Fourth Ward 38 Year Reunion

This picture doesn't quite show everyone who came, or the logistics of getting the picture taken -- which will be a great memory, in and of itself.  At about 7 PM while we were still eating, the top row of sprinklers went on along the hill where we planned to take the picture.  I wasn't worried, as I knew they'd be finished before the picture was taken.  Then Brother Balch reminded me there would be a second row of lower sprinklers that would be going on soon!  So we interrupted dinner and to take the picture before the lower sprinklers went on.  We moved two rows of chairs along the parking lot front for the older folks to use.    
About the time we got everyone positioned on the hill behind them, sure enough the sprinklers went on!  Brother Gardner quickly stepped on top of the sprinkler head by him, and other men followed suite, so we got the picture taken without too much dampness.  However, the water spilled quickly into the parking lot where the littler kids were posed, so they got wet in the process.  Kara and Jamie Laws orchestrated the photo shoot, plus took candids throughout the evening.


It was a beautiful summer evening and lots of time for visiting.

Wilcox guys who attended the reunion

The first out-of-towner to show up that night was Russ Stevenson.  It was so good to see him, as he had helped our boys in scouts, and also with a musical I helped orchestrate.  Unfortunately, he and Connie are divorced..  He came clear from Ogden. He was in quite a few of the slides: plays and scout activities.  Lurlene and Dennis Gutke were there and visited up a storm.  Lurlene had a really fun game recognizing people and gave out five prizes for each category--which made it really fun.  Ethan won one of the prizes for having traveled the furtherest -- Monticello!!  Lurlene is such a good friend and has been for dozens of years.  She also got a gift for me, which was unexpected and a nice surprise. 



Reed and Becky Gardner and Lily also came down.  She came over the night before and we had a good visit. Diane McNeave traveled over from Canon City and stayed with us for 4 nights, and we had lots of wonderful visits

It was a wonderful surprise having Rob, Ethan, and Ryan
come over even though Kathryn was still recooperating.

She also had plenty of time to visit others and also the college folks.  Some of the Webb and Carroll children came and many who had been scattered into other wards in Blanding also joined us for the evening.  It was wonderful visiting with so many people and Brother Ogle kept things moving.  Once everyone had been served (which was tricky -- since we ran out of the main dishes) he invited people to come up
and share memories of the 4th ward.  That went especially well, and was our main entertainment besides the tour de force -- the slide show.

Larena Nakai Eldridge and family.  LaPriel and her
family lived for a short while in our ward.

How it all began

I had wanted to do a slide show for several years and show it at a New Years Eve party for our ward.  We had been in 4th ward since its inception and I had literally hundreds and hundreds of pictures of ward events. However,  last year on Aug. 14 when the Blanding 4th ward was dissolved, I determined that we'd need to orchestrate a reunion instead.  My walking partners helped me brainstorm ways to do it.  Our preferred date conflicted with Women's Gen. Conference, so we moved it up a week to Sept. 22. 

 

All eight bishops of the ward, along with their wives are still living in Blanding which was significant in and of itself.  They were always ones to know a good thing when they saw it so none had moved away!!  I enlisted their help from the first, and asked each bishop to write a brief history of their tenure, for a history I wanted to include in a written history.  About a month later, President Mike Bradford found some quarterly reports and 4th ward conference information which he gave to me.  This was a wonderful addition to the history. Sister Pincock also had a copy of a script Helen Shumway wrote for the 20th anniversary.  I was able to use some of that information also, but ended up not publishing it in the book.  It is, however, included in the files on the DVD.  The published history ended up being 28 pages long.  The school district media did a wonderful job of printing it thanks to Karen Bronson's help.

The slide show consisted of nearly 800 slides.  I probably had that many in my own collection to start with, but not all were high quality.  There were over 20 people who brought pictures for me to scan. Glenna Webb and Jon Hunt brought over a large amount which especially was helpful.  As more pictures came in, I was more selective and started removing some of the earlier pictures.  Thus the editing went on and on!  Even after the final showing, I discovered 10 wonderful pictures in an album I had overlooked, and I added those.  So the last ones to get the DVD copy, also got a few more pictures.

Because of the expansive time frame-- 38 years of history, activity and hundreds of people-- the show grew exponentially, finally ending up 1 hr. and 20 min. long, which averaged 10 min. per bishopric.  As a result the show wouldn't fit on a regular single layer DVD, and Matt Rogers gave me a quick lesson on using double layers and best choices and how they worked.  Verbatim brand worked lots better than the Ridata which I also tried.  Everytime I made a copy I got the message that the show hadn't been mastered correctly for burning onto a double layer, but the Verbatim discs still played great on a DVD, (unlike the Ridatas)  which was a huge blessing.  I really felt I was guided and watched over through this whole process by angels who made it happen.  I was so thankful by the end of the program, that everything ran well, and that the audience seemed to enjoy it.  I spent a lot of time the next week pressing more DVDs and getting them distributed.



Janet with Robert and Lurlene

Steve helped with set up and clean up, and also gave editing suggestions on the slide show.  Others who helped with special assignments included:

MC: Robert Ogle; Food, set up: Eileen Fahey & family; Decorations: Hurst family; Prizes: Lurlene Gutke; Games:  Silvia Stubbs; Flyer Delivery:  Cec Tibbitts, Kelly  Pugh Family, Joel Tate, Brian Kirby, Steve Wilcox; Name tags: Diane Balch; Table Toppers: Cherie Shumway; Orders: Calvin Balch; Production: San Juan School District Media Center: Rebecca Stoneman and Karen Bronson.

Reunion Recreation and Relaxing on Saturday

Back row:  McKenzie, Jordan, Nathan, Lexie, Nancy, Bruce, Ryan and Savannah
Front Row: Hallie, Clint, Sophi and Molly.  We know Andrea and her family wanted to be here, and we missed them!

 It was wonderful having two-thirds of Doug and Nancy's children and grandchildren join us at the reunion.  It really meant a lot to me having them there and to participate with us, and to talk and have fun with.  It was time to have the 2nd cousins get acquainted.  Thanks also to Nancy and Lexie for the delicious "Grandma Keeler" supper of tacos and cut out oatmeal cookies that mom used to make. Cutting out all those red, white, and blue stars took a whole day I'm sure.  Yummy! 

L-R:  Audrey, Jessica, Annette, Alissa, Hillary, Kambre, and Tom

Doug and Della's family was well represented at the reunion.  We wish Aaron and his family could have come as well.  Everyone was gone swimming at the reservoir when Doug and Della came, and I didn't think to get a photo of them...but you'll have to imagine a bushy bearded man and his hard working wife in this picture.  It was great having them come.  Della brought up yummy cinnamon rolls and cookies to help with the evening meal.

Nathan and his mother-in-law, Larita Bowen, prepared a delicious gourmet pancake and bacon breakfast for everyone Saturday morning. (Tammy and 7 wk. old  baby Isabella were getting some much needed sleep.)  We had chocolate chips, blue berries, pecans, and lots of delicious fruit and cocoa to choose from. 
Andrew and Anthony's families fixed a great pulled pork lunch for us Saturday, with melon and chips. Yummy!  For most of the meals there were over 30-40 people who ate.  Thanks again to everyone who helped prepare a meal.  It made it so much easier on everyone to only have to worry once, instead of nine times.

Time for Games

 Afterwards we took family photos on the wagon, and then played outdoor games.  Jolly, Jolly Butcher Boy was one of the fun ones the little kids enjoyed, along with Red Rover.







Of course, you can't have a reunion in Idaho without having a potato sack race!

We really appreciate Uncle Bruce for providing brand new potato sacks! as well as firewood for the reunion.  We should have taken individual pictures of all the sack racers!  Where was my cameraman when I needed him?

 Even without any practice all the kids did extremely well.  Getting into the potato sack was the first obstacle!

Little spuds race: Jaxon, Gannon, Logan and Hailey

Jaxon figures out an easy stroll works better than hopping!

Next the kids in school try their skills .

Daniel, Hunter, Mattea, Sam race, while Michael and Hailey watch

Danny, Hailey, Mattea, Sam, and Hunter



Go, Mattea, Peyton, Hailey, Brendan

Boy, these kids can jump.




We finally figured out how Michael
was able to go so fast!

Brendan, Michael, Kylee, and Laurie are the pros; Hunter and Logan cheer them on

Final Event:
 Adults challenge the kids:

      

Break out time for Girls

Modeling the final product:  Before and After

Second Cousins: Sophi, Laurie, Logan, Mattea, Hailey, Peyton, Kylee and Molly

Even Dads get to model the new hairdos
-- now we can see for sure another family trait!

Ryan, Steve, Anthony, Andrew, Nathan and their daughters' (granddaughters's) flower bands

More games outside with beautiful lawns and shade

Nothing like a good game of tag to shake off boredom.

Next some circle games: Duck, Duck Goose, with a silly uncle to make it fun

Run, Sophi, run!

Logan takes her job as "it" very seriously

There was also some good shady spots for visiting with family

Nancy's grandchildren: Sophi, Clint, Nathan, and Savannah

Nancy, Lexie, Tom, Alissa, Bruce, Autumn, and Hinckley

Alissa, Tom, Chris, Emily, Pam, Kylee, Jaxon, and Hinckley taking down the chair

After lunch most people headed to the Ririe Reservoir for a fun free swim at the lake.  Thanks, Tom, for the good recommendation!  We stayed behind, and had a good visit with Doug and Della and let them play the Keeler jeopardy game.  Then we went for a ride with them through Poplar and up to  the east side of the reservoir. We couldn't find the swimmers, who we found out later had gone to the other side.  They didn't stay for supper as they had been a problem with one of his spud fed cows, but we were glad they made the effort to come out.  However, he told me he had not desire to see the farm.  I think he's always felt badly that Dad sold it, and that he didn't have the opportunity to farm it.

That night we did some group singing, and Laurie accompanied us on the flute.  She is really getting good.  We also played "Outburst" seeing who could get the most right answers from categories reflecting our long ago past.  It was noisy, but still fun.   Round 2 of Jeopardy was next on the docket, and we discovered that the family Idaho lawyer really knew his Idaho facts!  I meant to have us sing, "Here we Have Idaho", but I forgot! 



LaVaur & Laura Wilcox Reunion June 15-17

A good turnout of cousins, aunts, and uncles showed up for the bi-annual Wilcox reunion planned by Don and Virginia Cazier.  Initially they only reserved the big camp site for Sat. and Sun, but most of our family were available to camp on Friday, so Andrew changed his camp site to the big one, and we all joined them Friday, along with some of Katherine and Keith's kids and grandkids.  We had a lot of fun that night as well as Saturday.  Rob and Kathryn let us bring Ethan up to the reunion, so that made it even more fun for us. He tented with Autumn the first night, but stayed with us in Payson the 2nd night.

Payson Lakes was a most gorgeous setting for a family reunion.  There are three small lakes, hiking paths, and several big open areas.  We camped here the summer Antonio Navarro came to live with us, in fact, we picked him up from the airport the first day of that Wilcox reunion.

Amy and Autumn take the kiddos for a cruise along the lake.

Chris, Anthony, Autumn, Andrew and their families were all able to come participate, camp, fish, hike and play games. 









Chris and Pam's family

Andrew's in-laws, Denny and Connie Roberts, came camping too, in their Muffin self-contained mini RV. We celebrated Denny's birthday along with CJ and Logan who were also having birthdays that week. The next night we got to have some homemade ice cream which was made in a specialized ball which we rolled and tossed.

Autumn drove up with her kids and they had a lot of fun playing and camping...even enjoying a hammock.

We visited with Paul, Monte, Lynette, Cindy, Brent, and Nick's families from Keith's family.  Nick's oldest son is on a mission in Colorado.

Paul was the family "bread winner" on this reunion and furnished two large bags of delicious breads of all kinds from Kneaders. We even took some home. Their oldest daughter has graduated, and the next one had just had an accident and dislocated her collar bone.



Brent's family



Nick and Debbie's family

Lynette's family

Monte's family



Cindy's family

Liz was the only one of Katherine and Harvey's family to come. It was fun hearing about their daughter's mission in France, and getting reacquainted with their other girls.

Katherine and Harvey stayed in the same motel in Payson that we did -- see what pitiful campers we've turned into!  We've gotten rid of most of our camping equipment, so motel camping is our preferred modus operandi.

 Day 1 we hiked around the west side of the lake.
Water activities were a big part of this reunion.  Grandma and Grandpa Wilcox even went rowing on the lake.  Andrew and Denny both brought boats, and the kids enjoyed riding in the boat as well as fishing. 

 Hailey shows off the fish they caught.  Mattea, Peyton and Hinckley try catching fish by hand.  Michael and Ethan go wading in the lake on their fishing endeavors.

Father's Day remembrance for Steve

I need all the help I can get in remembering all family birthdays.  Thanks, Amy

How in the heck did we get everything in the trunk?  It was tight, but we did it!