i love numbers and stats. i'm a giant nerd like that. so keeping that in mind, forgive me for this: claire and everett are blessed to have 28 aunts and uncles, 36 cousins, 4 grandparents, and 1 great-grandparent here on this earth. we recently took a trip to colorado for a bryson family reunion and during that trip we were able to see 15 of those aunts and uncles, 21 cousins, all 4 grandparents, and their 1 great-grandparent. and if you add general conference weekend earlier this month, we can add 5 more aunts and uncles and 9 more cousins. in the month of october, claire and everett have seen 71% of their aunts and uncles (20 out of 28), 83% of their cousins (30 out of 36), and 100% of their grandparents and great-grandparents (5 out of 5). that's some pretty good numbers.
now for those of you who haven't been bored to death by the numbers and are actually still reading, we'll jump into the action. our trip started on thursday morning as we frantically packed up our stuff in the hopes of getting on the road early. we knew, between claire and everett, that we would be making many frequent stops, and sure enough, that proved true. on the bright side, it did allow us the chance to appreciate sights we may have never seen otherwise. we made it to to our destination, canon city, colorado, late that night.
the next day, the entire bryson clan that was there (sadly minus one brother-in-law) took a ride on the royal gorge train. it was this relaxing train ride up this big canyon and back. i guess there was probably something historically significant about this gorge, but i wasn't listening. it was just cool being on an old fashioned train and enjoying the scenery. claire loved walking up and down the train through the different cars while everett slept the entire trip. that night, kyle and i went to the outdoor basketball court to play some of my niece and nephew's friends who had called us out. we showed those young whippersnappers. darn hoodlums. :)
the actual reason behind this particular reunion was that we had two nephews being baptized and two more nephews receiving priesthood ordinations. while we had everyone together, we thought we would go ahead and throw in everett's baby blessing as well. that saturday we gathered at the church to participate in the baptisms and ordinations. it was a wonderfully spiritual experience. it brings so much joy to see so many of my younger family members making such righteous decisions. from the church we headed to the park to see a couple of my nephews play football, and later that night, we headed out to another park to celebrate the birthdays of all those in our family born in october (and everett, because he was getting blessed.)
the next day the whole family gathered for family pictures. with 27 people, 11 of which who are twelve or younger, i'm going to say it's nearly impossible to get a picture with everyone smiling. claire especially wasn't in the mood for pictures. everett was super chill though, which helped a little. after pictures we gathered and had a family testimony meeting. i see my family's testimonies all the time, but it also nice to hear them once in a while. after the testimony meeting, some of amber's family who live in colorado, as well as grandma and grandpa mcclellan who also traveled from utah, all joined us for everett's blessing and a nice dinner. thank you for all those who joined us (or who wished they could have joined us) for everett's special day. we are so grateful for all our family, near and far.
a big portion of the family took off that night, but a few of us hung around for another day. that monday, a few of us went up to the royal gorge bridge, this huge suspension bridge that we had gone under when we had ridden the train earlier in the week. these pictures just don't show how high this bridge really was. i must admit that walking over that bridge was a little (a whole lot) nerve racking, but i managed to do it. amber was practically skipping across the bridge, no fear at all. that girl amazes me. after walking across the bridge, we took a tram back across the gorge, which again left me a little weak in the knees.
the next day, the rest of us colorado visitors headed up to colorado springs and spent the morning playing around at the mall. we then had to part ways and were forced to say our goodbyes. we decided to take the scenic route home and head north to see amber's sister and family up in green river, wyoming. unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse, and we ended up driving through a pretty bad snow storm. we made it safely, a whole lot later than we had hoped, but we got there. we spent the night, hung out with amber's sister that next morning, then headed home.
claire was super, super shy most of the time, and everett was a bit over-stimulated with so many people and was thus a little grumpier than usual, but it still was such a fun trip. i have stated before that my family never seemed to attend many big family reunions growing up and thus i never knew my extended family. thankfully, that's not looking like a problem my kids will have. this last trip was our third family reunion of the year (millie's blessing and the asay reunion at the courthouse being the first two), and with a wedding coming up soon, it looks like we'll be blessed with a fourth. by the end of this summer, i'm hoping to get those percentages from the very beginning pretty near 100. :) i sure do love my family (both sides) and am so thankful that i get to see them somewhat regularly, though never as much as i wish i could.
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