Family Time

I really like this picture because my cousin David matches the scenery! (He just got his mission call to Spokane, WA and I am so proud of him!!!!)

The game that never was! I think we just weren't meant to play it!

The last week in July my family had a reunion in the Grand Tetons. We hadn't really had a reunion since 2000 so it was amazing to see how many families have grown and changed. We ended up having about 65 people there and I had to stop for a second when I realized that that was only about half of our family! I guess when there are 45 first cousins, and most of us are grown up now, the numbers just start snowballing and unless you stop to think about it they get away from you! I remember the family reunion when I was 5 that we had in Nauvoo, Illinois and I can't believe that the cousins that my sisters and I made up skits with are now grown up with kids of their own! Luckily we're not all "grown ups" yet!

I think my favorite part of the reunion was getting to know some of my younger cousins that I haven't really had much of a chance to know until now. One night four of my cousins and I sat down to play the game Mao (totally awesome card game that I can't tell you the rules too). About and hour into the game I made the realization that all five of us were the youngest in our families (OK maybe I was trying to use the "I'm the baby" excuse and it backfired). Until now the age differences between us all had kept us from really spending much time together because we spent time with our other cousins that were closer to our ages. But now it didn't really matter that I was 23 and the youngest was 14! I was glad to really get to know Issac and Felix who I hadn't ever spent time with before. I already knew Sarah and David because they both have siblings my age. So we five, at 23, 20, 18, 16, and 14 had a really fun time staying up way to late and just being silly no matter what the age difference.

The next night we played Mao again with different more of the cousins and a few of the Aunts and Uncles. I really enjoyed making my Uncle Bob squirm because he couldn't figure out the rules right away! He is so competitive that it really irks him when he doesn't win. I think the whole family is like that though!

I'm glad that I was able to spend some time with my family and rekindle some of the friendships that I had forgotten. I really hope we do things like this more often!