Every three years, descendants of Eva Norris Perry Bell (my great-grandma)get together for a family reunion. And they are MY FAVORITE VACATIONS EVER! I love them more than Disneyland and Hawaii, or in other words- a lot! None of us see each other very often (once a year at most), so it is so great to catch up with everyone.
Here's the thing, for the last couple of reunions, I was part of the teenage group. It was a party. Now, I came to this reunion and realized that pretty much everyone I hung out with got married. Lame! But luckily, I still had a few single cousins to be with and thankfully, some of my newly married cousins did not feel like they were too cool for us and hung out with us! Yay! So, here is a journal of everything we did. It's not really that interesting, it's mostly for me to remember this trip, not to entertain you.
Monday afternoon we arrived in Cedar City. We went to a beautiful park and met up with everyone for dinner. We played games and just went around meeting all of the new spouses and children.
Since we were all tired from traveling, we all went to bed pretty early. The next day, we had a devotional and then some people went golfing, some people went hiking, and all the little kids went swimming and to McDonald's. I chose the hike. It was beautiful! We hiked in the stream most of the way and there was red rock everywhere and it was gorgeous! It was so fun!
Then we were all super tired and napped in our own rooms. After my nap, I was super hungry so I walked across the street to Cafe Rio with my mom. We found my cousins Ryan and Shane there. A few minutes later, in walked my Uncle John and cousin Eric. Then my dad and sister Bri. A while later, Corinne, Justin, Josh, and Julianne (all cousins) wound up there too! It was super funny! After we ate, we went back to the hotel, only to find out that we were leaving for dinner in an hour. So we went to the park, where pizza was served. And sadly, many of us were too stuffed to eat the yummy pizza :(
And then we went bowling. It was insane! One of the Funniest moments was when my prego cousin Amanda got up to bowl one time, and she turned around and bowled under her legs. And she got a strike! She ended up winning and Eric pretended to be mad that a pregnant lady beat him. haha. Our family filled up the bowling alley it was so loud!
Back at the hotel, some of us hung out in the conference room. There were puzzles and games, and a few of my rebellious cousins played poker. haha
The next morning we did the usual family pictures. Grandma Bell had two children: Mona and Diane. Mona is my Dad's mom. She married John and here they are with their posterity:
{There are 62 of us total}
Diane married Mel. Here is their family:
{There are 29 of them total}
Combine it, and that's quite a few people from just having two girls!
After pictures, we went up into the mountains at some place that kinda reminds me of mueller park. We ate and played games. Then we had our talent show. I sang a song. It was fun to see everyone's talents.
Then Grandma, Grandpa, Mel and Diane each took a moment to speak to us. Since we only get together every three years, you never know who will have passed away by then. Hopefully, no one will. Grandma's is the one I remember most. She told us it was up to us now to decide if we wanted to continue with this reunion tradition (we do, of course), and then bore her testimony.
When this was finished, we went back to the hotel. A bunch of us went to the movie theater across the street. We were planning on getting tickets to the midnight showing of The Last Airbender. But, oh! No theater in Cedar City was doing one. Deeply upset, we decided to watch a movie in the conference room instead. We bought so much crap to eat. We watched the new Alice in Wonderland. We thought only the teenagers/young adults were going to watch the movie but soooo many little kids and "old people" were there too! It was awesome! Then we played some more games.
It was then that I realized we didn't really have a picture of our "clique" yet. Unfortunately, we were all looking like crap at that point because it was eleven thirty and we were tired.
Then Eric, Rylie, Josh and I went to Julianne & James's room. My dad also came to play video games with James. The rest of us talked and played with Christian, their little boy. He's two. They were trying to keep him awake all night so he would sleep the 8 hour car ride home. He was so hyper! We were all laughing soooo hard! At about two a.m., we all left.
The next morning, we all guessed what our lives would be like at the next reunion. My guess: I will have just graduated with my Bachelor's of Music and I will be preparing for an internship at Disneyworld that fall. Everyone elses guess for me: I'll have just graduated and be married and possibly be expecting a baby. Last reunion I was right about where I would be at this reunion, so we'll see who is the most right!
Finally, we said our goodbyes. And when we were in the car and I was hidden, I cried, like I do after every reunion. I love my family and I hate that we only see each other all together every 3 years for 3 days. It stinks. But the time I do get to spend with them is so wonderful!
I have been so blessed because I have been born into the MOST AWESOME FAMILY EVER!
