Doutre Family Reunion 2018

It's like we had a double hitter with reunions this summer-back to back in less than a week. This Doutre reunion was held in Albion, Idaho which is really close to where Austin's parents grew up. The whole facility was a former college dorm turned into housing accommodations for 50+ people. They have other buildings on the grounds but they are abandoned and only used as a haunted house on Halloween. I heard they make the most money that night then they do all year. Not sure if that's true but crazy anyway.

Before we headed up, the Monday and Tuesday before we hung out with the immediate Doutre siblings (not to mention seeing Cami and Sean and Peter the weekend before). It was lots of fun visiting and seeing the nieces and nephews play on the bouncy house that the grandparents got for them. On Tuesday I went to a Refit class with Dani and then we hung out with her pretty much the rest of the day, seeing Nic's office and just chatting it up. 

Austin holding Dallin for two hours while he got to play the wii haha

Wednesday afternoon we left for the reunion and got there in the evening in time for dinner. It was a lot of visiting and people playing nine square in the air. 

Dallin with cousin Amy

Thursday morning some of us went to Lake Cleveland and others went to the City of Rocks. Really pretty area. There were also cows roaming the streets. #idaho 
The afternoon was relaxing and people playing in the pool or working on the service project of tying quilts. 

 Lake Cleveland

That night, Dad Doutre had put together a really fun family history activity that incorporated something about members of the ancestors like one was a bookkeeper so there was a station where you had to count money in a certain amount of time. Plus there were stories to go with each one of these. I felt I learn a lot more about their ancestors this time around and it makes you appreciate your heritage! 

Friday was neat because we got to visit the grave site of Austin's grandparents and then look at their farm that his Dad grew up in. Austin was just a young kid when his grandparents passed away but we were in the car with his parents and his dad would talk about memories he remembered Austin doing around the outside of the house when he was young. Let me just say that I was not made for the farm life and have much respect for those that do that kind of work. I appreciated more this time around. 

 The house on the farm

 I love his face but he looks over and says 'that's where I get the name Roger' (it's his middle name)

 This was their first home that they lived in

 Grandpa Harold and Grandma Edith

 Cute Edie

Again that afternoon was filled with pool and naps and all that jazz. That night we took family pictures and then played games and ate yummy food. It was a great reunion! Love being with the Doutre clan. 

Elephant ears. This kid was a champ the whole trip! I love this guy. 

Lewis Family Reunion 2018

My due date was June 24th but I was so hoping that baby would come early so I could attend our family reunions this summer. I just didn't want have a 4 week old baby traveling for two weeks but apparently an almost 6 week old was a little better, ha. I was still pretty nervous about him getting sick and running a fever and all but I received a blessing before we left and I felt pretty good about things. I didn't really worry too much about it on the trip than I thought I would so that was comforting.

On Saturday, July 28th, we got a Lyft driver to take us to the airport bright and early. This was our first time using these car ride services and I'm a fan. It was especially fun to have a Ukrainian man be the one to give us a ride so Austin and him had a great time chatting it up about ALL the Russian food there is.

We arrived in Utah and hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Doutre before we headed to West Jordan for Jasmin Gimenez's wedding reception. It was so fun to see Mom and Dad, the Johns, Crismon and Danielle, Janae, and so many other cousins and aunts and uncles.

Monday we headed to Paradise Utah for the Lewis reunion! 

We mingled and had dinner and then Dallin's baby blessing. I'm so glad we could do the blessing there. I loved having so many family members in attendance. And I appreciate people taking pictures for me. :)

That night we did FRED talks. Alice-Anne came up with the idea. It stands for Family, Religion, Education, Development. It's like TED talks. She wanted us to share what things we've learned or are passionate about. Gary V did his on crucial conversations and Mom did hers on energy medicine. We all did a routine exercise with her.

Tuesday morning Grandma did scripture study. It involved throwing this yarn and saying what we love about that person. It all connected and made a strong link between all of us.

Then we did Relative Race done by Kenna! She did an amazing job putting this all together. Like Spencer said, "just so you know, Kenna has been working really hard on this!" It was so cute. It was based off of BYUtv show Relative Race. Each sibling had an ancestor line that they were asked to find a story from one of those ancestors. 

How the game worked was Kenna had clues that would lead them to another clue to do an activity at one of the stations. I loved that one of the clues was to call Meredith and sing a song to her. And then one of her kids got to give us the next clue. So cute! We miss you Williams' family! Then afterward each activity we read the ancestors story. There were a lot of stories I was not familiar with and some that it was good to revisit. I did Julia Hills Johnson and I really loved her conversion story. She was a devout Presbyterian and the Bible was read daily at the kitchen table. Her two oldest boys (Joel and David) and Joel's wife Annie got interested in the Church. Julia was very concerned that they were following a delusional religion and wrote them in a letter and told them so. 

To combat what they were learning, she set up a study group with several of her older children still at home and some other faith members (possibly friends) and, to me, it seemed like a mini book club. The book they read and discussed was The Book of Mormon. She wanted to compare and contrast it to the Bible. The more she read it, the more she was convinced that it was true. 

After Relative Race and lunch, lots of the aunts and uncles and older cousins did the Wind Caves hike in Logan. It looked like it was hot and dirty. The rest of us lounged in the AC and chatted or the younger kids played outside or in the mini pool.

After dinner, we had a family trivia and then it was game night, outdoors and indoors. 

The second day was cousin group activities and then Family Olympics! Crismon and Danielle do a great job of this every time. I liked how they implemented different types of games and not just sport type games. After lunch the adults had a council meeting, then almost everyone went swimming at the Logan Aquatic Center. I heard it was so much fun. (Can you tell I heard a lot about these things instead of participating? That's what happens when you run on less than 2 hours a sleep a night and are a nursing mom).

Emily teaching how to take good pictures. I'm amazed what she learns on her own and her creativeness to everything she does. She did an amazing video of the reunion that I can't stop watching. 

After dinner and after family pictures (always comical in itself) was the talent show-that was a hit! The talents ranged from magic tricks, violin and singing solos, Austin and Spencer reciting 37 digits of pi, a Jane Austen accent and quote from Pride and Prejudice, an original story given, dances performed, and Jackson stumping us all on his coding skills. It was so fun to watch!

The next morning we cleaned up and said goodbye's. Sure miss them all! Glad we live in close distance to half of them and glad Austin and I got to see Mom and Dad and Emily and the Johns a few more times before they headed home.

The doubles! Dallin, Gary, Vivienne, Julia, and Crismon