family reunion (part I)...

My Dad's family has six kids and every few years they take turns throwing a family reunion. This year was my Aunt's turn who lives in Idaho and she decided to do a big winter cabin trip up in Island Park Idaho, just outside of Yellow Stone.

It is always a treat to see my extended family because I hardly ever get to see them! With us being so large and spread out all over, we have to make the time and even then it is nearly impossible to see everyone. We had a pretty great turn out though and it was so much fun to ring in the new year with so much family around. Between all of the families that came we had three huge cabin's - these cabins were more like giant gorgeous houses!

The trip consisted of snowmobiling, sledding, hot tubs, game nights, laughter, and talking until we lost our voices. While it was great to see my extended family, I of course was excited to spend time with some of my siblings (wish you had been there ben and brandon) and my parents. The highlight of the trip was finally getting to meet my new nephew Cameron :) He was such a perfect baby and I am so excited to watch him grow up and wish I lived closer so I could come over and snuggle with him. He is the best snuggling baby! Miss him already.

Throughout the reunion we talked a lot about genealogy. My family is very into genealogy and it is a habit I am happy they have acquired and so that I am able to know so much about my family. I heard stories from aunts and uncles that I had never heard before about our family, like how my grandpa and grandma got married four weeks after they met, MET! haha Or how my grandpa wanted to serve his country so bad that he lied about his age and enlisted at seventeen, even though he didn't even have to serve because his father was a farmer and his older two brother's were already serving (apparently they always kept one farmer's son home so he could take over the farm if the others died). Or fun ones like when Patrick Stewart asked my Aunt out on a date back in the day, haha.

I think besides being around family my favorite part of the reunion was the food. My aunt made signature meals that my Grandma Leavitt was known for. My Grandma died two days after I was born, so I never got to know her and only have the stories of other people's memories of her. It was very cool to hear the background on the meal we were eating and then know that I can go home and make the same things in my kitchen. There is something very cool about being able to make HER recipe that she loved and feel like I am in some small way participating in a memory of hers, like I can share that with her even though she isn't here anymore.

All in all the trip was absolutely a blast, both educationally regarding my family history, being with my family, and all the fun stuff like snowmobiles, sleds, hot tub nights and games! It all came together for a great New Year break :) Except for the part where we all got sick... thanks for spreading that around Mom and Dad! HA!

I have SO MANY PICTURES! It would take me forever to post them all, and it would be pages worth of my blog haha. So I am going to try and just do these in two posts. This post will mainly be just the family time in the Cabin. Sorry for the picture overload - oh wait, it is my blog - nope not sorry! If your my family reading this I will being doing one large drop box of everything! haha here we go...

Our Cabin

The other two cabins for our family.

Enjoying Grandma Leavitt's homemade chicken soup after arriving!

The two lovebirds that started it all :) Grandpa and Grandma Leavitt

Wish they were still here to enjoy their family.

Making a family tree of just our immediate family on the wall - yes, that is just the immediate family! haha

Sisters off to the hot tub, yes, we went in every night before bed :)

My poor Dad was super sick and would often be found asleep in this chair :(

My cousin's daughter Emma was in love with my Dad. She always wanted to do her puzzles on his lap :)

Don't worry, these were used ALOT, pictures of all that fun in the next post! haha

Since we had a good part of our family there we saved some of our presents to each other to open at the Cabin! Oh don't mind Trevor's spread open legs in these, that boy... *shaking head*

My Dad the Trekkie, got a Star Trek Pizza Cuter!!! How amazing is that?!

New Years Eve we had a family talent show and stuffed ourselves with amazing Canadian Junk Food :)

See Part TWO of the Reunion - all the FUN in the snow!

How did you spend your New Years?

Oh and check out this giveaway!  ;)