Family Reunion!

(Warning: A lot of pictures of people you might not know, but if you stick it out to the end you may find something you like. Enjoy!)

We spent a wonderful weekend in Utah with my WHOLE family! Imagine, 48 people on 1 acre of property (for the most part). A little tight, and a little short on hot water occasionally, but great fun all around. The theme of the reunion was "Family Traditions," so we had activities and foods that were for the most part based off of traditions that we have enacted in our own families. I loved the chats and catching up and getting to know everyone better part of the reunion best.

When we pulled up to the house almost everyone else was there. Chad entertained the kids with his rocket launcher while we waited for dinner to show up.


This is the side of my sisters I saw most often. Paparazzi! Not pointing at me, at the kids. (P.S. I missed pictures of some of the activities. I know you have them. I will probably be asking for some soon!)


This is how we took most of our meals. My parents set up a big tent which acted as our serving area, and then we had picnic tables and chairs set up close by. Easy set up, easy clean up. Whoever invented paper products must have had a large family!

Pie Night, a holiday celebrated on March 14. (Pi Night, 3.14... get it? Ok, we're nerds.)


And this is how half of us slept. Well, Adam and I were lucky and scored a room and air mattress inside the house, but really we would have been fine outside, too. The weather was perfect for sleeping outside!



My little sister Rebekah is expecting her first baby, so we threw her a baby shower the evening that everyone arrived. I had to bring something "Texas-ish" for her little boy, so I found some (fake) cowboy boots.


Friday morning was our first official reunion activity, geocaching. It's sort of like a treasure hunt. If you have a GPS unit, and an account set up here, you can receive coordinates to actual caches. The caches usually have a roll to sign when you find it, and maybe a "prize" that you can take, as long as you replace it with something new for the next person to find. They're all over the world now, thousands in the US. We looked up a few around our neighborhood and went exploring.


Found one! It was hidden in the top of the fence post.


The caches vary in size, some the size of a tupperware container to some so tiny they are smaller than the first knuckle of your finger. Erika is actually putting the cache back in place, magnetized to the back of the vent.


Adam's bonding with the nephews here. He made a beeline straight for the court when our travels took us there. Adam was such a good sport about everything that we did at the reunion. He even watched a traditional Maughan family chick flick with us--"The Man in the Brown Suit." Of course, he thought it was cheesy, but I'm proud of him for being a team player.


Adam and I were in charge of the water games that afternoon. We played "Dribble, Dribble, Drench" (a variation of Duck, Duck, Goose, if you couldn't tell), and a dry game that we adapted with water. And as these games always do, it eventually evolved into a free-for-all water fight. I don't know about everyone else, but I had a blast with all three!

Friday night we had a family talent show, so we set up the chairs around a "stage" area and gathered to the back yard for the fun. They pulled the keyboard out on to the deck so those musically talented people could perform for everyone. Sorry, most of my pictures didn't turn out so well--bad lighting, late in the evening--but I was pretty proud of all the talent in my family. Adam and I were woefully unprepared. I used my DVD of the Azul show as my talent. Lame. We should have thought of something more entertaining.


Climbing up the "Daddy Tree!"


The Maughan Family singers. "Stay on the sunny side of life!"


My cute parents dancing along to the music. Well, my mom is dancing and my dad is just going along with it, I think.


Saturday morning, after the scriptural Easter egg hunt, we discovered a surprise...


Owl mail! It was an invitation to Harry Potter's birthday party, which is the tradition that my sister Lucinda wants to start with her family. We were requested to send our response by owl, and joined the party that afternoon.


The party began with a visit to Honeydukes for some wizard candy. The Gringotts goblin gave us each 5 gold galleons to spend there, which came out to be just enough to try one of everything. Besides' the every-flavored beans and the jelly slugs there were chocolate frogs and lemon drops.


Chocolate frogs, and wizard trading cards.


After hyping everyone up on sugar, it was time for the Quidditch match! The Sorting Hat was placed on each child's head, and a mystical voice designated which team they were on. The kids just loved hearing the hat speak to them!


Ok, so the sorting hat wasn't really all that magical. My niece Brielle had a microphone set-up a hundred feet or so away.


They're really cracking up about this, aren't they?

The (not-so-golden) Snitch and the referee wizard. It's sort of like flag football---you have to steal the sock-bound tennis ball from the Snitch's belt to "catch" the Snitch. As the average age of the teams got older the Snitch did too. It had to be fast enough to outrun the competitors.


Semi-organized chaos.


Quidditch Champions! (Of the second round.)



We rounded out our activities on Sunday with a family testimony meeting. I really enjoyed hearing testimonies from my parents and siblings. It's nice to know that our family is built on all the right values.

April and Mike, we had a great time! Thanks for organizing everything! The books look amazing, too. We love reading it, and are planning new traditions for our family.