Family Reunion

We headed south to the family reunion. We arrived late but rejoiced in the ease and speed of freeway travel. The next morning service was the first part of the gathering. The under 12 crew packed bags of food for meals on wheel people. They lined up in groups by age. 

Merle's peers. Myla, Klaym JAmes, with Rhett peeking from behind

Andrea's cute 4 year old friends- Marilla, Sadie, Miriam

Alia's group- Evander, Wyatt, Ephriam, Lia, and Vivian with Afton looking on from behind. 

Bruce would have been here but Greg took him to work with the older kids moving uncle Eric. Megan, Aayliah, Eloise, Alyda, Sam, Claire, Saige, Afton 

Kids filling bags with non perishable food. They filled over 40 bags. Thank you Modernwoodmen service funds for providing money to do good with. 

Cousin James always wanted a fire truck so he bought one and brought it for the kids to look at. Why not. 

My two big kids. How I love having my kids together. 

And how they love still teasing each other. Not many just move Aliza around. John can do anything his heart desires. Love these two confident, calm, and funny young adults. 

The afternoon had water slides and bounce houses. 

And laser tag. Again modern woodmen money. Do some service get some rewards. The kids and adults loved the laser tag. They have a grove of trees that made a great battlefield. 

A cousin braided hair and styled it like rapunzel. Lovely flowers and ladies. This is Afton. 

Family photos are dreaded but honestly so nice to have. The photographer has come the last few years she does great work. I only wish more of my family was included. Im working to reconcile my heart to these great group photos though not whole group they are who was there. Love these people so much. This is my life work and calling. 

The families. There's a lot of forgiveness and choosing to stay that happens in a family this large and this diverse. That's important to point out. It doesn't just happen. It isn't all sunshine and roses. It is perfect meaning complete because we choose to let go of hurts, annoyances, hardship (travel cost of gas etc.), rather be doing something else with that Saturday (go to Reeds football game, work other stuff), and gather. To give a day or three to being together. That's a choice and one I'm thankful is important enough to choose to gather. 

The kids loving the truck. Such a fun different thing. This is a majority of the grandkids. Three missionaries, my two married, Addie Reed, and Kristi's son Troy and family are all that's missing. Pretty impressive. 

The siblings. So impressive they choose to gather. Praying their examples will eventually lead my children to also all gather. 

Pleased parents. To know your children walk in goodness and independence is there anything better? Just to be together for a short time. It was truly good. 

After a lovely tri-tip and dutch oven potato dinner we ended the evening retiring some flags and shooting off fireworks. I was done. All day my energy slowly drained until nighttime I knew something was wrong. 

A rough night of sleep/resting and in the morning I felt terrible. The family went to church and then we went home. We stopped at an urgent care and I tested positive for strep. We waited even longer for meds- being a holiday weekend few pharmacies were open. I'm thankful we went, the kids have some good memories stored up and it is powerful to gather and share some time and space. I'm thankful for these people in our life. We are blessed. 

fair

Fair followed Johns homecoming weekend. The first day we entered static exhibits in the red barn. After seeing the weak showing of crops by FFA members we quickly drove and gathered some crops from Uncle Kevin for Reed to show. He got enough to enter in open class for the other kids as well. 

Millie did not make weight after a diligent effort of hand feeding her pig 3x a day for two weeks. She was available for other shows like dairy. She really enjoyed the tame dairy cows. Key word being tame work has been put in to make them so gentle. Washing them was a particular favorite activity. Or maybe she really enjoyed the teamwork with the owners. Nonetheless, fair provides many opportunities to learn new skills and help fellow club members. 

The younger kids entered baked goods. Sugar cookies and the new york times best chocolate chip cookies. Out west they were not the best. We think they are delicious. 

Merle entered an apple pie. 

He won judges choice. 

Afton showed her hog. We have to learn to bend over like the other more serious showmen. We have not been very dilligent learning the fine skills of showing our livestock. 

Reed dong what it takes to sell the animal at fair prices. 

Showing the grandmas what we entered and seeing what the cousins entered. 

JAke was a good sport but when he was done he was done. 

Both girls enjoyed time in the ring with the jersey cows. The dairy princess is always a nice lady. 

And one early morning on the way to prepare animals Reed hit a deer that was crossing the road. Thankfully the kids were ok. The van is totaled. We took another car to him he went on and Addie and Greg towed the van to the shop. Yet another life experience I guess. 

Andrea won sugar for her raspberry jam she entered. She truly does make it. She picks a few berries, I wash them, she smashes them and adds the sugar and clear gel. She got quite the load of sugar for her entry. I promised her we would make stuff with it when the big kids go to school. We still need to do that. 

The fair experience was good as always. I went as long as I could with Jake and then came home and rested out of the heat.  The kids had a good time watching shows, visiting with friends, and enjoying ice cream specialties. Another year down kids grew in confidence, responsibility and enjoyed winning a bit. All these are important parts of growing up. We are thankful for the wonderful club leaders, the caring parents and family support. And the very generous buyers who provide so much monetary support to the kids work. The main buyers and then those that add on are pretty staggering. We have thank yous to compose and that takes a while with all the people that contributed to their projects. We are very blessed.
 

John Homecoming

We had a huge milestone this summer. John came home from Houston! The new mission president sent and updated itinerary I did not carefully read as I had logged in my brain and phone the original itinerary from April.So we were late picking John up. No hour of anticipation, just a phone call from Anna while we drove that John was waiting at the airport wondering where we all were. Oh epic mom fail. Another family welcomed him and talked with him while we got there. I got out and went in for my mom hug. The rest of the family waited while we gathered John and loaded up while trying to redirect other family to just meet us down the road at a restaurant. 

In the car not sure of what's going on. 

At the eatery the hugs and reintroductions. 

Seeing grandparents. 

Meeting Jake who wasn't sure about this but was a good sport. I think these two share a lot of similarities as babies. 

Great grandma was excited too. 

After dinner we got some photos. My parents had left earlier to get back to work. 

The crew hopped up on cotton candy and ice cream. 

The temple age kids went to the temple and the rest of  us went to Fred Myers because 105 is too hot to sit in the car. We wandered around for over an hour. 

That weekend Anna and Joey and Harold and Lexi came. It was good to be together. 

After John's homecoming address which was superb talking about the power of Jesus Christ, Joey was ordained by Greg to the Melchizedek priesthood. It was another step forward towards being sealed together. It was so good to be together and worship. 

This is the only picture I got of some of my sons together. Its hard to be the person wanting to take pictures and yet really loving being able to look back on being together. Harold cut the guys hair, he gave Merle a shaved in design he was pretty happy with that. We ate some, we swam at the pool, we visited, the hair cuts happened, John gave a really great talk filling the time with inspiration, faith, and witness of how Jesus Christ improves our life. 
 I love having my children around and interacting with each other. I love seeing who they are becoming and happiness and confidence they have. I love how they joke and counsel with each other. This is a good spot to just be observing as they make their way in the world. We appreciate all the support and help from family and ward members. Life is good and we are very blessed. 

State Officer Addie in DC

Addie had the opportunity to return to Washington DC for a state officer conference. She toured and met FFA leaders from across the country. Her fellow teammates are becoming treasured friends. 

She got to tour the town on these segway vehicles. She highly recommends this as the tour guide gave great commentary and she was able to see all the sights in roughly 2 hours. That takes miles and miles of walking done the traditional way. 

She met with Representative Cliff Bentz. 

State officers from across the country. 

And a meeting with Senator Merkley. 

We are thankful for her new experiences and for her confidence gained through pushing herself in high school. It's good to see her growing and serving in a role she is so well prepared to fill. I will miss her greatly but look forward to watching through Facebook what new things she gets to be part of. Life is good.