Ok lets be 100% honest. Sometimes the idea of spending a long weekend with extended family seems well, less fun than the dentist. Please tell me I’m not the only one. I mean don’t get me wrong family is great but 4 days and nights surrounded buy them can be overwhelming for personalities like mine. I need lots of quiet down time to recharge from short spans of time surrounded buy lots of people and activities.
My husbands side of the family has a reunion every year. It’s a large gathering with over 100 people, I think one year it was close to 250. It is a weekend packed full of activities and fun and people. I look forward to it every year and can’t wait to see the people we haven’t seen in a year. The kids all grow up too fast and it’s fun to see them excited to be there as they get into the “ I hate everything” years of their life. I hope that most of my children will continue the tradition and bring their children as they start the next phases of their life….whenever that may be.
This year we headed up in the mountains near Vernal Utah and it was sooooo much cooler than at home. That alone made it a more relaxing and enjoyable year. The real thing that made this year special though was that my husbands brothers and sisters were all there and they had their kids and all the cousins loved playing with each other almost as much as the parents loved watching and listening to them. Grown ups played games and ate s’mores right along side of all the kids. I wasn’t stressed this year. I did take an evening drive each night to check out the local wildlife and I’m sure that quiet time helped.
If you ever have the chance to head up to Vernal Utah I highly recommend taking not only a trip to Flaming Gorge but also to Ashley National Forest. It is beautiful and we saw lots of dear and elk and even saw a MOOSE! The weather was amazing and other than getting eaten by mosquitoes, I couldn’t have asked for a better place to camp
Now more than ever I am grateful for the relationships that I have. I am grateful for family and can see now, as they are being torn, apart why Jason’s Great Great Grandparents were so determined to start this tradition and to let their kids know that they were to continue it no matter what! As I enter the phase of my life where my kids are starting to move out, I see the need to make sure we don’t all go too far in our own separate ways. I have started thinking of ways to make sure my kids all get together now and then. Luckily I have been blessed to be a part of this HUGE reunion each year and it has given me some great ideas on how to move forward as I plan for my little family. If you would like some ideas or tips on how to host a fun camping family reunion, feel free to reach out or comment here and I will do my best to offer any knowledge I have!
Here are some of my favorite images from this year. Click through the slides to get to see them all.