THE REUNION

Three years ago near the end of our previous reunion which was held in Amarillo, Texas, it was votede that this year's reunion would be held in Arizona--the orignial idea being that we would meet up in the mountains in the eastern part of the state.  With the arrival of three new greatgrandchildren late last year who all lived in Mesa, a practicial decision was made to move to Mesa so that they could sleep in their own beds at night.  That was the only advantage as tempetures were over 100 for the entire time we were there.  I took over 300 pictures so will not bore you will all of them (on this site--family members can check our extended family site for more).  Thanks to my sister, Valerie and her husband and family for hosting us.

Originally we were planning to drive our truck down in order to get down the pinewood derby track.  Jena was the only one of our kids slated to come with us.  Upon getting the RV, Scott and Chantel decided to come with us and so we pulled a trailer with their motorcycle so they could come and go as they wanted..........

My niece had commented that she might want to come but was undecided because we weren't staying quite as long as she wanted.  A week before, it was determined that my dad's wife Karla would stay home in Salt Lake due to her father's progressive illness so my dad needed a ride down.  Having the RV allowed us to accomodate all of them so we were glad that we had it.

Looks enjoyable and fun, right??????

We arrived Thursday night after an bit of a disaster.  At Flagstaff when we got gas, Gary noticed that the trailer wheel was not straight.  With the help of Scott's smart phone we found a repair shop who determined that a bearing was lost and needed to be replaced.  They couldn't get parts by the next day.  So we left the trailer there, put Scott on his motocycle, and headed the final 3 hours of the trip.  Now this was at 4:00 in June in AZ, not the best time to be riding a motorcycle on the freeway.  Gary and Scott were keeping each other entertained as Scott was scoot a head and then park under the underpasses until the slower RV caught up.  He was hot but entertained.  Then he stopped to get gas and about 30 minutes later down the road, he realized he didn't have his wallet.  Fun and games stopped as he headed back 30 miles to the gas station and then traveled along the freeway slowly looking for his wallet.  No luck.  We had gone on ahead, not thinking through that now he had no money or water for his hot journey.  We got to my sister's and he got there about 1 hour later, very hot and tired but safe.  And then it turned out that riding a motorcycle even short distance was not that fun in the heat.  Oh, well, that is probably one of the memories that will stick in family lore for a long time.  (He did report that his Sunday morning ride back to Flagstaff was cool and has some beautiful sites.)

Pre-reunion:  Great-Grandchildren Adventure---all about them at the ....

Six of the seven great-grandchildren with Grandpa (and helpers)

The stickers room--a white room covered in stickers
Very brght and unexpected

Grandpa with some of the younger grandchildren,

Jena meeting one of the new cousins, Morgan
Jena is never really been around babies before.
She liked it but it was all new.

We ate lunch together and then headed back to my sister's.

It turned out that it had developed into a major Pinewood Derby completion Pit with people working inside and out to finish the final details.  I commented to my sister that we hadn't planned that the actual building would be a bonding time, but it worked great.

Chantel--watch the knife

Scott with the serious equipment

My dad is not a builder so this afternoon
we gave him his own train engine to race.

The indoor contruction zone

And the Reunion didn't even start until Friday at 5:00.