2015 Ohms Family Reunion

2015 Ohms Family Reunion (missing 5)

We had our annual Ohms Family Reunion last week (July 2-5). My sister Sarah was selected to pick the location and the agenda and all things related to the reunion this year. This is the first year that my parents have not done the planning for the reunion. Sarah put together her ideas and submitted them to my parents for approval.

The reunion planning will go from youngest to oldest for a few rotations and then will start with oldest to youngest grandchild. Every four years our family reunion shifts from the summer to the spring when we go to Disneyland for leap year (and my parents plan that event). We will have two Disney reunions before it is my turn to plan the family reunion in 2021.

Back to this year's event. Sarah and her family live in Logan Utah and our reunion was centered in that area. I'm going to share some of the activities that we did. We started the reunion on Thursday July 2 with a family temple session at the Logan Temple. The youth participated in baptisms and the adults in an endowment session; all with family names that we have been working on this past year. The younger children went to an awesome park and Sarah's friends came and watched them for us. What a great morning of service! This was a new thing for our reunions. We haven't included temple work in our reunions before; though we plan to going forward, even when we go to Disneyland.

Sarah gave us an awesome purple paper that contained all the addresses of the places we would be visiting during our reunion. So if anyone got left behind in following the caravan of vehicles they could find their way there. It was a great resource!

We ate lunch at Angie's Restaurant where we "Cleaned the Sink" - HUGE bowl of ice cream. We got two of them for our large group.

My family visited with my husband's mom for an hour while the rest of the family visited an assisted living center.

We went on a "tasting tour" of Cache Valley. We visited the following businesses:

* Pepperidge Farm (cookies and goldfish crackers)

* Lower Foods (meats)

* Lee's Marketplace (cereal tradition - see HERE for more information) 

* Heart to Heart (creamies)

* Gossner Foods (cheese curd)

* Cox Honeyland (honey samples and watching bees in a clear hive)

After we filled up on these treats we drove up Logan Canyon to the Sunrise Campground. I thought that name was fitting. My dad always called Sarah his "Little Sunshine" while we were growing up. I love that we stayed at "Sunrise" and our shirts were sunshiny yellow with a sun on the back of them with the temple motif. Sarah and Jenny came up with the design for the T-shirts and Jenny did all the vinyl work to make them. We have a different t-shirt every year.

On the morning of Friday July 3 we had a Sunrise Service at the Bear Lake overlook. I stayed in the tent and slept, so I missed it. I don't even know what took place. We got our shirts this morning and took family pictures via tripod and timer. Then we headed into Idaho to the Bear Lake North Shore beach. The water was so clear and warmish. The only warmer water I've been in is at the beaches of Oahu. And it was shallow for a long way out. Here is a group of us trying to find a frisbee that landed in the water and sank before anyone could reach it. My brother finally found it.

We ate lunch at LaBeau's in Garden City and then headed back to the camp for naps and playtime. Some of us took a hike on the Limber Pine Trail. We ate a yummy dutch oven dinner made by my dad and sister Jenny. We enjoyed our traditional talent show and then had a fireside program where we shared positive stories and thoughts about each other. We then went to the Bear Lake Overlook to watch the moon rise - it was blood red (from all the fires). I really enjoyed that evening.

Saturday July 4 we had a relay around the campground that was designed and organized by my 11 year old nephew Quinn. The day before he had us draw out numbers which put us on one of three teams and then he determined which leg of the relay we would each do and he walked us through the relay and set everyone up where they were to start from. It was a fun race. A few years ago we started having a race as part of our reunion. That first year we participated in a family 5K.

We then went to Paris Idaho to watch their Independence Day parade. This was the first time that I've seen a parade go down one side of the street and then turn around and come back on the other side of the street. It was a candy parade ... lots of salt water taffy to go around and around. The kids loved it.

We headed back down the canyon to Logan to the motel and to clean up and swim in the pool. At one point the pool was full of just our family. We ate dinner at the Golden Corral which is becoming a Papa tradition; my dad likes the place and the grandchildren do too. You can eat what you want; even dessert first!

The evening ended with fireworks in nearby Hyrum Utah. We took our blankets and pillows and laid on the grass in the middle of a baseball field and enjoyed the fireworks all around us.

Sunday July 5 we attended church at my sister Sarah's ward and then ate some lunch and everyone headed for home.

It was a great reunion! We sure missed my brother Gabe and his family who were still in Taiwan; hopefully we will all get to see them when they visit our parents next month.

I decided to write about this reunion here on this blog not only to document our family's adventures but to show others what kinds of things we do at our reunions. Perhaps your family does something similar or may get ideas from what we have done.