The day before Aaron came home from Ecuador, I left to go to my family reunion in Arizona. The reunion is for all the descendants of my great, great grandparents and it is held at their homestead in Arizona. There were over 1000 people there! This year they decided to recreate a village from the old days so that we could experience what life was like back then...sort of like a Nauvoo type experience. We had an old-fashioned cash store, a chair factory, spinning, sewing, cooking, and quilting demonstrations as well as a laundry station, beauty parlor, cow, horse, chickens, and grandpa's little train. We dressed in something sort of resembling clothing from their time and tried to see and do as much as we could.
Our car was packed from bottom to top with almost nowhere to put our feet. This is how we looked on the first leg of the trip to Orderville.
This is one of our many stops along the way. We were stopped for so long we walked around and even did a little rendition of I've Been Working on the Railroad (thanks Johnny for the demonstration) on the highway.
A few miles away from the homestead we heard a sound like a gunshot and saw a piece of our car go flying. After pulling over this is what our tire looked like. We started unloading our fully packed car to find the spare...when our great cousin Eric pulled up and rescued us (and taught us a valuable lesson on changing tires.)
We set up camp in Julia's awesome tent. Our whole room had screen sides and ceiling so that we could look up at the stars at night. Courtney and I shared a double decker air mattress complete with a down comforter. Definitely the most comfortable camping I have ever done. This is the view from our bed.
On our first day we took a frightening ride up the mountain. I saw my life flash before my eyes a few times and even discussed some after-death plans with Courtney. But as you can see, we made it to the top.
There were limited showers...so we used the cold hose water to wash our hair.
We volunteered to work in the cash store. It was set up with all sort of old family items, pictures, books and other family memorabilia.
I learned that I was not meant to be a quilter.
And we were responsible for leading another one of the famous Bodell Barn Dances (minus the barn this time). We kicked up a lot of dust and had a fabulous time dancing to old favorites like the hamster dance. Some new dance moves were invented including my personal favorite, the shower (thanks Courtney!). By the end of the dance, most of us were feeling a bit sentimental about our Clear Creek days and we were missing the ranch a lot...we made some great memories there.
Despite the flat tire, sketchy motel, dirt, and port-a-potties, it was a great trip. I loved spending time with my family and it was great to do some camping again. I think it is pretty cool that six generations after the Whitings lived there...there posterity is still coming back for reunions. It made me realize why the tradition of family reunions continues to be so important to the later generations and their families as well (example: I have gone to three family reunions in the last 13 months). Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Whiting!
