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.

P.S.  Happy 09/09/09!

A Fresh Look

When we bought this house, one of the things that was really nice is that all the rooms were already painted.  And they weren't just painted, they were painted well, in most cases.  The Chapman's (previous owners) had 4 sons, so not all the color choices jived with the girls.  So before we even moved in, we painted the girls' bedroom pink.  The playroom next to their room had this green color on it, with one of the walls done in a faux finish (or whatever it's called that makes it look like linen paper).

Now that we've officially been here a year, we decided it was finally time to paint the playroom.  When we lived in Springville, we painted the Nursery a buttery-yellow color that I really liked.  The choice had come down between a couple, and Cassi liked the other one.  She says she likes me to give my opinion, and I did then, but when we moved I learned that she really never liked that color.  Anyways, so this time I tried to leave the final color choice to her.  I still gave my opinion, and fortunately, we BOTH picked the same color.

Before

After

The lighting isn't great, but we LOVE the new color.  It reminds me of a cloud-less sky.  Some day, I may get brave enough to add a 360-degree sandy beach-scape to it.

7 months and still rockin'

Adam just turned 7 months old, and my how the time has flown.  Working in my office next door to Adam's room, I'm usually the first one to know when he wakes up.  Sometimes he wakes up happy.  Lately, it usually also means that he's standing up in his crib and trying to rock the side of it back and forth.  He's pretty happy with himself and being able to stand himself up.  He's growing so quickly it often amazes me.  We love Adam!

Katelyn the Kindergartner

Well, this day is finally here. As of August 12th, Katelyn officially became a Kindergartner! The first day of school was exciting and a little overwhelming for all of us. Here in AZ, we have all day Kindergarten. Katelyn was so excited that she got to have lunch at school. She absolutely loves her teacher, she loves the kids in her class, and she loves school! She has even asked with eagerness when she gets to start doing homework. Megan didn't quite know what to do with herself without a playmate for a few days, but she has completely recovered. (In fact, she might even enjoy pretending she is an only child while Katelyn is a school and Adam is napping!) Katelyn has been ready for this day for a while and we look forward to her learning and growing this year.

6 months ago....

Wow, Adam is now 6 months old. Time sure does go quickly. Here's the new list of things going on in Adam's world:

• 16 pounds 9 ounces - by far the biggest of my babies
• 28 inches - tall, tall, tall!
• hair is coming in - almost white it's so blond and so wispy it just sticks straight up
  
• crawls...although he really prefers to get somewhere where he can pull himself up to stand
• goes from crawling to a sitting position like a pro
  
• babbles/"talks" a lot - possibly channeling Katelyn
• totally dislikes vegetables - really, he gags if I do not mix it with rice cereal to mask the flavor - I'm going to blame Grandpa Partridge on that one ;)
• happy and smiley nearly all the time

Vegas Vacation

We spent a week in Nevada with my family for a visit before Katelyn started school. We had a great time. It has been a year since we moved to Arizona, and because of moving, settling, and a new baby, it has also been a year since we have visited Vegas. My Grandma Basta and my sister and her girls were also visiting, so we had so much fun seeing everyone! Time was spent at the pool, visiting, card games (I think I might have won one), back to school shopping, yummy food, and loads of cousins. We had all the good intentions of pulling out the camera, but in the end we did not. The only photo evidence of the trip was on the ride home. Chris (while driving I might add) took a picture of the progress on the sky bridge over Hoover Dam. It is simply amazing.

Happy 30 years Chris!!

On August 3rd, Chris entered a new decade of life. He made it to 30! We started the day at Krispie Kreme (really, where any good day should start...mmm....). Adam was really impressed and attempted to eat some donuts on his own. He saw, he grabbed quickly, and then it was taken away. Even though it was kind of his birthday party too (exactly 6 months old!), no donut for him today but he came away with a beautiful hat!The bulk of the day was spent swimming and lounging in the pool at his parent's house. It was so fun to have everyone there and enjoy everyone's company.
After cleaning up from the pool, we went back to Chris' parents house for a yummy BBQ, thanks to the grilling talents of Chris' dad and wonderful hosting skills of Chris' mom. There's never any doubt what cake he wants on his birthday; it's always a Texas Sheet Cake - the family recipe. I've had both good and bad experiences trying to make it just right over the years but today, by some birthday miracle I got it just perfect. Happy Birthday Chris! We love you!