Family Reunion 2011

What a long and exhausting day.  I feel completely wiped out.  But it was a good and fun family reunion.  I guess its technically not over because a lot of people are going up to Brigham City to go to church with my grandparents, but sadly that is an experience I will be missing.

Brigham City Temple

Anyway, the day began by getting up and getting ready to go to the temple.  When I woke up, I was surprised to see that my hair didn't look greasy.  Now, this may be disgusting for all of you, but it is the truth: I've always had extremely greasy hair that will barely last 24 hrs without being washed.  I even tried going every other day because people told me that if I did so the oils in my hair would even out.  I did that for 3 months before I finally couldn't stand feeling gross every other day any longer.  Well, it had been more than 24 hrs and my hair looked clean!  It was a happy experience.  Maybe the desert air is drying my hair out a little, or perhaps its the water in Juarez.  Something in that water is helping to moderate the oils in my hair.  Of course, I didn't make it to 48 hrs, but perhaps after 2 yrs in Juarez, I'll be able to do that.
So, Josh and Catie, the cousins I'm staying with, have 2 kids: 5 yr old Benjamin and 1 yr old Briana.  They couldn't go to the temple with their kids, so we waited for my aunt and uncle to arrive to watch the kids.  Heidi and Monty have two kids of their own, though I don't remember their ages.  Then we headed up to Bountiful.  We were supposed to be there in time for the 9:00 session, but we ended up arriving at the temple just before 9.  We could have made it for the 9:15, but I made a fatal error as we walked in to the temple.

All together in one room

For the past 4 yrs or so the temple recommends have had a barcode on them.  I'm not really sure the purpose of the barcode other than to be extra sure that the recommends are valid.  As we were walking up to the temple, I made the mistake of telling Catie and Josh about my first temple recommend with the barcode.  It was right after the church implemented the new recommends.  I was one of the first, at least in my ward, to receive the new recommend and it was right before I was headed back to BYU.  This was also back when my mom was alive and my dad cared about my safety.  So my parents drove with me down to BYU.  Along the way we stopped at the Billings Temple.  I had my newly issued recommend.  When I got to the Billings Temple, I was surprised to discover that they hadn't activated my recommend.  I'm not sure what they had to do, but they were able to activate my recommend so I could go in, but I had to wait a little while for them to do that.

Well, almost all together

Well, I just barely renewed my temple recommend down in Juarez.  Before you ask, yes, my recommend is in Spanish.  When we get in to the Bountiful Temple, they scan my recommend and tell me it hasn't been activated yet.  Again I had to wait, but this time I actually had to talk with someone in the temple presidency.  It wasn't a big deal, but Catie waited with me.  The man that talked with us thought I had just gotten back from a mission, then thought that Catie and I were companions, and when I told him we were cousins said that he could see the resemblance.  Even though Catie is my cousin, she is not blood related to me.  It was quite amusing.

More family

We made through in time for the 9:30 session.  I was happy to see that everyone else hadn't gone on without us.  My grandparents were there along with my cousin's dad, Jimmy, and Patti and Frank (the ones I stayed with in Phoenix).  It was a small gathering, but it was nice anyway.
After the temple, I ended up going up to Brigham City with Patti and Frank.  Patti wanted to get some chocolate from Idle Isyles.  My mom used to work at Idle Isyles when she was younger.  I remember her talking about it, but I don't remember ever going to the candy store.  We got a pound of chocolate, which is really expensive chocolate.  I was thinking gift boxes might be a good thing to have around for gifts to give when I'm invited to people's houses, but unfortunately it is a little more expensive than I was planning on, or at least I assume so.

37 of the family made it to the reunion

From there we stopped in Ogden at Heidi and Monty's house (Patti and Frank are staying there) to get a few things for the reunion dinner.  We made it to Josh and Catie's just after 3:00.  My sisters were already there.  So were a lot of other people.  By the time the last person arrived, we had quite a group gathered.  37 people in total, including 14 young kids.  Although it didn't feel chaotic at the time, after everyone left and we were left with the mess, it felt like a tornado had blown through the house.  Ok, it probably wasn't that bad, but its amazing how much of a mess a few kids can make!
We talked for a while, catching up, before dinner was ready.  Then we ate and talked some more before it was time for pictures.  Pictures with my family always takes forever.  It wouldn't take so long except that we have to get every possible combination of photos: everyone, grandparents and grandkids, then with spouses, grandparents and their kids, then with spouses, then each family separately with grandparents, then separately, and a silly picture with each.  My grandparents had 8 kids.  Although only 7 of the kids were represented, that is still a LOT of different combinations.

Me and my sisters

During pictures, some people started playing games.  When pictures were over, we had ice cream.  I actually didn't feel like eating ice cream, so I played with Briana a little before she wanted some ice cream.  After that, people started to trickle away.  We had a couple rounds of Mafia before the last family's left.  I have to admit, it was a little frustrating because it seemed like I was one of the few who knew how to play . . . and I got killed off quickly.
But it was still a fun day.  I really so enjoy being around my mom's side of the family.  I hopefully convinced a few more of them to come and visit me in Juarez.  I guess I'll have to start figuring out what there is to do down there so I can use that to reel them in even further!