Reuniting with Cousins

A really positive benefit have having my Dad live with us the last four years was igniting communication with my Ensign cousins.

My mom's youngest brother Gaylord and his wife LaVerne had nine children.

My memories of their family was spending Thanksgiving with them at their home in Fresno.

I am a year older than their oldest child Leandra and next in line was David.

David came to San Luis Obispo to work with my Dad in his garage door business.

These are the two cousins that I was most connected to.

I learned at this "reunion" that there is a 20 year span from Leandra to Amie the youngest.

I had no idea. I just remember that they had five children like us, and then the next four came along much later and I don't remember ever being with them.

Laura was the youngest of the first five children, Her son Ryan was recently married and she was having an open house in Lehi. I said to myself "well I'll betcha there will be a lot of the siblings who come to the open house" and I wanted to see them all before we move to Colorado.

So I invited ourselves. Corinne and Ben and Richard were going to be in Spanish Fork the same weekend so it worked out that Corinne and Richard also came with Fred and I.

This is Leandra the oldest and Amie the youngest. They are looking through the pictures I brought from my Dad's stuff. He asked me to take any Ensign memorabilia that I found in his stuff and give it to Curt. So I brought a box full to the open house.

At the end of the evening, we all were able to sit around the table and take pictures and go through the stuff I had brought to give to Curt.

In the forefront is Curt, Adam and David's wife Leah.

The woman in black with blonde hair is Jayson's wife Emily.

The man standing is Laura's husband Mason.

In front is Curt, me, Adam, David, Laura, Bryan, Jayson, Leandra and Amie. Darren and his wife Holly were in Paris. 

Best night ever. David and Leah drove through St. George the next day on their way to Las Vegas as they were headed home to Fresno. They called and we met at Applebees for dinner. Best Day ever. 

I marvel at how easy it is to be with each one of them. They didn't treat me as a stranger and they didn't feel like strangers. We are an eternal family. Pretty awesome. I hope in the coming years I do better at staying connected with them whether through letters, Facebook or an occasional in person meet up.

Family Reunion 2021

This year Shannon invited everyone to her new house in Aurora.

Fred and I reserved a hotel and Shannon fit everyone else in her home.

We arrived Thursday night and Scott and Jess arrived Saturday night.

They had an exciting adventure flying with the boys.

Corinne's family arrived Sunday night.

All of Corinne's family slept on the third floor.

Shannon's kids slept in the office.

They locked up their two cats in the master bedroom.

Ends up that Jess had a bit of allergic reaction to the cats that first morning.

Monday morning we all loaded up and headed to the Botanical Gardens in Denver.

It was cool and drizzly this morning. Henry and Marissa were inseparable.

Brian and Fred often lagged behind doing their own thing. I'm always so happy to see them hanging out with one another. I think they get along well. I'm so glad of that.

Clara is something else. She has quite the personality. Nothing subtle or shy about her for the most part.

Graham was off with his parents at this point, but we did get everyone else in this picture.

I posted another picture of this amazing flowering bush at the ends of this post. For some reason I can no longer insert pictures in the middle. Everything goes to the bottom. Anyway - it was amazing.

Here is a great picture of Scott's family. 

I took this picture because you can really see the red in Shannon's hair here. 

There was this beautiful tree house basically in the rainforest.

Coloring time for these two. Clara looked on.

Evan just loves Woody and Buzz. These are actually Clara's toys, but he did bring his own from home.

Everyone here is playing an online game here. Jack something.

These are our youngest grandchildren, born 5 weeks apart. They are both so cute and full of personality.

Scott and Jess put together a Daly Jeopardy game. Oh my was it fun. One of the categories was "Dad Knows Best".

We went to the Miller Activity Complex in Castle Rock. Corinne and her big boys went on a zipline and the rest of us were in the pool.

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Fred and I got to go on a walk around the neighborhood a few times. This is a view.

I really didn't get too much close up time with many of the grandkids so I'm so happy that I somehow got this picture with Graham. He is a character with the most serious scowl. But he is so handsome!!

We set up some wiggle sprinklers in the backyard for these younger ones to enjoy.

These two were a little bit crazy in the hammocks. I'm surprised one of them didn't fall out on their face.

Brian got quite a bit of help from Fred and Scott getting their big toy set up. It was great to see them working together. Brian still had much to do after this first day. Everything like this always takes longer than anticipated.

We went to Crave for the craziest hamburgers after the Miller Complex. Brian puts up with me very well. I do really like him. He is very easy to get along with. 

This was basically the kiddie area in the pool at the Miller Complex.

One morning we went to the park for family pictures. It was definitely a challenging hour and a half. I'm excited to see the results. I sure hope they turn out.

These two started out on a positive foot the first morning, but then it kind of went downhill from there. It's hard being a kid sometimes.

Talk about looking like your spouse. Their two kids are mini clones of their parents too.

Here is the bunch at Crave for lunch. Richard and Garrett are on their phones here, not praying.

Here's another spot that we took family pictures at.

Henry and Marissa are the best of friends when they are together. I hope they are able to stay that way for many years to come.

Quiet and peaceful time in front of the TV. I appreciate the TV and it's powers.

One afternoon we went to a neighborhood park. Unfortunately, it really was hot that afternoon. We didn't last long.

You can see how pink everyone was.

We took our car track for the grandkids to play with. It helped a little.

Jess interned at the Mermaid Bakery in Denver after she graduated from Johnson and Wales in Pastry. She brought home a bunch of scrumptious cupcakes to share. I should have gotten a picture before we ate them all. I didn't take many pictures this time. I decided I wanted to actually be in the moment more than behind my camera.

 Scott and Jess headed back home. 

They were hoping for a more peaceful experience.

Here they are on picture day. They are happy and that makes me so happy.

Here is silly Clara. She is so funny.

I don't even remember being this close to Clara. I really didn't have much one on one with any of the grandchildren. It is very hard to spread yourself out when there are so many. Also we don't see our grandchildren that often so I feel like I don't want to push myself into the personal space of the little ones.

 Here is that beautiful flowering tower of a bush. Isn't it fascinating!!!

So that is the short of the long story of our reunion this year. All in all things really went well. We enjoyed good food, fun outings and some time at home to do whatever. For the first time we got to have an adult night out for dinner. We definitely want to make that a regular thing. The Jeopardy game that Scott and Jess put together was so much fun. Yep - I'll keep them all and do it again.