Ron and Gelene Rodeback Family Reunion 2014

 

It was family reunion time at our house this past weekend.  Our family hosted the Ron and Gelene Rodeback Family Reunion and we had a great time in spite of the heat.  It is always awesome to get family together!   

 

As I planned this event there were a few things I kept in mind.  These quotes were among those things on my mind.

image from here

 

image from here

 

I tried to decide between three themes for this reunion, and couldn't choose just one, so I used all three, each day having it's own theme.  Each focusing on our living family enjoying time together and learning about the family members who have lived before, including many we have not met. 

image from here

Every morning and every evening I gave a family/ancestor spotlight, and my siblings and their spouses were responsible for a family scripture, and a family prayer.  I really loved that part of every day.  It added a beautiful feel to our time together.

Before I continue I must add a disclaimer - We are using photos from BJo's phone and a few we took with my camera when ever we thought about it, but we were not the family photographer.  I'm anxious to get the other photos from those who were family photographers.  ;)   These photos, however blurry or bad they might be are still better than no photos.

EAT, PRAY, LOVE
Our opening social began Thursday evening with dinner at Chico's - in memory of the family dinners there in our childhood on special occasions. 

We were missing a couple families at the time this photo was taken, but the count for this evening was 68 plus another 8 or so extended family members that came to visit.  28 other family members were unable to attend the reunion, and we missed them.  

After dinner we thought we'd head to bed, but decided to put out the tables and cloths and chairs, and hung lights in the tent.  It didn't take long with so much help.

 

 

 

 

A FAMILY - A FAIR
Friday was so hot that we didn't follow our agenda as planned, but we took things slow and easy, visiting and setting up for our Country Fair.  Each of my siblings and I were responsible for a booth at this Country Fair.   Our schedule was to begin our fair in the mid afternoon, but the heat was so undesirable that we decided to wait until evening.  So, we relaxed, visited, cooked, and cleaned, we held babies ...,
 

 

we looked through reunion books from the past 5 years,

had our ancestor spotlight in the cool of the house,

 

 

and had some fun at the first booth set up for the day - this awesome and awesome-r fun ;) compliments of my brother.

 

Finally, in the cool of the evening the Country Fair was open and oh what fun we had.  Everyone did a great job with their booths and we really had a good time.

 

 

FAMILY TREASURES - TREASURE FAMILY

Our last day :(
We took a group photo (last photo in this post), had a pie eating contest ...,

and went up to the neighbors/friends pond for a fun afternoon.

 

 

Before dinner we brought out the guns for some clay pigeon shooting, and several had their first experience with shooting.  (Not me! The only gun I ever have shot was a stick when I was young ;)

We had an impromptu tractor parade.  ?????    We moved a tractor back into its place (having used it for photo backdrop) and one of the little gals wanted a ride.  Well, then others wanted a ride and still others wanted to drive them.  So ...,  some people got their first ride, some got to drive the tractor for the first time.  We had 4 or 5 tractors running around the back yard and down the road beside the house.  :)   We would have used those for fair rides the night before if we'd have only known!  :)  (I tried to make a collage of the tractor rides, but it kept shutting down on me, sorry!  This post has taken me several tries to finally make it work.)

There was a lot of free time to play together and spend time getting to know each other better.

 

Our traditional candy toss was last on the list.  This is better than a piñata because no one has to hit anything.  Grandpa Ron just starts tossing candy out to everyone and everyone scrambles to fill their hands full.  This started over 20 years ago with just a few grandchildren and peanut m&ms and last year the peanut m&ms got traded for individually wrapped Hi Chew candy. 

Here is our family - 67 of them anyway.  Word has it that by the end of the year our count will be at 100 - unless there is something coming up we are unaware of at the moment ;).

 

Family is our treasure and we do treasure our family time together, and are so grateful for the love that was shown throughout the weekend. 

Now especially for my family ...
to those who came ...

Thanks for coming!  Thanks for sharing!  Thanks for helping! Thanks for cooperating! Thanks for EVERYTHING!

and to all, including those who were unable to attend ...
Thanks for being you!


YOU'RE ALL AWESOME!  :)

I LOVE YOU!

;) We can't wait until next years family reunion!!!!! ;)