Baird Reunion

This past weekend was the Rey Baird reunion, it was Jonathan's Grandma and all of her descendants. We drove down to Provo Saturday morning and joined right in with the family. Now what you have to understand is that Jonathan has 18 Aunts and Uncles and all of them have children so this was quite the crowd. The Baird's can also be somewhat, ok really, intimidating. Have you ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? That is the Baird family minus the Greek and the fat and the wedding. But seriously I didn't think those families actually existed... until I got married. Now the movie is so much funnier to me because on the other hand you have my family which not in its extended state is very similar to the grooms family in the movie. Anyway I was so excited to meet all of these people and get to know my extended family on the other side. I decided that I was going to try really hard to get all the aunts, uncles and spouses names down. Forget the other generations I will work on them later. I did it! I was so proud of myself. (Forgive my spelling there are like 10 different ways to spell every name in the English language, sorry if I get it wrong) These are the observations of an outsider...
First you have Jim and Char Christensen, Char just studied abroad in Paris, France and they have a brood of 6
Second you have Elaine and Brian Partridge, they have a brood of 6 one of which is named Ben whom I met at the family reunion and is studying to be a physical therapist. They also have an Amy, who wasn't there and I can't wait to meet because she is so fantastic.
Third you have Russ and Margie Baird. I married into this family so I won't bore you with all the details I know about them ;)
Fourth, Ron and Janelle Baird, they have a brood of 6, and they have an Ethan and he wore shorts and cowboy boots to the reunion on Saturday, I made sure to make fun of him
Fifth, Becky and Monty Burkholder, Becky reminds me a lot of Ron in facial structure. They have some children and Monty is a go getter at getting food served, especially homemade ice cream
Sixth, Doug and Laurel, they have one son Thomas. Doug is a Physicist and is almost a replica of my father-in-law
Seventh, Sarah and Hyram Johnson. They have 3 children Coleman, Wyatt and Kate. They live in Driggs and we scarred their oldest when we hit a dear while he was in the car.
Eighth, Dan and Julie Baird, Dan is my new favorite uncle, like he told me at my wedding. He is a dentist and they have fantastic kids and an especially adorable daughter named Eliza. I like them a lot, Julie especially seems to like Little Jon
Nineth, Jeff and Janette Fisher. They just had a baby a few weeks ago and he is precious and very little like 7 lbs little. Now to most that sounds like a pretty average baby but remember mine was virtually 11 lbs. Anyway Janette is like the world's best pianist, at least from the stories I have been told
And Finally but very best is Rikki and Matt Vilburn. They have a drop dead gorgeous little girl named Emily and she is about 3, I think. Rikki is every one's favorite aunt. It is a self given title but acknowledged and believed I think by everyone. She is like 5 feet tall and super spunky and I love her. She and I became fast friends and I couldn't be happier, she is fantastic.

Overall the Baird clan is made up of fantastic people, all of them wonderful in their own way. I am so
happy to have married into such a wonderful family, where love and laughter abound.

Now for the activities, now remember I am a newbie so none of these traditions mean anything to me but apparently they are a big deal. We got there Saturday afternoon and It was rainy so we couldn't do the grandchildren birthday party at the water park, which Grandma used to rent out the entire thing for this party but now they wont let her, and I think it has been closed so now it is at the Veteran's pool. Anyway instead we went roller blade/skate-ing which was fun. My husband apparently was a super blader with Ben when they were younger. It was fun to see a side of him that I never have before. And he is really good, I looked really dumb but that is ok. The Russ Baird kids all jumped in with much enthusiasm and I was impressed with how many times they fell down and just jumped right up. Then we went and had dinner and talked and had the grandchild birthday gift exchange. You get a name of a cousin in your similar age range and it has to be from the dollar store. I had no idea you could get so many cool things at the dollar store. There was supposed to be a movie in Grandma's backyard which is another tradition but it was too late so we all just left. Sunday morning we all got ready and went to our various church meeting, a lot of the aunts and uncles are locals so they went to their own wards. Jonathan spent our time visiting important families from his Provo days, especially the Rowberry's. Joe Rowberry is a man to which I am very grateful for all his support to my husband in his youth, it was also pretty much the funniest thing to watch him play with Little Jon he became the biggest goof I  have ever seen. Then we had family dinner, we started trying to say good bye... and we left several hours later. After dinner was homemade ice cream and it was delicious. Then we left. The reunion goes through Monday but we have work.

My son over the reunion had a total of 4 hours of nap time? AKA not nearly enough. So today Monday it is currently about 6 pm. My son has been awake for  a total of maybe 3 hours. He is also detoxing from a week and a half of pure spoiling from family, which makes him really fun;) It is ok he is learning quickly and it hasn't been too bad yet. I am excited to be home for a while and get life back to normal.