Barnum Family Reunion - by Shaunae

The reunions were way fun! Imagine hugs, screams, children running off to play with their cousins, masses amounts of food and silly games, and you have our reunion packaged up. I did get reacquainted with my in-laws' weird quirks that bug me, but towards the end of my reunion I realized we all have our weaknesses and the only ones that really matter are the ones that keep us from being better ( a.k.a...our own faults) We spent two days at various lakes, Lake Jordanelle and Bear Lake. Bear Lake was beautiful and perfect. We all got sunburned but that was all part of the walking funny chapped legged experience.

Jon rounded up the cousins and we all played two hand touch football. I learned after I tackled my Dad, that I was only supposed to touch them not tackle. It was fun slamming my 16 year old nephew to the ground. He tried to throw me in the lake. Don't mess with a mom who carries babies around. I am proudly much stronger than I thought. Then my brother Karl, Steve and Jon picked me up in my lawn chair to throw me in too. They found out why Heavenly Father invented fingernails. I'm mean but don't unleash my fury unless being attacked.

We also had some fun times with fun family games, like at three legged races, a sling shot knocking down cups, family volleyball which I only got to spike the ball once. Ashton ran around with the cousins his age which happen to be mostly boys. At one point I heard them all running around the lodge saying "Let's go look for Cougars." "Yeah" There was always an adventure to run around for or a bad guy to pretend to shoot with a sling shot.

Corynn did what she always does when Ashton is off playing with boys. She went to a quiet corner, which in most cases was our lodge room, and created a massive world of imagination from the random toys we shoved into our suitcases. I kept pulling her back to reality and trying to get her to play with her cousins. By the end she was chasing her 3 year old twin boy cousins at pretending she was a monster... a favorite fall-back game she plays when all else fails.

Taison scooted everywhere, hot balconies with slivers, grated stairs, his favorite kitchen floors, eatting leftovers, the middle of the football field lawn and was generally adored as the littlest baby at both reunions. His nicknames were Quasi-moto, Peg Leg, and Long John Silver. He must have been teething when he had his sunburn, because he woke up every two hours and screamed for a few of those times before falling back asleep. We brought him into bed with us, which we never do. He promptly fell asleep and rolled all over so no one could sleep on that bed.

In a nutshell, it was all-day action packed exhausting fun. And I'm so tired I could sleep forever. But as I come back to my quiet home, I wish I could have packed a family or two into a suitcase. With them I would have packed all the fun, the great mothering ideas, the favorite recipes, the song lists of music to jam to and all the talent that roll together to make our family.