ones are getting old enough to be able to do more on their own now. We unfortunately weren't there for the planning meeting on Sunday but they are talking about holding the reunion at the same location next year. It will be a little easier to plan for now that we know what the facilities are like and what is available for the family to do there.