Family Reunion 2014

If something could go wrong on this family reunion, it did. Tony had a terrible call night and delayed our departure by 4 hours. Cooper had a major teenage moment and refused to ride in the car with his siblings, describing it as his living hell. When we got to Spokane for the rental car, we found out we were not allowed to take it out of Idaho. I pitched a ridiculous fit, embarrassed myself and prompted a sermon from another customer about "setting a good example for my kids, catching more flies with honey than vinegar and things could be worse." It was humbling and painful.



After a night in Idaho Falls in an attempt to refresh and rejuvenate, Cooper started throwing up violently, with what we think was food poisoning. We had to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa to give him a blessing on the side of the highway. We made it to Ogden and met everyone at the temple for the open house. We had been instructed to wear casual clothes and were traumatized to see almost everyone there in church clothes. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting cemeteries and grave sites and hearing stories from Grandma and Grandpa. We wrapped up the evening at Windsor park with good food, frisbee and jump rope. Things started looking up!



On Friday morning we had our family fun run, a 5 K where our cousins RJ and Kimberly set all time records. Rusty beat Tony hands down this year, which will be a great motivator for getting in shape. After the fun run we were off to Trafalga for arcade games, laser tag and bumper boats. The kids had fun, but Tony enjoyed it the most, I think.



That night the adults enjoyed dinner at the Provo temple and a session together. It was special to be together with parents and our siblings for the second time this summer in a temple. It was Debbie and Rand's anniversary, which made our trip extra nice. The grounds were more beautiful than I remember and the evening was perfect. Later that night Grandma and Grandpa gave us this advice:



On Saturday we hiked Bridal Veil Falls and had a picnic. The teenagers went to the temple that afternoon to do baptisms for the dead. They were surprised at how long the line was and how quickly the baptisms were performed. A member of the temple presidency came to speak to them and shared that while most people remember CTR as "choose the right, he remembers it as "current temple recommend." We said goodbye to all our Lundberg and Burr cousins and the Dads took the remaining kids out for snow cones.



Despite angry teenagers, vomiting, forgotten recommends, miscommunications and rental car problems, our "temple focused" reunion was a great success. It is always worth the effort and sacrifice to strengthen relationships with our family. It is a great way to keep our covenant to build Zion. Zion is family.

Here are the highlights according to the kids:



Cooper--laser quest with the cousins and uncles!



Eliza--playing at the fun center with the teenagers!



Max--laser tag at the fun center



Marcos--playing Legos and swords with Adam



Tony-- jump rope with the kids at the park, time with his brother



We missed Wilson this year and hope that he made good choices while we were gone.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad