Reunions...

So it's been a busy month. We had the Bennion Family Reunion with Rich's family on July 9-11, which was fun. We started out by having a presentation by one of his uncles, Stephen Bennion, who was the chief architect on the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Then we went to the Open House. It was neat to hear all the thought and symbolism behind the building itself. The next day we went up to Heber Valley Camp for an overnight stay with all the family, and enjoyed dinner there, time on the lake in canoes and paddle boats, and games with cousins and family. Richard wasn't feeling too well that evening, so we went to bed before most everyone, and I woke at 1:00 a.m. and Rich was burning up. So I fished around for some medicine, which helped, and we left first thing as soon as Rich woke up and ate breakfast. So we missed the rest of the reunion. He was sick in bed for the next three days, just about, and was bored out of his gourd (he doesn't do sitting around very well). But, it also gave him time to help me out with the Reece Family Reunion which was this last weekend, and we were in charge of it.

It went pretty well. We had dinner and played outdoor games the first night, having fun with a parachute we rented from BYU Outdoors Unlimited. The next day we went to the Oquirrh Temple Open House (it's great to be able to take all the kids), and went after to the This is the Place Heritage Park and walked around and did the different activities they had there (stick stilts, ring toss, chores like scrubbing clothes and beating rugs, and a variation on paddle ball). I had a lot of fun, even though it was really quite hot. Unfortunately, Grandpa (Dad) couldn't come with because he was sick, Jeremy couldn't make it because he had to work, Scott had an interview to go to, and Xela's family couldn't make it either, so we were a little sparse, but still had fun. We came home, had dinner, and played Killer Bunnies, which is a good game.

The next day we had our traditional Rice Grut breakfast (thanks to Ben), and the boys went golfing while the girls babysat (easiest babysitting ever--Primary activities are great). Then after we had lunch, it was the boys' turn to babysit while Kathleen (my sister in law) taught all the girls how to make earrings, which is such a great skill and saves a lot of money. After we all got back together, most of us went swimming, and then we had dinner, and then after the kids went to bed we watched a family classic movie "The Shakiest Gun in the West" using Ben's projector outside, which was fun and provided nap time to half the family (who were really tired by this time). On Sunday we got together for dinner, performed some skits about people in our family history, and handed out awards for the photo scavenger hunt which had been going on the whole duration of the reunion. And now it's over! Woohoo!