Family reunion part I

The second leg of our adventure this week was to my husband's family reunion in Zion's National Park in southern Utah. It's a 72-hour event put on by my husbands parents for their children and children's families. Their 9 surviving children attended bringing 7 spouses and easily 20 grandkids and 8 great grandkids. Yes, there are a lot of us. My pictures taken from my phone can't do the beauty of our location or the fun we are having the justice it deserves but it puts the idea out there at least.
This is personally my 3rd family reunion. The first I attended was the ice breaker before our wedding, the second I only had one baby. This year is different with 3 kiddos but equally as fun (just more stress and more work to balance it out).
So far we have slept, ate, played, swam, walked, canoed, and gabbed (well that's not including the bazzilian diaper changes, nursings, chasing wandering children etc). The food has been great, the company has been fantastic, the conversations thought provoking and usually hilarious. This family is very quick-witted and can turn anything into a joke. It's so funny. I love how much we laugh when we are together. It's also amazing to me the love that has bonded this family together and the acceptance everyone has for their siblings (etc)'s lives and choices. Despite differences of opinions and ideas everyone just continues to love everyone. I always come away with the goal of keeping in better touch with everyone til the next reunion (3 years from now) and haven't really met the goal very well. This time, we will do better.
Highlights so far: the kids love for being on the water and wanting to fish and swim; cousins being such great friends so easily; jokes that are on-going; admiring the growth of especially the grandkids from 3 years ago; being with everyone; and then me flopping out of the run-away canoe while trying to dock it and then attempting to pull myself back up onto the dock with PJ just staring at me like "what did you do that for". Lol.
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