Monson Family Reunion *July 22nd-24th*

Everyone had a shirt that said, "HooRAY life is TWEET". Not only did it epitomize my Grandpa Monson's life long attitude but it also included his name as well as my Grandma's nick-name (Ray and Tweet). Day one started with a visit to Uncle Kirks where he showed us all the secret compartments in a desk that my Great Grandfather Mons Akenson had built. Someone paid him $100 to make the desk. They never paid or collected their desk so it was handed down to my Grandpa and then to my uncle. This desk hold so many memories for me. My grandparents didn't have much in the way of toys but there was always a little pink rubber mouse hidden in one of the drawers that I would play with when I would visit. Plus, trying to find all the drawers kept all of us grand kids busy. While my Uncle showed all of us the desk I was shocked about some of the drawers I had never known existed. I believe we came up with a total of 48 drawers!


Then we were off to Lagoon! It was SO much fun to watch Max and Elese run around with their cousins. It brought back so many memories of me doing the same when I was their age. Max loved ALL the big kid rides and was just as brave as any grown up while Elese finally learned to love Bulgy the Whale (check this out to see what she thought of it the last time) and went on it over and over again with Violet who we learned that day is going to be a big sister. During lunch all the little ones randomly started climbing a tree. Max loved it!


The next day my family was in charge of lunch. We meet at an old ward building in the area that my mom lived in. The day before lagoon we prepared some sloppy joe's (minus the sauce) so that day I just threw it all in crockpots with the sauce and lunch was ready. There was more to it than that, I mean browning 30lbs of meat isn't my idea of a good time. We ate and talked about old memories, made bracelets, and the kids made and shot off some rockets. Before the lunch most everyone else went on a family tour. Because of food prep we weren't able to go until after. After lunch we did the cliff notes version. All of us got Wax lips and mustaches that my mom and her siblings loved as kids. My favorite part was showing the kids the underground tunnel that my mom had to go through to get to school when she was a little girl and that Uncle Kirk flooded as a practical joke when he was a kid.
Some of the others went to the 24th of July parade but we didn't go. It ended up being a really fun weekend, even though I got a little overly stressed about the food.