A peek into the Jeffery Family Reunion 2011

I love my family.  We got together for another reunion, and I really had a blast.  However, I have a sad amount of pictures to show for it. So again, I plead to any of my family reading this, PLEASE send me the pictures you took.

My little vacation with Maggie started out with a flight into Salt Lake where my aunt Katri picked me up, and we headed to Mountain Home to spend the weekend with my family. We hung out on the porch in the mornings and watched the baby birds. We went cherry picking and then ate tons of cherries.  Did you know that if you leave them in a cooler with dry ice, it carbonates the cherries. They’re all fizzy! It was awesome!  We toured my mom’s new shop, Encompass – Holistic Health, and got massages. I’m so proud of my mom.  She’s acted on something she really wanted to do, and it’s working out great! So anyone in Mountain Home, head on over there – across the street from the hospital for some holistic goodness.

We celebrated my brother Alex’s 8th birthday with homemade cheesecake brownies!!Then we all headed over to Bear Lake on Monday for a week of family!!  We were able to rent a huge lodge-cabin thing. It had like 14 rooms, 2 living rooms, 2 fridges, ovens, stoves, and dining areas.  There was a game room with pool and ping pong and foose ball. Outside there was a nice noisy stream, it sounded so beautiful.  Past the stream was a fire pit, and out back was a volley ball net and a fenced off play area for the little kids.  Maggie still talks about going on the teeter totter with Uncle Trais.  It was SO much fun to all be stuck in the same house together!  We played lots of games, my favorite being Dominion. Maggie will still burst out, “COUNCIL ROOM!” every once in a while.  It happens more often when we’re talking about festivals. :) You can tell she had fun with family, since she still talks about it all the time.Blake and Dale playing Blokus, and working on slings. We had a leather working “class” taught by my mom.  They made slings and bracelets and hair wraps. There were even stamps to decorate your leather with! The girls really loved that part. I remember Kaisa designed a beautiful turtle hair wrap for her mom. The slings were the most fun of course, because when you finished you got to go throw rocks!

It was not as easy as it looks, and it doesn’t look that easy. Kaleb was a regular ol’ David, slaying the giant also known as the sign on the fence. 

And unpictorally documented by me we had:

trips to Bear Lake. Logan and Spencer were kind enough to bring and share their new kayaks. There was an impressive current, for it being a lake and all, so we had a fantastic contest to see who could stay sitting up in the waves with their feet and hands continually out of the water.  It was so funny to watch Katri and Paula and Trais falling over with the waves. I’m sure I made quite the picture too. The littler kids were way better at it.  They must have stronger abs compared to their small size.

Some people toured some caves, much like Mount Timpanogos, so they tell me.  There was also a pioneer reenactment place near by, which resulted in some really cool hats. ;) Much of mine and Katri’s time was taken up by (duh duh duh!) …. the Yudu. It’s a silk screen printer.  Through a long and very frustrating series of events we ended up with some seriously awesome Jeffery Family Reunion 2011 t-shirts. And Katri and I came out of it knowing that sometimes you have to go through a lot to get to the end, but the end is worth it. If for nothing more than the memories.

There was a great system set up where every family was in charge of a meal, which made things easy, spreading the burden of food preparation and cost.  It also included a spiritual thought by the family doing the food. It was really wonderful to hear peoples thoughts and insights.

Grandma and Grandpa had a family home evening for us all. It was very beautiful, focusing on the Holy Ghost and it’s guiding, comforting and protecting powers.  They gave 4 examples of huge miracles in the lives of our family. As they were telling the stories of how Dale managed to live through falling from a banister and hitting his head at age two, how Jared miraculously lived with his soft little baby head, while Steve came out of brain surgery with no negative consequences, I was thinking, “Man, I’m glad my family hasn’t been through any real medical emergencies like that.”

Oh, how easy it is to forget the MIRACLES that happen in our lives. I was then lead into the first time of reliving my car crash with my family there. I’d explained before to a few close friends and Brandon, but this was very different. Through my tears I was able to explain what happened with help from my dad, mom and Steve and Johan. 

Um…sorry, I don’t really want to go into it, but here’s the gist: I was driving my dad, Alecia, and Kendra down to Las Vegas to see the Medieval show at Excalibur for Kendra’s 16th birthday. Everyone had fallen asleep, and then so did I.  I drifted to the right, where a huge rock popped the front right tire.  We went careening off the road, the car rolling at least 3 times before coming to a stop upright.  I went into shock almost immediately. And…through lots of hazy memories we all ended up in ambulances and at the hospital in Cedar City.  After x-rays I was life-flighted to Salt Lake. My mom, Steve and Johan were able to meet me there. I was immediately given a blessing, and come to find out, it’s ok that my neck looks broken on an x-ray. I was born with it. My mom brushed out a garbage can full of hair that had been cut off by glass.  My shoulder is still sore sometimes. My dad had stiches on his head. Kendra sprained her ankle. Alecia had some internal bruising but she’s ok now. We all have residual back pain.  But that’s it. Miracle.

Not all miracles are so blatant, but don’t forget them. I thank my Father in Heaven that we are all alive today, and that I am continually blessed with so much more.

So…back to the stuff that doesn’t make me cry. We built a fire the last night, made s’mores, covered Logan in glow sticks, and my favorite – we sang. Braden was gracious enough to bring and play his guitar, and we rocked.  I knew almost every song he played! And once he was out of songs, we headed into hymns, and then rounds. I don’t know what it is, but singing is so much more fun around a campfire. 

At the end we all packed up and headed to Utah.  My brother got baptized! I’m so proud of him. I got to read the talk that Kendra wrote on baptism, my dad gave a fantastic talk about the Holy Ghost, and my mom, Alecia, Danielle, Kaylee and I all sang Beautiful Savior. All followed by a beautiful confirmation by my dad, who I am convinced will one day be a patriarch.  He’s so eloquent. We went back to Grandma and Grandpa’s and celebrated Birthday Sunday on Saturday – you can be confused, it’s all right. It’s Alex, Maggie and Brandon in July.  Alex ended up blowing out both cake’s candles in one breath! Which is fine, because Maggie wasn’t interested.They both ended up with a lot of cool presents. (By the way, we did not make it home with the Paper Bag Princess book. I’m hoping someone found it, and that we can get that back eventually.) Maggie seriously LOVES everything she got. Thanks guys! Since Brandon wasn’t able to come to the reunion, everyone signed a dollar bill, put them all in an envelope which I gave to him when we got home, and we ended up buying the computer I’m sitting at. :) He really appreciated it, so Thanks everyone!That night I got to relive my past as I went with my old movie group (cousins and their friends) to see the last Harry Potter. It was so so wonderful! I felt like I was 18 again! In regards to the movie, I’m right in line with Trais, “I feel like part of my child hood just died.” I grew up with Harry Potter.  Now it’s over! Well, *awkward Voldemort/Draco hug*

It all ended with a wonderful ride to the airport with Garet, who’d had to work during the family reunion. So I got to spend some quality time with him too.

Thank you to Paula and Katri for planning so well and doing so much to make it such a wonderful and memorable experience for everyone.

It was such a fantastic trip.  I have such a fantastic family.