Family Reunion 2012 - Thursday, July 19th

A perk to having the family reunion in Montana was having access to my parent's history.  Thursday morning, the 27 of us loaded into five vehicles and caravaned over to the small community where my parents met and grew up.  First, we stopped at their high school and my dad, who has been entertaining us kids for years with his dynamic dancing and cheering, showed off his cheerleading skills to his grandchldren in the very gymnasium in which he cheered.  He shared his choice to cheer at games instead of play in them as practically as he lives.  He loves sports but doesn't particularly enjoy participating in team sports and by cheering, he allowed his older brother, Jack, to attend all his practices and games while he went home to do the chores and farm work.  What a brother.



My dad explaining how things were.  Sam had a question.




Look at them all getting into the spirit of the cheer.



D-drum, drum, drum, Drummond...Drummond.



Go...Drummond!

From here...we went down the hallway of memories.  On the walls were the graduating classes of every class in its history.  All of my mother's siblings were on the wall.  All but one younger sister in my dad's family (his parents and sister moved away his senior year of high school and he lived with a friend that year).  Also, all ten of my cousins who grew up there.  It was incredible!




My mom pointing out her graduating class.



My dad below his class.



My mom in the bottom left corner.  My dad's sister is right above her. My mom was a senior when my dad was a freshman and his sister was my mom's best friend.  Sparks didn't fly until much later.




My dad, bottom and second from right, is sporting a very fetching suit jacket.  His friend who housed him his senior year is two pictures over to the left with a dapper plaid bow-tie.

Then Daniel had a major blow out and I didn't have a change of clothes.  Enter....naked baby!




As Jay had missed out on lots and lots of messy diapers with my many road trips, he happily changed Daniel.  O.K.  Maybe not happily.  It was pretty gross.



Sam is in this picture but you can't see him.  He is hiding behind Brendan, who is sitting on the handrail in the back.

With all 15 of their grandchildren.  Like the reunion shirts?  Each of our names is located within the outline of Montana.  All turned out well in the end but I the company was really bad at communication.    I cannot recommend t-shirtcafe.com even though it produced such a great shirt.  I had no idea where or when the shirts were coming!

From the high school, we made a quick stop in town.  Realize that town consists of a main street with one parallel street.  Still, they showed us where the movie theater was (no longer in operation) and the dance hall where there was a weekly Saturday night dance that went from 11 until 2.  Of course, nobody would show up before 11:30 pm.  And my parents went to these!

A few miles down the road, we stopped at both of their family ranches.  I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't know either of their histories very well.  We visited my uncle's family many times throughout my youth and teen years but it was always to their house for Sunday dinner and I guess I never bothered asking the right questions.  I always wondered why the church was as strong as it was in this rinky-dinky community in Montana but my parents explained that there was a group of members from Cache Valley, Utah who all emigrated in the early 1900s to homestead.  Most were younger siblings who didn't inherit family farms and ranches and, through word of mouth, close to a dozen LDS families established ranches in this beautiful spot of land.  My mother's father served as branch president for 25 years. My dad's father was bishop for 4 years and my uncle Fred was bishop for 11 years.  Although it is a branch once again, the community of LDS saints there still serve faithfully and my dad shared that in their entire stake, they have the highest percentage of sacrament meeting attendance and home and visiting - close to 100%.  Incredible.




The land that held the house (no longer standing) where my mother was born.

Our next stop was an even smaller town, Hall, just past their ranches where both attended K-8th grade.  There were two classrooms and a multi-purpose room with a stage.  It was a perfect image of a small school house and the kids loved the simple playground with its old-school equipment.









Teeter-totters!

I missed the picture of my dad swinging and then jumping off.  The memories of his former playground brought out his inner child.




Same with my mom.




Aunt Jen and Seth

We then took some back roads and ended up seeing a part of their history I didn't even know existed.  Their ranch was huge!  I honestly had no idea.  Thousands of acres beyond an irrigation canal that my mother has memories of spending on a tractor discing the dry land, feeling annoyed by how hot and dirty she was.  My brother spent summers over on my uncle's ranch changing pipes and I didn't know how vast it all was.  It probably wasn't the most exciting 2 hours for the grandchildren but I know all of us adults cherished the family history my parents shared with us.




The back land where the cows pastured and where the kids worked during the summer.  There were no houses in sight.  It was incredibly beautiful.



The creek where my mother was baptized.



The kids getting an education in how different life was back then.


Hello, perfectly idyllic creek which could be the poster of old-fashioned baptisms.

After our tour of my parent's childhood, we drove back home, stopping at a picturesque spot for a picnic lunch.




Getting ready for the blessing of the food.



Still naked.



Jen and I waiting for our turn.



Henry eating his spread.  Jon shared the rule he implemented at his ward's scout camp where every piece of garbage not picked up equalled five push-ups from everyone.  There were push-ups done afterward.  Possibly due to this kid.

The afternoon was spent in a variety of ways. Some kids went to the city pool.  Their strict rules against certain sized goggles and any kind of free play the way boys enjoy playing led some to the hotel pool.  During the downtime, Tara and I prepared dinner.  She made two pans of her famous chicken enchiladas and I made two pans of ground-beef with red sauce enchiladas.  It was a hot day and in a moment of inspiration, my dad suggested we cook our casseroles in his new outdoor grill.  Have you ever considered this?  After googling its safety, we took the risk and it turned out beautifully.  My dad maintained the 300 degree grill while we added the finishing touches of lettuce, sour cream, salsa, beans and queso and the house stayed cool(er) because we didn't have to turn the ovens on.  I wish we would have taken a picture because it was brilliant!

That evening, we enjoyed the community band playing a free concert in the bandshell.  The kids came and went - dividing their time between us and the large playground nearby.  And with no tent-issues that night, the whole day went down in the books as a very nice day.




I love this picture.  I love these people.