Anyway, here is the post about our trip this summer! And yeah it's long, but I've seriously pared it down from what I originally had :)
After spending a week at my parent's house, our big family reunion was at Clear Creek
Family Ranch in Southern Utah, the same place we’d held our reunion in 1999. However, most of us were staying in a different building than before, and the complex had new
owners, so everything was different.What's dumb is the new owners never updated the website from the way things were before, so it's kind of false advertising!
The majority of us roomed in what was
called “The Stable House”, and that’s exactly what it was: a converted stable!(
Click here to see the site with photos.)
The ground floor had the kitchen, a living room area, and a long room with the
stables off of either side. The stable rooms were actual stables with a sliding
door and bars along the top half of the wall facing the main room. Inside each
room were queens and bunk beds in various arrangements. There were curtains
that could be drawn across the bars inside each room, though there was a gap in
the middle that didn’t close all the way, plus it did nothing to cut down on
the noise in the outer rooms. After the first day though, our kids seemed to
adapt to all the noise of people at the tables, and surprisingly slept through
a lot of disturbances while everyone played cards at night.
There were rooms upstairs as
well, where a few families stayed. At first I
thought those rooms seemed better, since they were removed from all the noise,
had doors, and were more private. But later we realized they had to deal with
all the heat from the house, while our rooms had all the air conditioning!
Upstairs there were also some beds out in the open in alcoves and hallways;
my brother Thorin slept in one of these on the few days he was there.
In between the stable rooms were
the long tables where most of us ate our meals. It is also where we had crafts
for the kids and adults. When we had family gatherings it was in the living
area where the couches were.
Kiera was one of the people in charge (I guess I am next year?) and
she planned a lot of fun things for the kids, and enlisted mom’s help with
craft ideas for the adults to do. The men generally entertained themselves
going golfing, metal detecting (in my dad and Joseph’s case), or other
pursuits.
On the first full day, Kiera had
made posters for each family to decorate.
They all had pictures of the families when the (adult) kids were younger, and everyone in that family picture was to contribute to the finished product. There were puffy stickers, markers, and other things with which to decorate, and everyone was supposed to write some kind of family memory on their poster. When they were finished, we hung them up all around the room, so everyone could look at them throughout the rest of the week. It was also nice too, because the posters helped cover up some gaps between the curtains that covered each stable room at night.
They all had pictures of the families when the (adult) kids were younger, and everyone in that family picture was to contribute to the finished product. There were puffy stickers, markers, and other things with which to decorate, and everyone was supposed to write some kind of family memory on their poster. When they were finished, we hung them up all around the room, so everyone could look at them throughout the rest of the week. It was also nice too, because the posters helped cover up some gaps between the curtains that covered each stable room at night.
For crafts, one day my mom helped
everyone to make their own watches out of bead kits, which she had
painstakingly matched up to each person beforehand.Another day, mom had everyone painting cookie jar
lids with our Scottish clan’s colors and symbols.
There were special activities for the kids as well. I was annoyed
that my kids were obsessed with the video games that were on, and they played
them most days so Elora missed out on a lot of things I think she would have
enjoyed doing. They did get to do a few things though. One morning Kiera led a
‘safari hunt’ for the kids. They all got hats, sunglasses, homemade binoculars,
pens, animal masks, and notebooks and headed outside.
They walked around and wrote down in their field notebooks all the things they were discovering, or they could draw pictures.
They walked around and wrote down in their field notebooks all the things they were discovering, or they could draw pictures.
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| Safari |
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| We're leaving? Wait, I did want to do a craft! |
Other days they had things like
scratch boards to draw on, bead necklaces to make, etc.This was the last morning we were there, and we were getting stuff to take home.
Near the house was also a small lake. At the last reunion here, I never went
and played in it, so I was glad that my kids got to play with my brother Thain and his wife Anne in
the water. Before I took these pictures, Elora had already been up there once and gone in the canoe, this time
she wanted to swim.
They all swam a little bit, then the two boys went in the canoe with Thain while Anne played in the water with Elora and helped her to float. Once she got the hang of it, Elora floated on her back (wearing a life preserver) almost out to the middle of the water! She got very brave.
They all swam a little bit, then the two boys went in the canoe with Thain while Anne played in the water with Elora and helped her to float. Once she got the hang of it, Elora floated on her back (wearing a life preserver) almost out to the middle of the water! She got very brave.
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| Uncle Thain is my hero! |
In the evenings there were some
family get –togethers too. The first evening they had the birthday gift
exchange, where everyone brings a five dollar elephant gift, and through
various activities they are exchanged.
For the kids exchange, Josh got a little tractor.
I was watching him open it, and he looked so happy and excited. Then
he looked around and saw the gifts everyone else got, and suddenly he was
bawling and devastated, saying he hated his gift and wanted a different one.
Seriously, he was bawling his eyes out. Silly kid.
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| yay cousins! |
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| hooray, a tractor! |
Another night, we learned more
about our Scottish ancestry. We got some eight generation genealogy charts
that were pretty neat. We all got
plaid bookmarks with a bagpipe charm that Patrick’s friend had cast for us, and
some charms for the older kids to wear on their belts, depicting our
coat-of -arms, which Patrick had made for us.(Kiera's husband is a blacksmith).
Then Kiera had us sing the Loch Loman and Scotsman songs. I was kind of worried about the Scotsman song offending people, but Kiera just thought it would be funny. ( It is rather bawdy, but fun. They sing it at the Green Show sometimes. Lyrics here.) Sure enough, when Kiera introduced it, someone gasped, “Is this that naughty song?!”
Then Kiera had us sing the Loch Loman and Scotsman songs. I was kind of worried about the Scotsman song offending people, but Kiera just thought it would be funny. ( It is rather bawdy, but fun. They sing it at the Green Show sometimes. Lyrics here.) Sure enough, when Kiera introduced it, someone gasped, “Is this that naughty song?!”
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| gasp! |
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| I win! |
One of the days we spent the entire time at Zion National Park, which
was not very far away at all. The Ranch is near Mount Carmel and Orderville,
which are both just over the hill from Zion. It was a very hot day, so we were
glad to have our water bottles, even though they were heavy to lug around. I
shouldn’t complain though, Joseph carried the bag with the bottles as well as
the carrier with the baby; I just had the backpack with the diapers and baby
supplies in it.
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| It's hot wearing this baby! |
As expected, Josh moaned and
complained the whole time, taking numerous breaks along the trails and crying
that he was tired/hungry/thirsty every five minutes. In contrast, Elora bounded
ahead of us, often hiking with Grandma or other family members, and taking
delight in hiding along the trail. It made Joseph nervous, but I wasn’t too
worried about her. I used to do the same thing when I was a kid. Jonah was the
perfect little hiker, staying with mom and dad and soldiering along, sometimes
running to catch up with the people in front of us. He did a great job!
I loved the tram system they have there now. It wasn't there the last time I visited Zion..or at least we didn't ride it. It made getting places a lot easier!
I loved the tram system they have there now. It wasn't there the last time I visited Zion..or at least we didn't ride it. It made getting places a lot easier!
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| Super boys sleeping |
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| yay! |
Our last hike of the day was the River Walk, where we all stopped and rested by the creek for a bit.While we were there, there were a lot of friendly (or aggressive) squirrels around. While I was sitting there, one came up near me then started attacking my backpack! I guess there was food inside.
That evening we decided to take a group
picture (at my suggestion) as it was the last evening we were there. Sadly, a few families had already left early, and some weren't able to be there at all, so it's not the whole group. I was sad we waited
a little too late and it was cloudy, making less than ideal lighting conditions
for a big group photo.
I felt especially bad because mine was the only camera that took the picture,
so everyone has to get their copy from me (which is ridiculous, since so many
people had really nice SLR cameras that could have taken a better picture.)And
I’m the only one out of the frame, because I didn’t judge well on how close in
I needed to sit, since I was the one setting up the camera.
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| The Fam |
Later that same evening, Kiera, Patrick, Joseph and I went out to
play in the canoes in the evening light, for kind of an impromptu double date. Kiera was funny, she got out
of Patricks canoe and they each had their own. Joseph kept trying to crash our
canoe into Kiera, and we all had fun floating around the little pond. The light was so low that all
the pictures are a bit blurry.
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| canoes are awesome |
All in all, it was a fun reunion! Okay, we did have some car trouble that I failed to mention (in Gillette WY, Parowan, UT, Provo, UT, and a few other times,) equaling about $2,000. But that's not important, right? Plus, we got to go to the dollar theater in Provo, spend two hours at the city park in Gillette, and hang out in awesome Parowan eating cookies at Napa.
And it'll make a great family story when the kids are older.
And it'll make a great family story when the kids are older.
