Millett Family Reunion 2010

On Thursday morning, we headed up to the Uinta Mountains for my family (my siblings, and parents) reunion. On the Mirror Lake Highway on the way to my aunt's cabin, we saw a sign that said, "Slow Sheep Crossing". We were laughing about the slow sheep when we came around the corner and saw the road covered in sheep.
We were laughing at the Harleys in front of us that were revving their motors and watching the sheep scatter off both sides of the road.

My sister Jennie and her family (John, Rian and Gunner) were in charge of the reunion this year. Aren't they cute?

They planned it to be at Aunt Patsy's cabin in the Uinta Mountains. It's close to Mirror Lake. The reunion started on Thursday afternoon, and went through Saturday afternoon. We left Thursday morning at 10:15am from our house in Green River and FINALLY made it to the cabin at 4:20pm. I say finally because of all the mishaps along the way. Micah puked twice in Spanish Fork Canyon, we stopped at Wal-Mart in Orem to buy Milk and Juice for the breakfast we were in charge of where Eli messed his pants and leaked everywhere, then Eli threw up in Provo Canyon, so we had numerous stops to take care of business. We were so glad to arrive and get out of the car! :) I was also glad that Aunt Patsy had a washing machine at the cabin that I could wash car seat covers and clothes. (Patsy, thanks for helping me get that all set up and getting sprayed in the face with me!)

Nichole helped Jennie make this sign for the railing at the cabin. I'll explain about the Whirley Pop a little later. :) It'll make sense.

Eli took the tube the sign was rolled up on and was playing with it. I was laughing that he found the only knot hole in the deck that would fit the tube perfectly! He was pretty proud of himself.

We usually take family pictures of each family at the reunion. I think ours turned out pretty good! Everyone is looking, and no one is frowning or picking their nose. (We got some of those as well that I won't share.)

The hammock quickly became a favorite with the kids. It provided hours of entertainment for them. :) Ian somehow always managed to talk the other kids into pushing him. Guess it comes from being the oldest grandchild on my side!

Our family always splits up the meals so that everyone gets a turn. The first night we had Japanese food. Ashley's family was in charge with help from Mom and Dad. She decided to carry on the tradition that Dustin started last year at the reunion. We missed last year, so it was fun to eat Japanese food in memory of Dustin. I haven't had it for a very long time--I think Dad and him made it for the family after he came home from his mission. (My dad served in Japan as well.) We had Yaki Soba, a Curry stew dish over rice, and fried Gyosa (sp?). It was all very good.

That night we made smores and turnovers. Another favorite and tradition. It wouldn't be camping without these!

A favorite past time of the girls (and Micah) was to color on Aunt Patsy's giant I spy coloring pads. Whenever it was rainy, or we had a little down time, at least one of the girls was found coloring.

We stayed up way too late talking (about 2am), which was so fun, but morning came quickly. We were in charge of breakfast, and were glad that just a little prep work was involved. I made 5 types of bread before we came (Zucchini chocolate chip, Zucchini Blueberry, Zucchini Lemon Poppy Seed, Amish Friendship Bread, and Banana Bread) and we brought 6 types of melons (Cantalope, Watermelon, Green Cantalope, Israeli, Honeydew, and Crenshaw). All of them just needed to be cut up. I made little flags for everything so that the family would know what type it was and I wouldn't hear, "Now what kind is this?" over and over again. It worked rather well! :) We also brought up some cherries, grapes and strawberries to add to the fruit, and of course butter, cream cheese, and homemade apricot and strawberry jam to dress up the bread however they liked.

This is how our spread looked. It was yummy!!

I don't have pictures of the other meals, but after our breakfast, Jennie and John had lunch and made Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches, Cassy and Reed had dinner and made Lasagna. Mom and Dad had Saturday breakfast and made hashbrowns, pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon, and Adrienne and Justin finished off meals with a lunch of create your own sandwiches. Jennie assigned Nichole and Justin snacks since they were coming from Pennsylvania and didn't have coolers or any of their camping gear. They bought a $35.00 snack that they were teasing us (but mostly Cassy) with. When it was finally unveiled it was Zebra Ears. Yummy, yummy donuts with cream cheese frosting and chocolate stripes. They were huge! and also a big hit. :)
We had way too much food and probally could have eaten for 2 or 3 more days on just the leftovers from the meals. It was all very good!
Jennie and John did a wonderful job of planning games/activities for us. There was a trip to Mirror Lake, 4-wheeling, games, geo cashing, shooting at the gun range, and crafts. The first game the kids played was a card/present game. They delt out 10 cards to each child. Then with the remaining cards Jennie would turn over a card, and if you had that card you could choose a present and unwrap it. All the kids had a pile in front of them. After several rounds of this and all the presents were opened, the next few rounds, if the kids had the number turned over, they could steal a present from someone else. No one could take their stolen item for the rest of that round. When all was said and done, everyone had at least 3 gifts to take home.

The flashlights were in popular demand, and Micah was so excited to end up with one! (By the way family, Morgan's and Zander's flashlights didn't make it home with them--a blue and a red one--so if anyone knows of their whereabouts, I'll have two happier children at our home!)

Micah's favorite activity was the 4-wheelers. All the kids would sit and pretend they were riding them until an adult came along and took them on a ride. We had 4 at the reunion--2 were Patsy and Larry's and 2 were Nichole and Justin's. I tried to get a picture of the kids on them, but when I was trying it was too dark. :( It was sure cute though! Micah would just giggle and giggle when John would start up the engine.

On one of their rides, John said that all of a sudden Micah just slumped over and almost fell off. John tried to ask him what he was doing before he realized that Micah had fallen asleep. They still were about 45 minutes from being back at the cabin, so John had to balance him and hold him on it the rest of the way! :)

Just a cute picture I took of Ian after he climbed onto this stump.

Now, back to the Whirley Pop. In our family, each year we have a whirley pop competition--complete with a rotating trophy. My Mom and Dad won last year, so they had the pleasure of displaying the trophy in their home this past year. This is my Dad holding the trophy for the last time before turning it over to the next winners.

John is reading us the "official rules" of the Whirley Pop competition this year. They decided to add a little twist and we did it Iron Chef Style--complete with a secret ingredient. They even went as far as having Grandma and Grandpa get the secret ingredient (toffee chips and unsalted peanuts) so it would be fair for them to compete. I think my Mom was wondering what in the world they were doing, as they don't have cable or satelite, and I don't think she's ever even seen Iron Chef. LOL With an "Allah Cusine!" we were off and running.

Since my Mom and Dad won last year, they were our judges. Here they are with the score sheets. We were judged on presentation, flavor, and use of the secret ingredients.

Here is our entry in the competition. We made Kettle Corn. I wanted it to look like you would get it at a fair, so I packaged it in a plastic bread bag, and added a label and a twisty tie. I guess it worked because my mom was wondering where we got it--she could have sworn she saw us making our popcorn. Hehe!

All the presentations were excellent this year--more so than in years past. Everyone went all out! Nichole and Justin came in a tie with the winners, but since they've won previously, Mom and Dad decided to give it to the other team. :) They made a marshmallow raspberry popcorn. Don't you love the professional look complete with mint leaves? Very Iron Chef worthy. LOL

Ashley made Butterscotch bars--this was one of my favorites.

Cassy and Reed made us all laugh with their presentation. Their popcorn flavor was Bacon. So, they made a BLT and plated it with it. They had rootbeer in the cups to "cleanse the pallet" of the judges as not to taint the taste of thier popcorn.

Adrienne and Justin made peanut butter bars that were really close to the winning recipe.

Aunt Patsy and Larry also got into the Whirley Pop spirit and competed as well. They made a yogurt popcorn. It reminded me of the Jell-O popcorn balls my mom made as I was growing up, only it was a little creamier. It was sure tasty! Patsy glued the foil back on top of the yogurt containers after filling them with popcorn for their presentation--clever!

And, here is the winner of the year. Jennie and John made Babe Ruth bars. They were so good!! Again, presentation was done well--these bars were huge! It was fun this year.

We'll be looking for the glass display case they say they are buying to put the trophy in. :)

Zander played hard on Friday and fell asleep by the warmth of the fire. So cute!

Cassy had the idea of doing something to remember Dustin by. He's only been gone for 3 short months, so it's still fresh in all our minds. She bought white balloons and helium. She blew the balloons up with a glow stick in them. The idea was to write a message to Dustin on the balloon. Because it was too cold, or the marker eating the balloon, or whatever, they kept popping. We wrote on the strings attached instead.

After everyone was done with their messages, we gathered in an open area, turned off all the lanterns and cabin lights, read the poem on Dustin's funeral program, and we let them go. It was pretty cool to watch the balloons go up and melt in with the stars. One balloon stuck around, and my Dad said it was Dustin watching over us. I don't think there was a dry eye among the adults. What a special moment for our family to share. Reunions won't be the same with Dustin. He was always doing something funny, singing a silly song, or just making us smile. He'll continue to be missed. We are so glad that Ashley decided to come to the reunion and bring her kids. I don't know if I could have done that had I been in her shoes so recently losing her husband.

The rest of the evening was spent in a night time Geo Cache, and watching a movie "When in Rome". It was cute--we had two children who wouldn't stay asleep, so I stayed for the movie. John said the Geo Cache was fun. Since it was a nighttime one, you had to use flashlights to hit the reflectors. The older kids that went took something to switch out once they found the cache. They enjoyed that.

Saturday was filled with going to the shooting range and doing crafts for the kids and ladies. We made washer necklaces, fabric rosettes for barretts and broaches, and the kids made Bubble Wrap Hop Scotch, and Sponge Balls. Both of which they enjoyed immensely.

Jennie and John planned a great reunion! It was so good to get together with everyone. The only ones missing were Garrett (Elder Millett serving in Mexico) and Jordan (On a scout camp hiking King's Peak). Happy Whirley popping until next year!!