Ruby Reunion 2009!

Wow! You know that idea about blogging more often? Well...

This past week my immediate family gathered for a family reunion in honor of my parents 40th Wedding anniversary on July 11th and of course the 4th that connotes a plethera of family traditions for us. The traditional gift that goes with 40 years of marriage is the ruby stone, so this event was affectionately known as the "Ruby Reunion!" Our goals to Reconnect, Unify, Be together, and Yak alot summarize our purposes for gathering for the first time in 5 years. Everyone was there, all 51 of us!!
We stayed at my uncle's cabin up above Sundance. It was a great location away from civilization, but close enough to Macey's. Dialogue for this event has been flooding my inbox since January and everything turned out great! Here is a brief synopsis of what we did.
Monday (July 6, my birthday)
-Birthday Dogpile
My wakeup call was a customized dogpile with added members and many birthday wished!
-Orientation from the parents
-Games in "the meadow"
-Pirate Ship
The spatious back deck was designated as the Pirate Ship, complete with a fantastic sail made out of a fitted sheet slipped on to a wooden cross and tied with rope to the banister. My nephew Rowan has been planning this and came prepared with a treasure chest, knives, canons, bandannas, and flag... it was wicked awesome!!
-worked on collages*
*This is our family history, everyone makes a collage of magazine cutout words and pictures about them.
-Italian dinner night
My family sang to me and my mom presented her gift. I asked for an iPod for my birthday and I got one... made out of marzipan!
-FHE: Ashton Family Jeopardy!
So fun! We brainstormed about Phil's fettishes, family ancestors, sang 1776 quotations, and filled out the birthdays for everyone in teams.

Tuesday 7
-Hike up to Stewart Falls, we paused periodically to read and discuss pioneer stories. We even crossed the Sweet Water river on the backs of our "rescuers" across the designated patch of trail.
-Tortilla demo: how to make spinach tortillas
I was frantically running around preparing for the talent show
-Talent Show Part I (Rose and I were the MCs with bejeweled outfits and flowers)
Lots of piano solos and some really great skits and songs
-Latino Dinner
-Talent Show Part II
Rose and I did the comedy piece from my last concert which was a Q&A... in fully hooded purple tye-dye unitards. Deep and cosmic questions were answered with Modern Dance, Rose was the announcer and I was the dancer. My feet got colder and colder as our turn approached and I finally whispered to Rosey "I can't do it". I was so hesitant to perform not knowing how my family would respond to this piece. But she urged until I said I would do it without the costumes. So we stood up to go and my brother who knew about the costumes saw we weren't in them and shouted that we MUST use the costumes. I finally consented and we rushed to put them on.
I was so relieved to hear the laughter fill the room as Rose went out, then me and we went through the whole piece.
Throughout the week many referred back to some of my responses, so I know that their cosmic questions were in fact answered in that Q&A session! :) The best was my nephew Dallin (12) "your performance actually GAVE me questions... like, who likes to watch this kind of dancing anyway..." yes I love being a Modern Dancer!
I also played the part of Kathy in "The sign on Rosie's Door" reading, was a backup singer to Simon's solo "One Last Kiss" from Bye Bye Birdie, and the marshmallow girl for Ren's "Chubby Bunny" contest only the words were "Ruby Reunion". My brother Joe won with 10 big marshmallows stuffed in his mouth and a clear vocalized "Ruby Reunion".
-Bedtime
The only downer for this location is the limited bedrooms and oodles of couples with kids. So I slept up in the master bedroom with Jules and Joe and their families (9), Riss, Rose, & Brinn on the floor and marg and Nate on the bed, a total of 14 people. The whole floor was bedding for bodies.

Wednesday 8
-Family Pictures!
Nate is a photographer and patiently took pictures all morning of individual families and groups of sisters and kids. When my parents arrived we walked to our spot and set up. While Nate setup, Rose and I distracted the kids. We sang all the songs we knew with giant actions and animated faces. It worked!! we had happy children for the group shot!
-Star Wars Birthday Bash (I cochaired this event with Doug)
We had 2 groups rotating through "I had a little Jawa", musical chairs for seating ont he Millenial Falcon, relay races to test their ability to use The Force, and the Jedi Training Camp (an obstacle course outside complete with dueling Darth Vador). Doug rented a Darth and Obi costume for him and Carl. The kids were a bit freaked when he first came out, but once he took off his mask they thought it was pretty cool. At the end we smashed a Darth Vador pinata that my mom has been making all month and went inside to decorate Yoda cupcakes and sing!
-Phew!! All my official responsibilities were complete: talent show, Latino dinner, and birthday bash... so I just sat on the couch and chatted for a couple of hours.
-Family Pictures in Ruby Red shirts
We quickly went out for good light and took family pics in our Ruby Red t-shirts that Rose and I ironed on logos for on Sunday
-Russian Dinner night
I anticipated this night to be disgusting, but it turned out to be almost my favorite and totally delish!
-Family Council
In the past this has been the dreaded bucket of worms that we discuss the elephants in the room. But my parents planned it with the kids in mind and simply officiated our family mission statement "KFB" (Keep the Faith Brother/Babies) and talked about when it started with my oldest brother Ren on his mission. Each family got a glass brick with vinyl letters "KFB" and ribbon to tie around it to display at home.
-Walk
A few of us went on a walk that night and Sean called Christina so we walked up ahead of her on the way back. Love special phone calls... hmmm

Thursday 9
-Princess Pamper Party
All the little nieces have been waiting for this all week and were good sports during the Star Wars stuff because they knew this was coming.
We (all the girls) dressed up, painted nails, read Princess and the Pea, decorated crowns, went on a princess scavenger hunt for bracelets, barrettes, and hugs and kisses from the king (Grandpa), and were escorted to the ball by their handsome princes (dads and brothers in Burger King crowns) They were even announced by a royal trumpeter (Rowan) with a ding-a-ling and their royal names (Cathleen). They all danced at the ball and had a glorious time!
-Water Play
We played with water balloons, a kiddie pool, a big blow-up slide with water, water guns, and a slip'n slide. The kids enjoyed it fast before the real water war began between the team on the deck and everyone else. It turned into pots, pans and bowls of water launched across the banister. No one left dry, unless you were holding a baby or a camera on the side.
-Group bathtime
6 little girls in the jetted tub upstairs, doesn't get more fun than that. Then the boys turn, I wasn't invited to that party.
-Chinese Dinner night
-Family Treasure Hunt and game night
What family gets excited about doing a treasure hunt together? We did these all the time growing up. "Pirates are always going around looking for buried treasure, but they didn't realize the treasure was the happy memories they were making along the way." (something like that)
-Game Night
Played Barnyard Rummy and caught everyone on the final hand. I was the only one down with one card left. Half-way around the circle, Brinn discarded a Rummy and I called it!
-Worked more on my collage

Friday 10
-Temple trip to Provo Temple
Early morning session with baptisms afterward. We took a group of 85 family names to baptize and confirm. This was my first time doing family names and it was a special event to be there with my older brothers and participate in the ordinances with them.
-Family Fair
The long windy garage tunnel was filled with games: shooting out a candle w/ a water gun, shaving a balloon without popping it, guessing how many raisins in a jar, knocking down milk jugs with a tennis ball, balloon animals, putting the bean in the cup on your head with chopsticks, and hoola hooping. Then we went upstairs for doughnuts on a string and parachute play. Some of the kids climbed into the parachute to be tossed up in the air,and some had to hold someone else's hand in the parachute to feel okay, it was so cute!
-Family Movie Night
We watched "The Muppet Musicians of Bremen" a family favorite for the kids. I hadn't seen it for years, so it was fun to finally connect the beloved lines my brothers frequently quote in conversations to the scenes in the film. Like: "What the clunge is this?"
Then we watched "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye, another beloved Ashton must see film if you ever want to belong to this family. However, most of us worked on our quilt blocks. Our gift to our parents this year for their anniversary is a quilt block from everyone sewn into some sort of pillowcase or wall hanging. We each drew something significant about us on our square with fabric markers.

Saturday 11
-Closing Devotional
Each of the kids got a "kinder-egg" from Europe. These eggs have a chocolate shell with a little toy inside connecting back to our theme of treasure, rubies, pirates, etc.
-Cleaned up
-Adult Dinner
All adults 18 and up went to the iBuffet by Movies 8 and then to Stu and Lisa's for an evaluation of the Ruby Reunion. Joe told "Goldirocks" story (his 3 Bears story in an Asian accent) it is hysterical!!
The overall word was that it was a great success and can't wait for the next one in 3-4 years! All our goals were met, the cousins know each other, our testimonies are renewed, and everyone enjoyed the time together.