Partridge Past Times: C'mon...Get Happy!

When I was growing up, I don't remember watching "The Partridge Family" on TV, but that doesn't mean I wasn't aware of it or the pop-culture impact it made. And despite the negative or unsavory connotations of the phrase, there's a certain truth to it - we should all find how to truly "get happy."

I hope (if you've followed this blog for any significant length of time) you know that one of my favorite ways to get happy is to hang with my family, both the 5 of us living in my house, as well as the many extended family all over the place.

So, 20 years ago we had a Partridge Family Reunion, with all (or at least most) of the descendants of my Grandpa Neil and Grandma Elsie Partridge. It rocked as only it could in 1989. We had t-shirts made that were very en vogue sporting a "customized" Guess logo, and in the car on the drive up to St. George my crazy family re-authored the Bobby Brown rap song "On Our Own" from Ghostbusters II. I still think it was one of the coolest collaborations we've done. All of the grandkids performed it for my grandparents, complete with ad lib dance moves and beat-boxing. It was hilarious! Another highlight of the reunion was the famous family softball game, where Grandma hit a home run.

How could we possibly top that, you ask? Honestly, we probably can't, but after 20 years it was obvious we should do something. Fortunately the thought occurred to some of my cousins, so during late spring, planning went into overdrive to put this on over Labor Day weekend. This time, our numbers had exploded, despite obvious absences of Grandpa Neil and Uncle Don, who both passed away the last few years. Many of the grandkids are married with kids, so we kept it to one main event day. Due to work and travel plans, we missed a gathering at Aunt Ann's house the night before, but met up early in the morning on Sept. 5 (also Brett's b-day, btw) to start the festivities.

Oh, before I get to the actual reunion, I have to say one more little bit about the prep work this time. Each branch of Grandma's tree was required to come up with a t-shirt design, so it was a little easier to tell generally which cousins came from which sister of Dad's. I was tapped to help out in the design, and here's where the title for this post comes in. After going through a handful of OK ideas, or good ideas but hard to implement, Cassi suggested using the TV show as a theme. Here's what we came up with:

They turned out great. Most important for me was that my mom and dad were happy with them, and I think they were. I didn't have the though soon enough, but I think we should take one of the t-shirts from each family and make a collage-shirt for my Grandma, since she couldn't come from the assisted living center for the festivities.

From here, I'll let the pictures take over telling the reunion story, with only minor commentary.

Aunt Maureen's crew had the green shirts. She's the one facing the camera.

Aunt Ann's crew re-made the 1989 series, with a twist; she's on the far left.

The pavilion we met at in Layton, Utah was part of a very large park. The kids had fun on that huge playground for a little while, until it was time for softball! For some AZ imports, it was a little chilly. ;)

The playground was pretty cool - here's a mash-up of the group.

The babies got white onesies with blue writing. Adam loves everyone, but always has smiles for Grandma.

Yep, I was really there. There's not a lot of photographic evidence of my life the past few years, because I like to be behind the camera.

I even got a couple decent hits.

What can I say...cute kids!

One game had everyone split into mixed teams. Then we ran across this field, stomped on a balloon until it broke, and then found the little toy animal inside and had to come back to our group as that animal. Many successful blackmail shots were taken, I do believe. :)

Alligator? Not quite sure.

Some took the animal impersonation literally. Check out Nathan way at the top!

Everyone had a great time at the park. Afterwards we went to Aunt Ann's house for a BBQ with ALL the trimmings, more games, and even Partridge Bucks and a store for the kids to buy fun little toys to take home. Some cousins put together a family trivia DVD that was pretty fun to reminisce to.

After the reunion, we spent time at Brett and Stephanie's for a combo b-day party for Brett/BYU vs. OU game, where BYU pulled out a few miracles and won in the last few seconds. We also celebrated Stephanie's birthday at the end of the trip with a yummy lunch at one of Stephanie's new favorite Cedar Hills eats.

Rounding off the weekend, on Sunday we celebrated with Ryan and Jennifer as Elizabeth was blessed and got a gift or two. She certainly is a cutie.