SoCal Merkley Reunion 2014

We left for the Glade Merkley family reunion on Thursday June 12th.  On our way down, we stopped to visit Tim and Tam and see brand new baby Theo, who was born on May 29th.  With him being so little, Tim and Tam opted to skip the reunion, a decision with which I totally agree.  But it was fun to get to meet him!

What a little sweetie!

Tim and Tam weren't the only ones that couldn't make it to the reunion.  None of the Chicago Merks' second generation were there either.  

After Tim and Tam's, we had lunch at Zupa's and then caravanned down to Vegas with Mike and Lacey.  We stayed with Chris and Rachel that night (and played some Pinochle) and finished our drive Friday morning. Of course, the moment we arrived at Kendall and Robin's house, there was only one thing my kids wanted to do: SWIM!! The kids had been looking forward to swimming at their house ever since they heard about the trip.

 We did more swimming and backyard fun on Saturday: 

Sunday: Andy's homecoming talk and also Father's Day.  We took a few pictures outside the church with our wonderful Daddy!

Sunday afternoon, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Hanke's house.  We got to see John and Brandi and meet little Charlotte for the first time too! It was nice to see them all for an afternoon.

On the way to the Hankes'.  Four for four!

Jessica reliving a childhood memory of climbing up and down the laundry chute at Grandma's--except she got stuck!! We eventually got her out, but it reminded me of that part in Winnie the Pooh: "Heave, ho, heave, ho!"

Picking oranges and grapefruit from Grandma's fruit trees.  Gotta love that Southern California climate!

She thought they were balls till I told her it was an orange and she could eat it.  I don't think she knew it was possible to get oranges from trees!

Claire with an orange and a white grapefruit.  And my wonderful Grandma Hanke!

Kallie and Shae

Jake enjoying a grapefruit next to little Charlotte. 

Enjoying the fresh-picked fruit!

Just realized I didn't take a single picture of John and Brandi and their two little cuties.  Darn it! Sometimes I miss important stuff!

Sunday afternoon back at the Merkleys, we had some nice family time listening to words of love and wisdom from Grandfather and Grandma Grace and expressing our love and gratitude for them and this family.  I am so grateful and feel so lucky to be part of such a strong family with such a legacy of faith.

Daniel

Jake. Is he not the cutest boy ever?!

Kimmie

Lacey

Rachel.  I love this picture of her!

Monday was beach day!! I LOVE the beach, so I always try to take lots of pictures.

Sandcastles with Grandfather

Rob showing off that he's lost 30 pounds since January! Way to go babe!

Me, Hallie, and Shae happy to be at the beach! Although the Pacific is COLD!

I love Shaelyn's face!

Claire jumping the waves with Brian

Lacey and I with our cute little girls!

Amber and sweet little Nora

Love you Rob!!

Creating dikes and channels and pools with surrogate uncle Daniel.  Always great engineering fun!

Our sprawling encampment

Cousins and second cousins having a great time!

The beach is so great! There is something to do for everyone, all the way from two year olds up to Grammies and Grandfathers!

Cute Dallin with my beautiful mom!

Claire the beach babe.

Mermaid tails

She put this bucket on her head.  I love these next few pictures.

Silly goofball!

We love the beach!!

And Monday evening we did our traditional Mormon Bridge tournament.  Always great fun! This was the first year that my children were able to participate, Claire being the youngest solo competitor in the tournament (Hallie partnered with Eli).  We had a ball, as usual!

Table 1: the top table.  I started out at Table 3, but ended up at Table 1, which I consider quite the achievement since I don't usually make it up there. 

Table 2--there's Claire bear!

Table 3!

And last but not least--well, actually they are least, that's kind of the point...however, they didn't let it dampen their spirits--Table 4!

Tuesday was Temple Day.  However, this was also the day that the fastest-moving flu EVER hit the family.  Starting on Tuesday morning, we had several people get sick with a nasty both-ends type flu.  Yuck.  Then people just started dropping like flies.  By the end of the reunion, only about 5 out of the 30 of us had not gotten the flu at all.  I am glad to say I was one of the five, because all my kiddos and Rob each got it at one point.  It was good to have one of us that was healthy.

Tuesday morning we had all planned to take a trip to the temple to do some ordinance work for a lot of family names that Scott had sent us from his mission.  We still went, but our numbers were much diminished from what we had originally anticipated.  None of my family had gotten the bug yet, so we all went to the temple.  It is quite the drive, especially in downtown LA traffic. Thumbs down.  But once you are there, there's nothing like the peace of the temple.  We forgot to get a nice group shot in front of the temple, but here are a few pictures of us eating lunch after coming out of the temple.

Sleeping on the trampoline with second cousins the Bakers! Memories!

Wednesday was the last official day of the reunion when people started leaving.  Chris had had to leave Sunday night, Rach left with the kiddos on Tuesday morning once her kids started getting sick, but Greg and Lori flew out on Wednesday and the reunion started dispersing somewhat.  We had made plans to go to Disneyland on Thursday with all the Keith Merks so we stuck around.  We did more playing at the house and pool.

Wednesday evening we went to a Dodgers baseball game! I haven't been to one since I was very little, but I have fond childhood memories of being there, so it was really fun to go to one with my family.

The Glendora Merks second generation--just missing Kimmie's husband Brock.

We happened to be there on the night that the Dodgers' pitcher, James Kershaw, pitched a no-hitter! First time in 19 years that has happened in Dodger Stadium! I make no pretense to be very knowledgeable about baseball, but even I understood that it was a big deal!!

Eating a chocolate malt and cotton candy for the kids.

Unfortunately, the flu struck some of our crew during the game, so we were obligated to leave early.  But overall, it was still a great night!

The flu was very fast-hitting and very hard-hitting.  In other words, you didn't have a lot of warning before you were puking.  Shaelyn got it on the drive home from the stadium.  All over the car and carseat and herself.  No fun.  But I was glad it was after the game and not during.  She threw up again the next morning, also while we were driving (why did I wash the carseat cover?), but then she was okay the whole rest of the day Thursday. 

Thursday: Knott's Berry Farm!  We had initially planned to go to Disneyland, but opted to try Knott's Berry Farm instead because the cost was so much lower.  I'm glad we did, because a lot more of the family was able to join us, and it made for a very fun day!

Our whole group at Knott's.  As you can see, we are missing Glade and Grace, Careen, Greg, Lori, and the Vegas Merks.

 After the initial group shot, we all split into different groups.  Rob and I, Mike and Lacey, and my parents stayed with Evie, Shae and Kallie to explore the kiddie rides.  Hallie and Claire were both tall enough to ride almost all of the big roller coasters so they went with Matt, Jess, Kimmie, and Anna to go on the big rides.  I can't believe they are old enough to go on big roller coasters!

Heading over to Camp Snoopy, the kid section

Evie liked the kid rides for the most part.  She was tall enough to go on one of the milder roller coasters, so we tried it even though she was a little hesitant.  During the ride, she was completely silent.  The moment the car stopped at the end of the ride, she started crying and wailing.  She was utterly terrified the whole time.  Apparently NOT ready for roller coasters yet!

Evie and Grandfather riding the kid swings

Grammy and Shae Shae riding the train

Kallie and Mike on the same train--Kallie did NOT like the kid rides.  She was fine until they started moving, then it was the end of the world!

Lacey comforting a very sad little Kallie

We all met up again at midday to eat lunch. This is my favorite group picture from the whole reunion.  It is also the most complete group picture we have--missing a bunch of Merkleys.

My wonderful parents!

And my wonderful and adorable kids!

Watching the gymnasts practice for their show later that evening.

Baby Nora shooting the sheriff!

In line for the stagecoach

We got to ride on top of the stagecoach

The second batch of Merkleys rode in the stagecoach

Watching the gymnastics show "Boom Town".  It was cute and entertaining!

Sharing a giant cookie ice cream sandwich

I love this picture!

After watching the show, we went to ride one or two roller coasters with Hallie (which were pretty intense).  She was pretty much fearless, except on the Xcelerator.  She was scared when we were in line for that one, because it starts off fast like a bullet and so everyone starts screaming right away.   But she still had the courage to ride it and said it was fun afterwards.  She also wasn't afraid at all on the Skydrop, which is the one where your legs are dangling and they just take you straight up and up and up and then stop you at the top and drop suddenly.  We don't have any pictures of the roller coasters because we didn't take any of our personal belongings with us on the rides.  Meanwhile my parents took our younger kids on the carousel.  They said they rode it about 8 times, and that after once or twice, Evie wanted to ride it all by herself and ordered them to "go where I can't see you!" Little independent girl. 

And as night was falling, we all had to call it a day and drive back to the Merkleys'.  But not before a bite to eat at Arby's.

 
Kendall and Robin were so great to house everyone for the duration of the reunion and we all had a great time being so close together.  We stayed in their RV trailer in the driveway, and the Bakers stayed in a fifth wheel also parked in the driveway.  Chris and Rach stayed in a tent in the backyard, and everyone else was squeezed into bedrooms, on cots on the back porch, and wherever else they would fit! It was cozy, but lots of fun!

Finally, Friday came.  Driving home day.

Poor Rob caught the flu during the night and was quite miserable for the entire drive all day Friday.  I did most of the driving, although once he started feeling better he took over for a while.  Because of a late start due to Rob's being sick and unable to help me pack the van, and also more frequent stops, we didn't make as good driving time as we had hoped, so we called my great-aunt Delores to ask if we could stay at her house in Beaver.  We have stayed there in the past when they lived there.  They no longer live in the house, but still owned it.  My parents were scheduled to buy the house from them in just a few days, though, so we knew it would shortly belong to them.

We rolled into Beaver at about 7 and got into bed about 9.  The Beaver house is small and old, but has a beautiful yard and fun playroom connected to the garage.  It is a very peaceful place.  After staying there with Mike and Lacey for a night, we decided to stay there on Saturday too since Tim and Tam were blessing baby Theo on Sunday and if we drove home to Wyoming on Saturday we would just have to turn right around and drive back to Orem for the blessing.  Mike and Lacey opted to drive home Saturday morning, since they live in Highland with the Harkers, quite close to Orem.  We had a beautiful, peaceful day in Beaver.  We visited the cemetery where a lot of my ancestors are buried and I told the kids about my wonderful Grammy, Nordine Merkley, who is buried there.  We went to the cheese factory and got ice cream, and spent many happy hours playing in the yard, reading Harry Potter, and playing games. We ended out the day going to a really yummy Mexican restaurant, Maria's Cocina.  Yum!

Lazy Saturday morning in the beautiful Beaver summer!

Saying goodbye to Mike and Lacey. 

Trip to the cheese factory!

And then to the cemetery.

Had to take a picture of the cool old-school doorknobs

Afternoon relaxing while Shaelyn napped.

Reading Harry Potter.  We finished books one and two before the end of the summer.

Evie actually fell asleep!

She's still out!

Out to dinner at Maria's Cocina, which is a little hole-in-the wall place at the RV camp.  Really good food, though!

Playing around the RV camp while we waited for a table

Yummy! They have really good chips and salsa.

On the way out of the RV camp

Then Sunday morning we woke up super early and left Beaver by 7 AM so we could make it to Theodore's blessing at 9 AM in Orem.  Although it was an early morning, I'm glad we did it that way.

THEO'S BLESSING DAY:

Amazingly, we arrived early and so we took a few pictures outside the church

And three has become four! Sweet little family.

Hallie holding the man of the hour! Cute little Theo.

These girls are already best friends!

This picture makes me laugh.  Rob!

For realsies.

Merkley side

With Grammy and Grandfather Merkley

Claire's turn with little Theo.

Grass war!

My parents with all the Merkley grandchildren.  They have 10 now!

Tim entitled this picture "Gourmet Men." I like it! Look how tan Rob is! Wowza!

It wasn't till just now that I realized that for the first time ever, the male and female Merkleys are equal in number! Of course, that's only because Ben and Scott are on their missions, but still--it's a first!

 Whew! And with that, it was a quick 2 hour jaunt home at last! We had a wonderful time with all the Merkleys and it's always fun to visit Southern California.  There's so many fun things to do--and it reminds us that we would NEVER want to live there.  We're too spoiled by our low-crime, slow-paced country lifestyle.  SoCal is a wonderful place to visit, but the awful traffic completely changes the lifestyle.  Despite that, we made a lot of awesome memories and wouldn't trade it for the world! It was a very action-packed and fun-filled trip, but after 9 days away, we were happy to be home.