THE PICTURE 2012

Dear Family,

Well the best was saved for last.  We gathered on Saturday for the family picture on the lawn between the Church office building and the Joseph Smith building.  I wish I had captured it all on video as it is an event in itself.

There were about six grandchildren missing who were away on student trips or working out of town but this is a pretty good representation.  I noticed that Dr. Zhang, Doug's surgical associate from China,  got into the family picture.  Mouths will drop in China where there is a strict family size law.

I am over whelmed when I see this picture and realize how greatly we have been blessed as a family. It is almost more than i can understand.  We are so thankful for this.  There were multiple groupings and individual family photos.  I published the shot of Oma and Opa with all the grandkids.  When the parents left the group there was a great howl by the little ones.  The pictures are great when they are all over!

Right after this, we went over to the Lion House for a luncheon with the entire gang. Mike had a slide show and Mom and I expressed our thoughts and gratitude for all in our short talks.  This was on the day of our 52nd wedding anniversary (which I failed to mention) and we would never have dreamed that we would have such a great posterity and live long enough to enjoy them all.

Well after the luncheon, some had to leave but others stayed and the reunion continued on for almost another month and it was sweet..

We love you all and are proud of each of you.

Alles Liebe,

Mom and Dad

2ND DAY AT REUNION

Dear Family,

There were other things i did not mention on the first day of our reunion.  While the guys were in the desert with the Feldschiessen, the gals, Mom, Cheryl and Gemina planned a Cafe Rio pool party at Cheryl's that was a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of Eva and Elena at the Bywater park, the second day of festivities.  Doug rented the entire park and it was great.  As you can see, there were official reunion "T" shirts designed by Al.  The reunion had a theme and it was taken from Elder Wirthlin's conference talk, "Come What May and Love It".  Some shirts were ordered and others were made in the basement with silk screens by Mom and the girls.

There were many games and lots of fun.  It was well planned by Doug and others; the park was decorated and crawling with kids.  Here is one game that was popular with the kids, a marshmallow shoot.  Scott is doing the honors.

There was a craft table that Mom organized with all the little kids doing projects.  There was wacky dancing led by Cathy.

There was a water gun game that all participated i n with great gusto.  There were four foot long Subway Sandwiches  and Doug arranged for a snow cone truck to come by and the peak of heat!

Here is Julius ready for the water gun battle.

Two happy Moms.. Kaley and Suz.

Here are Kristina, Reunion Organizer, Doug, and Dr, Zhang, Doug's surgical associate in China.  Dr. Zhang was bug eye about the size of the family and had a good time time documenting the event with a lot of photos.

Well it was great. Later there were other events, golfing, running and most moved down to the downtown Marriot to hang out at the pool.  It was so great to be together and there were nothing but smiles and a feeling of family joy and unity.

That's all for now,  Love,  Dad

THE SUMMER OF REUNIONS 2012

Dear Family,

It has been such a busy summer that I am just getting around to write about it.  the summer was one big ongoing reunion all over the map.  Here is a shot of Oma and Opa and most of the grandchildren in the garden next to the Church Office  Building.

The thing I appreciate about the family is that all love to come together in small groups, medium and gigantic groups as pictured in the photo above.  It has been a wonderful joyous time and never seems to end although this is the first week since the end of June that we have not had a family or two in our home.  Large or small groups, it is just fun to hand out and be together...I guess the verb we use in the family instead of hanging out is "blarbing" which you will not find in any dictionary.

It was preceded by a years worth of planning with so many phone calls and Emails, I could not count them.  We turned the overall organization to Doug and he had a lot of in put from all the sisters.  The reunion was a smash event and it worked like clockwork.  All but a few teenagers who were working or away were present.

The first family to arrive was Al, Paul and their eight kids and it was like old times.  They had the downstairs suit and various others had the upstairs including Suz and her family.

We had three days of reunion time; there was an activity in the morning, different activities in the afternoons with one sit down dress up luncheon at the Lion House.

We started on Thursday morning as the entire gang assembled at Airborne. Kaley's brother Bentley (of TV Batchloret fame) allowed the family to use his Airbone facility.  He built these huge buildings with all kinds of jumping and climbing possibilities.  Here is the gang all lined up and when the photo was over, it was a free for all with jumping, climbing, dodge ball and was pone of the funnest events.  We had the facility for two hours and what a great way for the kids to let off steam.  Bentley was great to let us use his place and after all the teenyboppers lined up for a picture with this TV star.

In the afternoon, the guys got together for a Wirthlin family Feldschiessen. This was planned by Rick and Doug  Rick looked up on Googl;e maps for a desolate spot west of the Great Salt Lake where we could take a gang and do some shooting.

Here is Opa sighting in his new SCAR at 100 yards.  Roy set up a sniper school for the kids and by the end all were hitting targets at 100 and 200 yards.  All the sons and most of the son in laws were there and it was a blast

Here is Rob trying out the 20 gauge rifled slug gun. this was a great activity and all had a blast! 

We got home after dark and a great time was had by all.  Since this will be too long, I will have to describe subsequent events in a separate post.  Thanks to all for a successful reunion first day.

Love, Opa