Family Reunion

We went to the biannual family reunion in Park City this year. I remember LOVING this place as a kid and was so excited for Layla to be old enough to really enjoy it. The reunion is for the families of my grandpa and his six younger siblings and all of their families. Needless to say, it's a lot of people. When I was  younger and we would go it seemed like the cabin was full to the brim and there were kids everywhere to play with. Now that my grandpa and most of his siblings have passed on, not as many people go anymore. But it was still fun and there were still plenty of kids for Layla to have fun with. The cabin also has a couple of playgrounds and lots and lots of room to run around and explore.

Marcus and Great Grandma

The reunion is very organized. Everyone takes turns cooking meals that are prepared as much beforehand as possible.  In the evening they have an auction with items that family members make and a few that are store bought. The money from the auction is used to fund the reunion for the next year. There are usually beautiful crafts, quilts, etc. that go for a good chunk of money. They also have a kid auction where the kids can bid on candy, stuffed animals, etc. Layla won a box of Sour Patch Kids for a whopping $3. Good thing she doesn't go to auctions very often. Ha, ha. 

Every year there are also several candy jars and you can write down your guess as to how many pieces of candy are in each jar. I have yet to win one, but someday I swear I will.

They also had activities planned for the kids. They split them up into teams and then rotated between four activities: an obstacle course, shooting bows and arrows, catching and launching water balloons, and team races with the hula hoop thing. At the end they had a scavenger hunt and the prize was popsicles and suckers. There was a 19 year old kid on Layla's team (obviously related to me somehow, but I can't remember how) who was so nice to help Layla with the activities. She held his hand most of the time and during the scavenger hunt he carried her over the rocky terrain so they could finish faster. When they came back the poor guy was sweating from carrying around our 35 pound daughter in the heat. Ha, ha. They sure had fun though.

The rest of the time is spent playing board games and cards, and eating WAY too much candy. When my grandpa was alive we would always spend one evening with him and his siblings (all boys and one girl) sitting in a row and they would pass a microphone around and tell stories from their childhood. They lived in Roosevelt (Ioka), Utah, in the early 1900s and had no electricity or running water. Just a poor farming family. I loved hearing their stories and can still picture my grandpa's face as he laughed and smiled with his siblings.