First Bi-annual Family Reunion

We had our first Family reunion, consisting of all our children, their spouses (or in S3's case future spouse) and the grandchildren. It was organized by S2 & Wife. We went to a wonderful place in the mountains that was built for the sole purpose of hosting Girl's Camp for the girls in our Church. It is big enough to house 5000 girls a week. The girls have been coming here since 2003, so it is fairly new. Then they decided to allow families to come after the summer is over, and even boys to come during the winter for Winter Camp. The cost is very inexpensive, the place was very clean, and it was most pleasant. I even took the zip line challenge, which left me shaking for 5 minutes afterwards. I HATE heights.
It was great to see all of our children together. We played games, hiked, and each family prepared a meal, which made it very fun to taste everyone else's food and not have to be in charge the whole time, which in the past was what we did as a family. It still was a lot of preparation, like all camping trips are, but not as much was dedicated to food preparation.
I loved seeing all the grandchildren as well. We stayed in three cabins which are built to house 16 girls in bunk beds in each cabin. Some brought blow-up mattresses to sleep on the floor and some brought single bed mattresses to fit in the bunk beds. There were flush toilets, showers, propane gas hookups and stoves, a room with a place to store all the food, including a refrigerator and running water, and a covered place to prepare the food, plus a nice fire ring, for those who wanted to do the Dutch Oven over the open fire cooking style. The cost is $165 a night, and each family paid 1/6th of that to reserve our place, but I seem to remember that we paid a bit less. I think the price went up since our reservation. But I just looked this up on the website and the cost is now $165. My sister and her husband just got back from a 23-month Mission in Africa, and they came up to join us on Friday. We had a rousing game of Risk for the men, most girls tend to dislike that game. We take it too personally, well at least I DO. So we sat on the side and watched them and talked about girlie things. Those who weren't interested or just too tired, went to bed in the other cabins. They supply each cabin with two folding tables and 6-8 folding chairs.
On Saturday, we had to clean our campground, cabins, showers, bathrooms and cooking pavilion and were checked out by the full-time Senior missionary couples, who serve there, before we left. This leaves it clean for the next group and probably cuts the costs, which is fine with me. We know this is a big commitment, so we decided to make it an every other year event. Everyone will take turns organizing it, and I think when it becomes our turn, we just might be tempted to reserve this place again.
I think it would be appropriate to pronounce this First Family Reunion a BIG SUCCESS.
Thanks to everyone who was there and helped in any way. Pictures to be posted later.

More pictures on my Picasa Web Album.