First, we'd really planned to hold it at a nearby community park. However, because we also had a number of other BIG EVENTS pending for this summer, we ended up not booking the park, even though we thought we had...So, we had the party at my sister's house. It's a ridiculously awesome home. It was built by her late husband, who was a very fine carpenter. It's actually made of logs, but it would not be appropriate to describe it as a "cabin." It has three stories, and is practically a museum of taxidermy. It is really lovely, and the yard around it is equally lovely, so when we were "stuck" having the reunion there, it wasn't actually a problem.
It also gave us an extra little punctuation to the whole day, because my sister and her husband have also signed up on a website called AirBnB. When you open the site, it lists all the places where you can get accommodations: Paris, Buenos Aires, Boston, Miami, etc. etc. They live in Smoot. It is basically a ZIP code. There is a small store/post office and many people live on farms there. But, that day, in the early afternoon, two young men from Southern California rode their motorcycles into the driveway, and arrived to stay in her basement for the night. They were on the way to visit Jackson Hole and Yellowstone Park. She'd told them in an email conversation that she was hosting a family party that day, and that she might only have a space on the floor for sleeping bags...did they really want to stay? Oh, yes, that was fine by them. No problem. Actually, there are very few other places to stay in that area for about a hundred miles. So, the two pleasant fellows got plates, piled them with fried chicken, potluck salads, and filled their cups with homemade root beer and found a cool spot under the shade trees and watched the interesting spectacle of a traditional family reunion. One of my other sisters remarked later that it was entirely appropriate to have them there, because it was a rare summer day when my mother didn't end up setting another place or two at the dinner table (served at 1:00P.M.) for either wandering strangers in need, or relatives who'd strategically dropped by just in time.
Another part of the reunion that was especially enjoyable was the horse riding. There were four or five horses saddled, and they were in continuous use for hours. One of my nephew is married to a serious Wyoming girl. My sister jokes that her dowry was four hunting dogs, two rifles and a horse--it was a match made in heaven for her son. But she graciously spent most of her day supervising all the little city relatives who were really thrilled to be able to ride a horse. I walked around the pasture several times leading one of them while my seven year old grandson was perched on the saddle. Other people would ride with their tiny one or, an older child with a little equine experience would ride with a smaller sibling or cousin. There was a line up for at least two hours of mostly girls, waiting for their turn. In fact, there were more than a few tears over having to give up their turn because someone else had been waiting patiently for quite a while. It was adorable. But one of the most adorable participants was the just-turned five year old daughter of my nephew whose own horse was being used for this adventure. This little doll was dressed in her jeans, pink cowgirl boots and --- wait for it --- spurs. She is a pro, really! She barrel races on this big old draft horse, so she had great skill and was the expert at giving rides to her many excited relatives.
This photo gives you a better perspective of how adorable these boots were: ![]()
This is my boot and leg standing next to them. She is a born-to-it Wyoming cowgirl.
There were other fine things that made the day so great. For instance, my brother-in-law went out into the field next to the yard, and pitched a bucket of tennis balls to every single little cousin who wanted to try and hit homers. The rest of the cousins were the fielders.
Then, a group of the big kids from the Second Crop went over to that park we ended up not booking and had a real softball game to indulge their competitive needs. These were the parents of the little ones you see in these photos.
There was a whole series of games based on the Minute-to-Win It format--picking up Tic Tacs with tweezers, balancing dice on tongue depressor, tossing tennis balls into a bucket balanced on a partner's head. It was hilarious! Names were drawn from a container and the match ups were divine.
I could have just spent most of my time watching the tiniest family members (we had seven babies born since our last meet up!) Five of these little folks were in attendance, and they were all attracted to a flower bed that was filled with pea-sized gravel alongside the steps to the deck. There's a lot of entertainment in watching someone who has just learned to walk pick up hands full of rocks and throw them as hard as he can. Over and over. And, sitting there with a plastic spoon and a cup, scooping up rocks and dumping them back out, is all a kid needs to do on nice summer day.
As much as the girls were attracted to the horses, the boys of the corresponding ages were drawn to the four wheelers. Driving! There was a continual stream of kids with a very brave parent as a passenger wheeling up and down the gravel road into the canyon past my sister's house. I realize that in my family, we were fine with horses until the little brothers got old enough to lobby for dirt bikes. Something about the wheels and the motors are irresistible for boys. I still love horses. But, hey, I'm a girl, right?
In conclusion...I thnk that one reason this reunion was so much fun was that we were all "home" again--in the place where we First Croppers were all born and raised. We were enjoying simple pleasures: marshmallows around the campfire, riding horses, eating the food we all remembered from our mother's table. We had a chance to just talk and the kids could play all kinds of things: trampoline, swingset, board games. It was amazingly casual for the attendees. We all pitched in and helped with the food and the set up and clean up, and (I think my sister felt a little overwhelmed...) but everyone who came had a really great time and felt a little closer to one another at the end. And that was the whole point when we set out to have this annual event seven years ago. We decided then,at the conclusion of our mother's funeral, that we should honor our parents by keeping family ties knit together by choice and not by chance. It's been working so far, and I hope we can continue for years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment