Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Cash Reunion 2011

The day after the Dave Stamey concert, we headed out for Utah!  When I thought about it, I realized that we hadn't been there in 9 months!!  We were excited to get to spend some time with the Cutlers!  Since we were able to leave in the morning, we didn't get in too late, which was nice.  The next day, we packed up and headed towards Heber.  There is a large camp there owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They use it mostly for Young Women's Camps, but on weekends they aren't booked, they allow families to rent it out.  It was a great location for a big group like the Cash clan!  

It was very beautiful and comfortable.  The thing that amazed me the most was the deer!  They weren't afraid of people at all!  We saw this Mama and two babies everywhere we went!  It was something else!  This is them taking a leisurely stroll right through our camp site!  They weren't more than 30-40ft. away!  It didn't even spook them as we all came out of the cabin to see them!

The pavilion where we did most of our activities was surrounded by this wonderful, soft sand.  This is where Hayden spent most of his time!  Playing in and eating the sand! xp



Bailey really enjoyed the craft table!  Taysum and Bailey each made a little foam teddy bear for the other!


However, I think one of the biggest attractions was the table trolley rides!

After lunch on the first day, most everyone went to ride the zip line!  Ken was really excited to take the kids, but Bailey decided she wanted to come back to the cabin.  So, B, Hayden and I stayed in the cabin and took a nap, read, and relaxed.  Taysum, however, was quite the little trooper, I was told!  He had NO fear and acted like a pro on the zip line!  He climbed up all by himself, saying the whole way, "I think I can, I think I can!"  Once he got to the top, he set off with a grand Diego/Superman pose all the way down!  Then rest of the day I heard over and over how impressive he was! :)








 Even Grandpa Guy joined in the fun!

That night, we celebrated a wonderful lady!  We celebrated Grandma Mary Ellen's 80th birthday.  Ken's mom was in charge of the reunion this year; she really wanted it to focus on Grandma ME and to be a special tribute to her.




The program began with the oldest grandchild of each family sharing memories of her.  We heard from: Shane, Molly, Jed, Katie, and Allie(?).  John and Joel's families emailed Mom with some memories as well and she read them.  There were lots of tears, laughs and hugs!





There were a few performances as well.  The first stanza of the poem "It Couldn't Be Done" by Edgar Albert Guest is a heartfelt mantra for the Cash family.  All the great-grandchildren memorized it and recited it for Great Grandma.  It was so powerful to hear as all the children recited it with confidence and love!




Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
    But, [I] with a chuckle replied
"Maybe it couldn’t," but [I] would[n't] be one
    Who [had said] so [until I'd] tried.
So [I started] right in with the trace of a grin
    ... If [I] worried [at all] [I] hid it.
[And I] started to sing as [I] tackled the thing
    That couldn’t be done, and [I] did it!


Per Penny's request, the Nick Cash family was able to come up with a song.  It was titled, "That's What M-E Means to Me."  I'll have to find our copy of it, so I can save the words!

Also, Ken had written a poem for his Grandma.  He did a great job!

After the program, we had cake and ice cream!


You can't get a bunch of Cashes together without having homemade ice cream!  To liven things up a bit, it was made into a contest with ME being the judge!  She was a pretty tough judge, too!  Kristen Kassing was the big winner, though!  (Her's was my favorite!)

Ken, ME and Holly (Ken's sister)



In my opinion, we were in the "fun" cabin!  Ken's brother's Mark and Nick and their families shared a cabin with us!  It was a busy place! ;)

Hayden and Lucy "arranging" the furniture!





These four are closest in age and always have a great time together!


The three youngest, each a month apart!


Bedtime stories with Aunt Alicia



We did have a pretty big scare during the night.  In the next cabin over, Ken's nephew Layne (14) fell out of the top bunk... as near as we can tell, he was sleep walking.  He landed on his head and it split.  He was bleeding heavily.  All the adults were scared to death.  They got him down to the hospital and all he needed were stitches.  He was back in the morning before everyone was up!  It was scary, but also a miracle!

The breakfast crew!


My favorite thing about getting together with the Cashes is the music!  They are a talented bunch and it's a lot of fun to just sit around and listen!  We have guitars, mandolins, violins, banjos, drums, and wonderful voices!
Just Bailey


We also had a talent show (another tradition).  This time, only the young kids participated.  We had a lot of singing, but we also had gymnastics, jokes, and stand up comedy!  I have to admit though, I was one proud Mama.  Taysum and Bailey got up there (with no encouragement or direction from us) and sang "Gitchi Gitchi Goo" from Phineas and Ferb.  They did a great job and they got the loudest applause!



What a look! :)
He's a star!

After the talent show, Ken and Taysum went with a group to go on the paddle-boats.  They had a good time with that, too, but we didn't end up with any pictures!  One "funny" story, though... while they were out in the boats, Taysum had to go to the bathroom.  So, he just stood up and decided the lake was as good as a toilet!  Luckily, the Camp Missionaries didn't seem to realize exactly what he was doing, because he only got in trouble for standing up in the boat!

Another Deer sighting!


It was a quick, but great two days!  We even had time to go back to Grandpa Ned's and Grandma Penny's and have some fun with just the Cutlers.  The kids watched movies while the adults played games upstairs.



I love this picture!

Ken and his four brothers have created a series of ridiculous competitions which they call the "NavaJo Challenge."  They think up feats of strength, agility, balance, pain and silliness and they compete to see who is the most.... I don't even know!  Anyway, they do crazy things like: push-up contests, the slapping game (don't ask), leg and arm wrestling, races, obstacle courses and anything else that comes to their crazy minds.  I do have to admit, it is pretty entertaining to watch and I love seeing Ken with his brothers!  This is Mark during one of the races.

  

We had a great time with our family and we are so blessed to have such a fun, talented, fantastic family to be with!!

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