. . . . . . . .Life With Grandma & Grandpa Waite: Waite Family Reunion

This is the house we rented for the week for our Reunion

It is a 5,000 sf home with 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, tons of amenities and a fenced backyard. It is up against the mountain and right across the street from the Bountiful Temple.

Our first night in this house, we walked into the living room and were stunned at the view from the front door

view from the front door

view from our bedroom window

Monday 7/18

It's 9:00 a.m.

The car is loaded and . . . .

we are on our way

Bountiful Utah . . . . Here we COME !

We arrived in Bountiful at 3:30 (a little early) so we stopped by Kevin's house and waited for Debbi to come. She had Connor & Crew ride up to the reunion house with her. They helped us unload the car and get "things" set up.

One thing that needed to be set up was the "Post Office".

Each grandchild had their own mailbox

Each night Linda delivered the mail for the next day

The kids had fun checking their mailboxes first thing each morning.

The cooks for today were Steve, Linda & Debbi.

We made enchiladas, chicken rice, chips & salsa and

brownies & cookies for dessert.

Each day everyone sang a fun thank you to the Cook's song then presented the family with a fun "Best Cook's of the Day" trophy.

Monday's Cooks, Debbi, Linda (& Steve)

Tuesday's Cooks, The Lansford Family

George, Morgan, Charlotte, Trudi and Wyatt (Cora in bed)

Pancake breakfast, pulled pork with all the trimmings for dinner

Wednesday's Cooks, The Kevin Waite Family

Kevin, Shea, Connor, Lani, Sydney and Crew

Yogurt & fruit breakfast, Pasta salad & hot dogs etc. for dinner

Thursday's Cooks, The Matt Waite Family

Matt, Jen & Sienna

(Camrynn & Jetta were unable to attend the reunion)

Breakfast sandwiches, Chicken salad, pizza for dinner

(not sure how we missed getting a picture)

Tonight we had our Family Home Evening

(and did a little bit more throughout the week)

We all gathered in the Theater Room - Our theme was

FAMILY HISTORY

Each grandchild received a picture of them & one of our ancestors. Each frame included their linage and some interesting facts about the ancestor.

Morgan's Ancestor was Linda's Grandfather

Jeremiah "Rufus" Sponseller

Sydney's Ancestor was Linda's Grandmother

Emma West Sponseller

Crew's Ancestor was Linda's Grandfather

George "Lynn" Hoggan

Connor's Ancestor was Steve's Father

Vernon Appy Waite

Wyatt's Ancestor was Steve's Grandfather

John "Harvey" Berry

Charlotte's Ancestor was Linda's Great, Great, Grandmother

Charlotte Rudland Dansie

Shea's Ancestor was Steve's Grandmother

Jennie Henrie Berry

Cora's Ancestor was Linda's Grandmother

Golda Pearl Dansie Hoggan

Sienna's Ancestor was Linda's mother

Golda "Ruth" Hoggan Sponseller

Jetta and Camrynn were unable to be at our reunion, but they too had a special ancestor

Jetta's Ancestor was Steve's Grandmother

Christiana "Ella" Whiting Waite

Camrynn's Ancestor was Steve's mother

Jessie "Elda" Berry Waite

We also presented the adults with a framed Pedigree Chart

Trudi & Lani showing off their charts

Throughout the week we also completed a picture time line.

It stretched from Jesus Christ on the "roots" side of our tree

all the way to our youngest grandchild, Shea, on the "branches" side of our tree.

Everyone helped finish this project

They added their own picture and . . . .

The picture of their ancestor

Then they took turns filling in the missing spots until . . . .

The timeline was complete!

Tuesday 7/19

Matt's family arrived this evening... we are glad they arrived safely!

Once they arrived we began our Photo Shoot.

Lani's sister, Lindsey, was our photographer and she did a great job... Thank you Lindsey!

Steve & Linda

Trudi, Matt, Linda, Steve, Kevin, Debbi

Our Family . . . . 18 of 20

(Matt's daughter's, Camrynn & Jetta, were unable to attend)

Family Group

Grandkids

back row: Crew, Connor, Sienna, Wyatt

Front row: Sydney, Steve & Shea, Linda & Morgan, Cora, Charlotte

Debbi

Lani & Kevin

Kevin Waite Family

Back: Kevin, Lani, Connor

Front: Crew, Sydney, Shea

Jen & Matt and . . . .

Sienna

George & Trudi

Lansford Family

Charlotte, Wyatt, Cora, George, Trudi & Morgan

Wednesday 7/20

Today was our BIG ACTIVITY day

Trudi, Cora, Lani & Shea went to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake

Cora & Shea are ready and anxious for a fun day

They rode the train and …. the carousel

Shea rode a tiger with . . . .

her mom

Cora loved riding a giraffe, her favorite zoo animal.

They loved seeing all the different animals

and playing on the back of this cement Lion

The rest of our family went to the LAGOON Amusement park.

We broke into two groups, the Dare-Devil group & the "others" group.

We began by doing some of the rides for a couple of hours.

Sydney & Morgan on the rockets

Kevin, Sydney, Morgan, George, Linda ready to ride the Viking ship

Kevin, Sydney, Linda & Steve on the Merry-go-round

Morgan on his pony

Sydney on a kitty

Morgan, George, Sydney & Kevin on the dragon roller coaster

Debbi, Wyatt, Charlotte, Sienna, Crew & Wyatt being goofy on the dragon roller coaster

Debbi, Connor, crew, Sydney, Kevin & Sienna rode the swings

Ready-set-GO

It went REALLY high!

A few of us rode a fun train through a small zoo

Sydney & Kevin

Morgan, Charlotte & George

Steve & Linda

We saw a variety of animals including deer, kangaroos, white tiger, Elk, Bison & camels

We had our lunch, sitting at two tables... in the shade, then headed to Lagoon-a-Beach to cool off for a couple of hours.

First thing, everyone got sprayed down with sunscreen

Sydney had fun on the yellow slide

and so did Morgan

Morgan having so much fun

Sydney keeping cool in the pool

Sienna, Jen & Matt,

Morgan & George and . . . .

Sydney & Kevin enjoyed meandering along in the Lazy River

This bunch had fun, after a long wait in line, shooting down the Giant water slides

Charlotte, Wyatt, Crew, Sienna, Debbi, Connor.

Sienna coming down the slide . . .

Reaching the pool . . . .

and Sienna after her slide

It was fun to watch as they each took their turn on this slide.

Connor

Wyatt

Crew

Charlotte

Sienna

Jen

and Matt had fun on these tube slides.

Around 4:30 George, Charlotte, Morgan, Sydney, Steve & Linda left the park and went back to Bountiful. Trudi, Cora, Lani & Shea had also returned from the Zoo.

The rest of the "gang" stayed and went back to the amusement park to go on more BIG rides.

The Log Ride

Sienna, Debbi & Matt

This CRAZY "Dare-Devil Gang" rode some SCARY rides. Kevin, Matt & Jen also joined this gang!

The largest ride at Lagoon is called Wicked and. . .

it's name is stamped on the back of every visitors hand

The "Gang" loved the Wicked ride

The scariest ride at Lagoon is this one . . . . Cannibal. When it opened it had the tallest beyond-vertical drop in the world and the steepest in the USA.

the "Dare-Devil Gang" is pictured here - upside-down on this crazy, scary ride....but they loved it!

It was a hot day so, more than once, They visited "Rattlesnake Rapids" to get cooled off.

It is 1/3 of a mile long with rising swells and splashy waterfalls.

see them looking up-stream at what is coming

They know they are going to get wet

Maybe even soaked! Yep... but it felt really good on this hot, hot day!

This group stayed at the park until it closed at 9:00 p.m. Everyone had a wonderful, fun-filled day at both the Zoo and Lagoon.

Thursday 7/21

Thursday was a well deserved day of rest & relaxation. Several of us went down to Taylorsville to see Debbi's newly purchased house then, in the Afternoon we had a little Trophy presentation for the grandkids.

Each one got a certificate to go along with their "Thumbs-Up" trophy

Wyatt - Biggest Dare Devil

Charlotte - Curliest Hair

Shea - Biggest Little Helper

Morgan - Silliest Kid

others included . . . .

Bottomless Stomach, Video Game Pro, Best Smile, Fashion Plate,

Best Hugs, Night Owl & Most Beautiful Eyes

Here are some fun random pictures from our time together.

watched a movie Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the awesome BIG SCREEN in the theater room

Morgan

Sydney, Shea & Morgan

Charlotte, Sydney, Crew, Wyatt & Connor eating their dessert around the firepit.

Cora taking a walk up the hill to the firepit.

Game room fun

Foosball for Sydney & Shea

More video game consoles than you can imagine

quiet space

Fun comfy corner

Air hockey for Morgan and Shea

Pancakes and Eggs for breakfast

Shea on the Playset

Shea, Morgan & Cora

Friday 7/22

Today was the last day of our reunion 2022. We got up, cleaned up the house, gathered all our "stuff", packed our bags, made sack lunches for everyone, loaded up our cars, locked the house and were on our way. We actually went down the road to Kevin's house for our picnic lunch, a little more visiting and saying our goodbyes.

We had a wonderful time together with only a few minor bumps along the way. We missed Camrynn & Jetta and hope they will be able to join us next time. All in all, this year's reunion was a success!

After returning home, Linda designed a Shutterfly Reunion book. We will send a book to each family so they will always remember this fun time we had together!

. . . . . . . .Life With Grandma & Grandpa Waite

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Waite Family Reunion

Monday 7/18

Tuesday 7/19

Wednesday 7/20

Thursday 7/21

Friday 7/22

No comments:

Post a Comment