Family Reunion

The Ronald and Gelene Rodeback Reunion was held at Ensign Ranch this year (4-7 July 2016), and we had a wonderful time.  We missed several members of our family - We love them all!   

This is the family I grew up with - my parents and siblings (minus one brother that passed away years ago). We were all able to attend the first day.

This family has grown one (or two) at a time - from 2, when my parents were married in 1957, to 115 today.  

2 parents

8 children 

7 children married

39 grandchildren

18 grandchildren married

41 great grandchildren

(My parents can of course claim all 115 as their own, but each of my siblings can claim a portion of those people as our own, and I just realized as I was writing this that 32 of them are mine. I haven't counted my family in a while, so it was fun to realize it now.)

This next photo is our family group that was able to attend the first night - 64 out of 115.  I had an additional 7 attend the next day or two, but some other family members had to leave, so numbers in attendance remained quite similar throughout the week.  

This is the small group of my posterity that were able to attend the first night.

Here is the last night with my family, just before I came home (I got sick that last night so Anthony and I came home a little early).

Michael's family, Gregory's family, me/Elaine, Thomas' family, Anthony, and Connor's family.

We enjoyed being together and we enjoyed the beauties surrounding us.  There was fun, games, and activities for all.  My brother and his wife did a great job at planning this reunion.  It was a success!

Of course, we had our traditional candy toss that my dad always does.  This started many years ago (maybe 32-33 years ago) with peanut m&ms, tossed to just a few little ones.  

Due to a peanut allergy, a few years ago it was changed to Hi Chews, and this year it was an assortment of candy. 

Many things change through the years, but one things remains - that one thing is that WE ARE FAMILY!   I am so grateful for my family ..., every one of them!  I am grateful for opportunities to get together.

found on Pinterest ... of course  ;)

Being a FAMILY means you are part of something VERY WONDERFUL.  

It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life. No matter what.

I am grateful for our Heavenly Family, for a loving Heavenly Father, and for Christ, our Brother / our Savior.  I am thankful for Their gospel and for the priesthood and temple ordinances that make our family eternal if we live worthy of those promised blessings. I am thankful for Their love, Their comfort, and Their guidance.
It is hard enough to live without a family member on earth - I am so grateful that this emptiness and sorrow won't last for eternity..., that  "the rest of your life" means the rest of our eternal lives ...

WE ARE A PART OF SOMETHING VERY WONDERFUL.  A FAMILY.  FOREVER!

Family Happiness

This last week we got to meet Rebekah!  We love her!  We all enjoyed having her with us ..., but I imagine that Chase was most thrilled about it.

Chase and Rebekah will be married next weekend and their open house will be August 29th.  Hope to see you then!



We also had a Rodeback Family Reunion this last weekend.  We feel that it was a success, thanks to the wonderful friends who shared their personal recreational facilities and family members who attend, assist and support in so many ways.

My parents and their children, minus one unable to attend and one who passed away as a child.

It was a united effort and we enjoyed our time together.

The days were a bit windy and cool, but we still had some great water fun.









Everyone echo'd Ethan's thought as they went down the slide - "That was intense!", "Awesome!", and "Totally Insane!!!!!"

We had a hay ride and toured part of the farm.

We had a talent show that was a fun addition to this years activities.

Evening activities included playing "night games" and a movie.

And, of course, there was food.

It was wonderful to be together with family.  Indeed we missed those not with us, but WE ARE FAMILY, and we love the great moments together ..., whenever we can get them.  We have made some great memories as we have gathered together and they are among our greatest treasures.  As usual, we eventually had to say good-bye, but our joy filled moments will linger on in our hearts and minds, as we live our way to eternity.

Our family is eternal!

Therefore, our happiness is eternal!

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!!!!! ;)