For the last week I’ve been out in Utah for a family reunion. The Flanders Family is small – my mom and her sister, my five cousins and our families. We gathered in Park City (where none of us live but which is a lovely place with lots to do) and just enjoyed each other’s company, meeting the ones we didn’t already know and refreshing our friendship with those we last saw almost 20 years ago at the last big family gathering.
We rode the Town Lift up the mountain and explored, wandered and shopped Main Street, ate ice cream, sat by the pool, played cats cradle, stayed up late and visited the nightlife. Some of us (not me) rode the zip-line down the mountain at Olympic Park which was exhilarating, wild and FAST. And we ate a lot.
We also took billions of pictures. It’s always a pain to do that, the posing and smiling and stuff, but when it’s over and we look at the finished pictures, it’s wonderful to have the images frozen in pixels to record the memory.
My mom had scanned in dozens of old pictures from our past, divided into generations dating back to the late 1800’s, and made copies for all of us on CD. Looking back at that and recognizing how much we valued having those frozen images of people who went before us (some of them wearing very interesting clothes and not smiling much), made our contemporary photo ops much more comfortable and gave them perspective.
Through the miracle of email, IM, and cell phones with long distance plans, it will be easy for us to stay in touch. I don’t want to have another 20 years go by before we see each other again. My family is small and I cherish all of them.
Random Thoughts of a Disordered Mind 
yea! You’re back! I loved the photos, esp. the one of you and your brother. You’re beaming. You have such a wonderful smile. Happy belated birthday!
I really missed hearing from you. Glad you had a good time. My mother was looking through old photos figuring out where my body type (and my kids – each different) “come from” in the family. She has a wonderful picture of some great aunts – thick, thick waists – I now know where mine came from. I’ll post it – if I ever figure out HOW. I did get a blog up and running with a lot of help from Grumpy Chair and Lori. The link is under Vickie on AFG.
Baby steps V
I looked through the reunion pictures on Flickr and they turned out great. What a cute family you are!
Anne, enjoyed your photos. You look like you come from a nice, fun family. Nice looking nephews too. If my nephews on my husband’s side of the family were that good looking, I might go to a family reunion.
My dad lives with me and my husband. My dad is a wonderful and compasionate man. The problem is, that my husband and i are going through some problems, and I hate to have my dad here to witness this. He knows that marraige has its ups and downs, but nevertheless, part of the problem is that my hubby and I dont have any alone time to work on these things as they come up. Yes, he and I get away once in awhile, but this doesnt address the immediate attention that some of the day to day issues require. I never want to stir things up that may result in a loud confrontation with my husband, so I just stay quiet. This is no good!