June 19-21 (Fri-Sun) Spencer Family Reunion Neal and Jannis' turn to plan it! A cabin up Parleys Canyon, over by Park City. Friday, June 19, 2009 I worked from 9 to 2pm. Everyone else took the day off I guess. There wasn't anything for me to do until 2:30 or 3pm when we left, so I decided to work. I went up with Mindy and Cole...and we had to pick up Jeremy too. Thats some weight going up that canyon. We got there about the same time as Neal, Jannis, Patsy, Rachel, Brent, David and Braxton. (They started out earlier than us to eat at Dairy Queen?) We unpacked and choose rooms. The rest of the family started trickling in. After the slight miscommunications of getting Mom and Dad up here.... I fergot they were coming the opposite direction we had so they should've followed the directions backwards in order to get there. And Mom and Dad thought that it was Mindy giving them all these directions when it was me and Neal. Bah hah. Mindy got blamed. This is only the second major miscommunication since this reunion that I've had with the parental units. I give up! And Dad was already on his computer doing his picture slideshow before dinner. Three floors. Three bathrooms! Never in my life.....! Basement with the fuseball and projector screen, entrance to the hot tube and trail to the bunk house in basement. The main floor had the front room, kitchen, big screen TV, and a bedroom and entrance to the balcony/deck. The top floor had a pool table and two bedrooms. Each bedroom I swear had a queen bed and/or bunk beds. Bunk beds everywhere! This was pish posh kind of a place. My family kinda got the basement corner room. We unpacked and chatted with family members that were still trickling in until dinner was ready. Jannis cooked tacos for dinner. Then we played Bingo til like 9pm with Moms bingo set and her prizes we all enjoyed, maybe a lil' too much. Then the house was mainly girls from the get-go, we had put the boys out in the bunk house so the girls had a chick flick night. We watched Twilight til like midnight. Most of the boys I think went in the hot tub. Friday nights guests: Neal, Jannis, David, Brent, LaDonna, Jenna, Jase, Trish, Mike, Mindy, Braxton, Cole, Sara, Grandma Spencer, Patsy, Rachel, Cindy, Cassie, Hank, Gill, Joey, Teddy, Diane, Mandy, the other girl, Zack, and Teddys oldest son going on a mission, forgot his name. But Teddy and Dianes family took off for a hotel near the airport after Bingo, they were going to New Jersey to visit a Grandpa? I dunno. Saturday, June 20, 2009 Patsy and Rachel had an extra bed bunk so I slept upstairs with them. Woke up around 9am for breakfast. I love waking up to food!! The usual, pancakes, eggs, sausage, etc. Mmmm! After that I think we played Apples to Apples with all the same girls that watched Twilight last night basically. The boys played fuseball, pool, Wii, video games in the bunk house, or watched movies. We were getting ready to go swimming and Grandma insisted that we eat lunch first. So we ate around 1 or 2pm. Dallin and Loryn were on their way up. Renee was sick but was debating on coming up. Dennis wanted to come too, but Jannis took one for the team and said no to him. Grandma insisted we 'better let him come'. She's juss too nice. We finally started out the door around 2 or 3pm to get to the pool in Kamas. We waited for Dallin and Loryn and then took off to swim. Grandpa was extremely impatient with such a drive in the middle of no where. We swam til like 5 or 6pm. Dallin and Loryn had a lil' chat about the whole getting suits on and getting in the pool. Mom chased fearless Cole around most of the time. At one point Brent, Neal, David, Cole, Mindy and I went down the slide like 20 times. Braxton is a good diver....thas all he did. Neal didn't seem to enjoy it as much, but Brent and I enjoyed it. Then Neal got Brent on the diving boards. It took Brent awhile to be brave enough to do it and the whole pool seemed to be watching him and cheered when he finally jumped. Interesting how...supportive this tiny community is. I guess they have to be. I think we ended the swimming when Cole started chewing on his arm floaties..... Teething I suppose? Most activities end when he bites something/someone. Nothing like a one year old flying threw the curtain yer dressing behind. We came home and I jumped in the shower. I forgot my towel and yelled out the door to Loryn who was the closest and soon Mom comes barging in with a towel, I swear showing my naked body off to everyone in the kitchen. That tub was so huge I had to literally crawl into it. Anyway, we had French Dip sandwhiches for dinner. Mom brought it, but was swimming so Ladonna and Grandma cooked it. Those that didn't go swimming. The only slightly bad part bout all this, the cabin in the woods, was the weather I suppose. It was all drippy/rainy weather the whole day Saturday and by the night it had so much dark clouds and fog it was kinda...creepy. I ended up in my sweat pants the whole time to keep warm. Didn't think about bringing coats up there! A really super good part of all of it was that there so much FOOD! Everywhere! ALL the time! I snacked the whole weekend and I loved every minute of it! I loved the feeling of getting full, just on snacking while playing. I wish life was always like that. Jannis went kinda overboard on the food there eh? After dinner I was really into the whole playing pool with someone. I dragged Dallin upstairs to play with me. Jed came up and told us all the rules we weren't playing by, ya know, to make the game funner! Then we got stopped by a family portrait picture on the stairs. And then after they got the boys to stop playing Guitar Hero on the big screen on the main floor, Dad set up the pictures from past reunions and we all sat and watched that slideshow. I decided that Mindy and Claine...grew...since these other reunions. heh Cole drowned himself with ice chips b/c of teething while Brent and I stole Dallin and Loryns seats. After the slideshow of memory lane the rest of them went downstairs to watch Over The Hedge on the big screen and I had a slight battle when Claine attempted calling on his work break to talk to Mindy. (We don't get much signal up here, have to be in the right spot) But I eventually got Mindy and Claine together for like 5 minutes on the deck outside. Claine asked me to babysit on Monday. Goodness. He owes me a burger. Then I dragged Mum upstairs to play pool with me. We did three games. Then Daniel and Josh wanted to play each other. So I went down to check out the hot tub. It was like 10:30pm so I didn't think anyone would be there but Jed and Patsy were out there, been there for like 2 hours already, and they were in the dark and I felt like I caught them in the middle of making out or something. Awkward. I wanted to get in before but all the 'couples' were getting in and I'd be the only single person and I felt..awkward. But I asked if they'd stay fer a bit longer so I could come out in the tub fer awhile. I didn't wanna be alone either in the dark. So I jumped in about 10:45pm. The clouds/fog cleared up by then nicely and being in the dark you could see the stars once again while sitting in the hot tub. It was nice. I want a hot tub when I get older. So I can sit in it and watch it snow. We all left the hot tub around 11:15pm. It was just a perfect time. Not too long, not too short. I was warm the rest of the night. Their movie finished as we got out of the hot tub and we all headed off to bed. Well, the rest of Patsys family showed up earlier today so they all took over that room upstairs and kicked me out so I ended up on the floor in the basement with Dallin and Loryn with Renee above me on the couch snoring her life away. I didn't really wanna go bed but there was nothing else to do about 11:30-midnight. Justin showed up and was playing pool with Jed, Neal, Daniel, and Josh while Jenna sat on the couch and laughed at 'em. They were kinda noisy. Didn't sleep so well with the snoring above me and the slight snore beside me. By the end of that night we had added on Jed, Daniel, Josh, Renee, Justin, Dallin and Loryn. Those people came up during this Saturday to play. Sunday, June 21, 2009 Woke up around 9am again merely just for the breakfast. It was scrumptious. Jed and Patsy cooked it. Grandma helped. Cindys family were the only ones that hadn't woke up to come eat yet when I got up. Then Jed's family ate. Mindy got to sleep in while Mom and Dad watched the boys. That was interesting. And by the time Mindy and I finished eating breakfast Dad was already in packing mode. So off Mindy went to pack and she left for church. Musical cars in the long steep driveway we were all piled in. I directed traffic as we decided who'd be the last one out and the first one to leave. Then we all worked together to clean the cabin as the directions said til there was no more we could do but leave so Neal and Jannis could finish what we were in the way of. It was kinda sad to leave the cabin. The whole time and I didn't even pull out my camera. The trees! The stars! But it was even sadder the way we all went home... Grandma and I went with Renee and Jeremy. Sigh. Pout. Cry. Grandma told Jeremy to pack the car so all four of our stuff and four of us would fit in it. I opened the trunk he was packing and found only his stuff packed in a way nothing else would fit. I was..about to kill him. Then he got all mad I was rearranging his stuff. Well if he wasn't stupid about it I wouldn't have to. I still had a cooler AND Grandma and my stuff to put in it. So Hank and I unpacked everything and then packed it back up again. Shoving it all in there. A lot of weight in that car and we had a canyon to go down. Oy. Finally enough room for all of our bodies. Hank and I seemed to ..converse more and were more friendly by the end of that reunion. Its always the teenage punks that end up talkin to me. Like the jail bait that stay me Mums house. The soon-to-be missionary dude (Teddys boy) only talked to Cassie and Jenna. It was cool tho. I felt special. Yes, b/c of a 17 yr old boy... Then we continued to help clean up the cabin. I got the cool swiffer, mop cleaner upper thingy and mopped up the bathrooms and kitchen. Since my car load was waiting for me I left after that. They only had like three things left to do before they were done with the cabin. We piled into the car, Grandma sat in the back to supposedly save me from Jeremy. Grandma ended up being the wind bag the whole way home. She couldn't stop talking and reminiscing about the reunion and as far as I was concerned, it wasn't over yet! I wanted out of the car, not necessarily to go home, I coulda stayed at the cabin a few more days and been fine. I wasn't sick of it yet. Just Jeremy. Grandma was thrilled that all 7 of her kids families' were represented by someone. Teddy and Diane from Shirleys family. Cindy from Gill Rays family. LaDonna, Jenna and Jase from Ladonnas family. Renee and Jeremy from Renees family. Mike and Trishs kids from Trishs family. And Jed and Neals family was there. I just wanted peace and quiet the rest of the way home. And quiet when I got home. So I went to bed. While I did laundry. Woke up and ate spaghetti and salad that Grandma fixed up and then went back to bed. It was yummy. A nice relaxing day. Keep forgetting its Sunday tho. Everyone was texting me and I didn't feel like talkin to anyone. It was a nice feeling to be with Jannis on the deck looking at the stars when she realized everyone was having a good time and all her stress was worth it. Another good memory done and made. Sad it's over.