Rex Sandberg Family Reunion

It's a good thing we haven't had much going on this summer because this happened almost three months ago, but after this I'm all caught up on blogging! Time has been simultaneously going fast and slow these past few weeks as we get ready for the baby to come, so it's a good thing we haven't had too much going on so we can just relax a little.

The theme of this years Rex Sandberg Reunion was Star Wars. On Friday most of the family went to Panguitch to fix up my grandparent's old home that the family is trying to sell. My Mom and I stayed at the Ranch most of the day with the kids and went over in the afternoon to see the progress.

Later that night we had our hot dog roast with glow sticks and campfire songs.

Julia and Micah in the tent the next morning. The water and bottle of Tylenol remind me that I was sick that week with a cold that took me forever to get over. I think I spent half of June and half of July being sick.

The next day the females made washer necklaces, and to fit with the Star Wars theme we called it making "galactic bling." Julia made one for herself (but she chose a dog tag shape) and then I made a few for her and I. It was pretty addicting because there so many different things you could do with them. Then anyone who wanted made light sabers out of pool noodles and went to Jedi Training Camp. Robert made light sabers for the kids but didn't go to training, so he's not a real Jedi. Which is okay because as you will see he wasn't aiming to be a Jedi.

Part of the Jedi Training was a slackline. Some of the older boys helped Julia across and she was very proud of herself.

Here, Reah just finishes her turn as chaos goes on around her.

Later the young Jedis defeated the Death Star (piñata).

Julia had a lot of fun playing with the other little girls there.

There were a lot of light saber fights that weekend. Even little Micah loved it.

For the dutch oven dinner Robert and I made a Raspberry Fudge Cake that was delicious. I premixed all the dry ingredients before we left and made a ganache and chocolate sauce to go on top. Then Robert did all the work at the Ranch mixing the wet and dry ingredients, cooking, and adding the toppings. We didn't take any pictures, but it was worth remembering so maybe we can make it again someday.

 For the talent show our family dressed up as Padme, Han Solo, Young Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leah. My Dad, Darth Vader, and Uncle Don, Obi Wan Kenobi, joined us for a picture before the talent show started. Everyone was cute, but when you think about the real relationships between the fake characters it was kind of weird. My real life Dad was my husband? Julia's husband was her Dad?

Julia sang a song again this year, The Itsy Bitsy Spider. She loves to get up and perform so maybe next year we will actually prepare a talent beforehand for her to do.

At the end of the talent show we did a tribute to my Dad and Uncle Don who both retired from the Utah National Guard this year after many years of service, including multiple tours of duty overseas, and many more humanitarian trips over the years. We sang The Star Spangled Banner and...I'm not really sure what else happened because before we started singing (and while we were standing up at the front of the room) Julia whispered to me, "Mommy, I have to go potty."  So Julia and Micah and I missed that part, and also the costume judging contest.

Sunday after our testimony meeting we took family pictures. I wasn't sure which was better because each one has someone not looking or smiling who is smiling in the other.

My parents wanted pictures with the grand kids, and Dani wanted to be part of the picture too. So here are my parents with their only two grand kids plus a grand-niece.

I had to laugh at this sequence of pictures because the first couple pictures it looks like Micah is smiling, when actually he's just trying to wiggle away.

Julia and Dani, wiggly four year olds. They are both sporting the necklaces they made the day before.

We stayed an extra day to avoid Sunday traffic past Vegas. We took a walk up to the reservoir to see the work they were doing leveling it out in preparation of filling it up again. 

This was on the way back. We ended up being one of the last families to leave the reunion.

It rained a everyday, but not so much that things were miserable. Just enough actually to keep the temperature moderate and make everything not dusty. For Julia this meant plenty of mud puddles to splash in. By the end of the weekend she was just wearing whatever clothes had dried out in spite of the rain after I had washed her muddy clothes out and hung them out to dry. One time Robert and Julia and my Mom were up by the reservoir when it started to rain and the had to hurry back in the rain.