I look forward to our Clark Reunion so much! We have reunions every other year and we take turns being in charge of it. This year happened to be my turn and I had a lot of fun planning it. My Mom pays for the lodging and all of the food, which is so generous of her. She rents this 12,000 square foot home in Birdseye, UT. It has 8 bedrooms, plus a den, plus many other sleeping areas. This year we had a total of 60 (out of 85) family members attend the reunion. We really missed those who couldn't attend and we hope they'll be able to join us in two years. Here is a picture of the house we use. It's beautiful and newly remodeled.
We started on Friday, July 20. Since it was a bad forest fire year, we were not allowed to have a fire to roast our hot dogs and s'mores, so we BBQ'd the dogs and my brother, Doug, brought his little propane stove so we could roast our marshmallows. It turned out just fine. Friday night, we got organized in our rooms, and visited, relaxed and the kids ran around and got to know each other again - since it had been 2 years since some of them had seen each other. Here's cute little Ryan Cullimore.
Holly, Scott, Derek, Doug, Jeff, Peta, Carie roasting their marshmallows.
Mom, Sam Watkins and Dave
Mom and Dave
Mom and Me with my eyes closed!
Ethan enjoying his s'more
Brodi and Dennis.
Brodi adopted Dennis as her other Grandpa and wouldn't leave his side!
Ethan found a hole in the grass.
Claire, Sam, Lexi, Ellie and Sadie found the horses and loved feeding them. (The little red haired girl was the owner's granddaughter and she joined our reunion - she was really cute and the girls loved her)
Ethan feeding the horse
Claire feeding the horse.
My family members are such good sports! I made them stand in a circle and do the Tooty Tah dance. It was so fun to watch them. The song goes like this: (they repeat everything I say) A tooty tah, a tooty tah, a tooty tah tah, thumbs up, A tooty tah, a tooty tah, a tooty tah tah, then they repeat all of that and add one more action at a time, thumbs up, elbows back, feet apart, knees together, bottoms up, tongues out, eyes closed, turn around. By the time we added all of the actions, they looked pretty silly, but it was fun and like I said, they are good sports and didn't complain!
My Mom and I bought flashlights for all of the kids, wrote their names on them and gave them to the adults. The kids had to go around to all of the adults and ask them if they had the flashlight with their name on it. It was a way for everybody to learn each other's names a little better. The kids eventually all found their flashlights. They played flashlight tag with them when it got dark. It was soon time to get everybody settled in for the night. After the kids are all in bed, it's a tradition in our family for my nieces and nephews and their spouses to play Mafia. They have so much fun and stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning playing. All of the cousins get along great and have a lot of fun together. Now all of their kids are getting along great as well! It's fun to see the families intermingle and all get along so well.
We had the girls sleep on air mattresses in the living room and the boys slept downstairs on the bunk beds.
Shauna and Scott were two of the helpers on breakfast duty. We had pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream and sausage.
Shauna and Connor (Derek & Melinda's baby)
This year I planned Minute to Win It games. We had 5 teams - blue, orange, yellow, pink and green. In years past, we had a ping pong, horseshoe and goofy golf tournament, along with a Rook tournament. This year I decided to incorporate horseshoes and goofy golf into the Minute to Win it games. So those were our first events. Then we had the youngest 2 people on the team pull kleenexes out of kleenex boxes one at a time and see who could get them all out first. It was so funny to watch the kids do this. I had to remind them that it isn't okay to do this at home!
Then we had several team members from each team put an oreo on their forehead and get it into their mouths without using their hands. It was really funny.
Another event was having a child and an adult feed each other ice cream cones while they were blindfolded. Here are Sadie and Derek feeding each other. The teams were identified by colored slap bracelets according to the team they were on.
The WINNERS!
We had a few other games too - sucking skittles with a straw and putting moving them from one bowl to another bowl. And, putting penne pasta on the end of a spaghetti stick and carrying it across the room to a bowl. Then, we took the empty kleenex boxes and tied them around the waist of a team member from each team and they had to shake 10 ping pong balls out of the box. Team Orange ended up winning the championship!
After the games, it was lunch time - sandwiches, chips, fruit and veggies.
Josh, Sam and Clark enjoying their lunch..
Isaac Hill
BJ and Shannon and a lot of kids!
Kristina, Ruth, etc.
Grandma and BJ
After lunch it was time for the Rook tournament and games for the kids. It was actually clouding up outside, so before it rained, we hurried and did the water balloons that Jeff Boyer prepared. Thanks for sitting for hours filling up those balloons, Jeff! The kids loved them.
My Mom makes homemade oreo cookies and they are a favorite of the family. She had the kids help frost the middle of the cookies so we could have them for dinner. The kids had fun doing this and even got to eat one if they helped!
Devyn, Andy and Tyler at talent show
Tommy doing his dance
And then we had the winners of the Rook Tournament announced. Andy and Tyler were the champs this year. A few years ago, when Doug's family was in charge of the reunion, they found this statue of a bird that has been known as the Rook Trophy for all these years. I humbly admit that I have had that trophy at my house for the last 6 years (3 Rook championships for me!) but I had to give it up this year to these two. Another trophy just like this one has finally been found, so we now have 2 of them in the family and each winner will be able to take one home with them. I hope to win it back someday - there is an empty place on my plant shelf!!!
Here is the whole family. All 60 of us (26 kids under 11) stayed under the same roof for 2 nights and we still love each other! I'm so thankful for my family and I love the personality that each one brings into the family. I missed having Dad at the reunion and I'm sure everyone thought about Dad throughout the events - knowing how much he would have enjoyed being there. But, hopefully he was there with us and enjoyed seeing everybody get along and have fun together. Thank you, Mom, for making it possible to continue our Clark Reunions. I look forward to the next one in 2 years - especially because I won't have to be in charge!!!
As everyone left Sunday morning, I was sad to see it come to an end. I hate good-byes and get emotional when I have to say them. Thank you to such a great family for making the sacrifices to come to the reunion. Yes, I made the plans and organized the reunion, but it wouldn't be fun without the fun all of you add to it.
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