A Reunion within a Reunion - 5

The Last Day

The last sour dough hot cakes.

The last of the week long Round Up

Next year the reunion will be two days.

Soup Night and Pot Luck.

Everyone on own for breakfast and lunch.

It got to be too much for the old arthritic ones who do all the work.

We had eaten breakfast before we showed up at camp

around 12:30 on Saturday.
We were not even hungry.

"Fire up the generator,

turn on the grills.

Sour dough hot cakes

Scrambled, fried or special cooked eggs.

Ham."

We reveled in the attention

and now we know how it feels to

come any old time and be served breakfast.

Some even ate after us.

Sometimes DeRay would be on his feet for six hours

serving everyone as they straggled in.

Then he would start the sour dough biscuits for the Pot Luck dinner.

Being a worrier,

getting out of a condo always upsets me.

This morning

Amanda wanted to go swimming.

Children under 14 have to be accompanied by an adult.

Utah law.
Someone had to go with her.
Who me?

while Amy, Brent, and Jan

packed everything out to the cars.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

When we got home at midnight,

Amy and Jan met us at the car

and helped us pack everything in.

They had already unloaded Amy's car and the van,

including all the food

and put it away.

Lovin' life.

Cooks: Bill & DeRay

Clare sets up the Master Kitchen on the Mountain

Newly-wed Alex cooked the hot cakes this year.

At the races.

Suckers.

All the pictures of the kids racing disappeared.

All the good action shots.
(Plus the pictures of Kent & Karen, Eldon's girls: Brenda and Linda, 
Ron & Lynda and others)
The races are a lot more fun when your grandkids are running.

Each time you run, you win a prize.

After your age group,

you can enter every race.

"Fourteen and under."

"Fifteen and under."

Brent had one picture on his phone of the twins lining up to run.
I had action shots of them winning!
Jonathan running too,
even the dogs.

When Ron and Lynda went home,

there was not a single Pugh at the Pugh Reunion.

Seventeen Hughs,

counting us and Kent and Karen,

who started the rebellion.

Around 100 people in all.

   Coming home after a big event must feel a little like a missionary feels when coming home after he has spent his entire life planning, preparing and anticipating a mission and then its over. What do we do with the rest of our lives? We spent months getting ready for and thinking about this reunion within a reunion. Poof. It's over. We're at loose ends. It may take a while to get going again. Laundry first.

  And biking. . .

And Pokémon. . .

Life after reunion:

   *Brooke & Elizabeth are busy getting ready for Isaak's farewell tomorrow. They are planning on 70 for lunch; 50 family (three from Brooke's family--who incidentally didn't go to be lost in the chaos).
   *Brent & Jan have gone to to the Noffsinger Reunion on a ranch near Idaho Falls (all ten siblings and most of their children and grandchildren will be there); then on home to Misery (spelled M-I-S-S-O-U-R-I).

Noffsinger Family Reunion July 16, complete w/family T-Shirts and a flag ceremony.*
*Amy is on the river with a Girl Scout Troop. "The Good Thing about going with the Girl Scouts is that they do all the cooking. The Bad Thing is you have to eat what they cook."

   *Ed is back to riding a trike.  "I said 'good morning' to everyone," he bragged when he returned from his trike ride, "I just wanted to shock them." (He usually complains because they ditch him.) "Don't growl, Naomi," he admonishes, "leave that to me."
   *DeRay spent the first two days at the auto shop - first getting Brent's van fixed, then Ed's car. Ed's trike is still in the shop waiting for a part so he's riding mine.

   So much excitement and stimulation. I'm still going over and over everything in my mind when I'm supposed to be sleeping. It takes about a week to realize how exhausted you are. We didn't even stay up until 4 AM every night playing Pinochle like Clare, Marilyn, Ron, Lynda, and Chad. How do they do it? 

Experiences are memories.

Memories live longer than things.*

Accumulate less;

do more=

Healthy Happiness

*Read Stuffocation by James Wallman

We have more stuff than we could ever need - 

clothes we don't wear, kit we don't use, and toys we don't play with.

Experientialism does not mean giving up all our possessions,

but it does mean getting over our obsession with them

and investing in shared experiences

like holidays and time with family and friends.

Photos by Amy, Brent, Brooke, Jeanette

More to come as Amy shares.