Cornwell Family Reunion 2008

Weekend of June 20, we had our 2nd annual Gary & Sharlene Cornwell Family reunion. This year Rachel put everything together. She found a great condo in Park City. It was big enough for all of us to be under one roof. That didn't mean some of us had to sleep on the floor (poor Moogly and Dave, (Dave did it by choice)). Mom and Dad furnished the condo and the rest of the kids were in charge of different meals. We had a ton of food. You would have thought we were going to be there for a week.

Friday we all met up at Rachel & Brandon's house in Provo. From there we condensed the vehicles and took off. Chris and I were in our car,along with Dave and Andrea. We were a few miles ahead of Rachel's Family and Mom and Dad., so we decided to take a few minutes and take some pictures of Bridal Vail Falls. After we took our pictures we were back on our way. We arrived to Park City first, so we called Mom for directions. She gave us directions, but we couldn't find any of the street names she gave us. So we called her back and she realized she gave us the wrong names, she didn't have her glasses on and therefore didn't read the correct street names. The four of us concluded that they gave us the wrong directions on purpose so they could get the good beds. But we later found out that wasn't the case. They just couldn't read...... After we were all settled in, we had dinner. Rachel and Brandon prepared lasagna with a salad and dinner rolls. After dinner all of us changed and got in the hot tub. We had 8 people in a 4 person hot tub. The hole tub was overflowing of water and bodies, but we were having so much fun just being with each other we just didn't care. After the hot tub we all settled down. Andrea, Dave, Chris, Mom and myself set down for a very competitive game of scrabble. The game came down to Dave and Andrea. Andie was a head by 6 points, and we thought for sure she would take the game, but Dave wouldn't give up. He was going to place his last tile "E". We were all looking for a place to put it, but were starting to give up. We told him to just take the lose and swallow the 1 pt. But he would not, he kept looking for a place to put that darn "E". After much perseverance he found a spot. He placed the "E" under the word corn and the next letter after that was an "A". Can you believe it, that kid was able to create the word "CORNEA". How in the heck did he manage that? We were all baffled and of course he was gloating. He was taking full advantage of winning with 2 points to spare.

Saturday morning was pretty slow moving. Dad and David headed back to Provo to participate in a car show down at Grandpa Cornwell's retirement home. Grandpa asked Dad to bring up the little car a couple of weeks ago for the car show but due to weather it was postponed to this weekend. It turned out great, from the sounds of it, they had a great time and Grandpa was so excited. The little car won "Best Original" because it was not as altered as the rest of the entries. While Dave and Dad where in Provo, the rest of us hung out at the condo. We had french toast and bacon for breakfast. Us girls made cards with Mom's stamping up stuff, while Brandon took a test for his on line class. Rennie & Chris played with the bubble gun that was bought to keep Rennie entertained. Dave and Dad got back around 3 pm and so we all decided to head to the swimming pool, but to our dismay the darn thing was still closed for the season. So we decided to head back to the condo to get changed and to grab the bag of croquet equipment. We played two very exciting games of croquet. Andie won the first game and I won the second. We all had a blast. Following our croquet game we went back to the condo to prepare for dinner. Chris, Dave, Andrea and myself were in charge of making dinner. On our menu we were making Navajo tacos and for desert we had hot scones with honey butter. It was so good. We all ate our fill and just relaxed after.
Sunday before we had to pack up and get ready to leave, we all enjoyed the final breakfast. Mom put together fresh fruit, bacon and cheesy hash browns. It was so yummy. After breakfast we got our stuff together, said our goodbyes and headed separate directions. Chris and I had a great reunion and were so excited that we have made it an annual event. Next year it is our turn and we can't wait to start putting it together.

After we said our goodbyes Chris and I decided to take the more scenic route home, rather than getting onto I-15. We took in the beautiful scenery as we came along Bear Lake and along the back side of the Wasatch mountains. We even stopped and found one of Chris' ancestors in St. Charles' cemetery. After all the stops and slower speeds, it took Chris and I about a hour longer this way but it was so worth it. We saw beautiful mountains, lakes, flowers, antelope & deer. It was truly worth the extra time. Plus we actually saved on gas because we had gone the slower speeds, we got home using under 1/2 tank of gas, while it took us over 1/2 tank to get down there.

Bridal Vail Falls

Chris looking great at Bridal Vail Falls.

Dave and Andrea at Bridal Vail Falls

Family getting situated after arriving at the condo.

Dave and Andrea after a tough battle of Scrabble.

Dave won with the word cornea.

Cornwell boy's at the car show.

Steph and Brynna

Maggie & Mekelle playing dance revolution.

Rennie taking advantage the bouncy bed.

(naughty but so much fun)

Chris standing next to Phineas Cook's (distant grandfather's) grave in St. Charles, ID.

Tabernacle in Paris Idaho

Wildflowers full bloom

(the blue in the background is flowers blooming, not a pond)

Caribou Mountain

A herd of sheep on the open range

(The two closest white things, are the guard dogs)