Caitlin and I flew back from Dubai to Houston, Texas. Uncle Mike picked us up and took us to his house where we were going to spend the night and drive with them the next day out to Grandpa Barrow's cabin for the family reunion. We went out to Chipotle for dinner with Mike's family and another family that is friends with Mike's family. They were all super fun and we had some great Texas conversations over dinner, like football and trucks and stuff. When we got back to Mike's house, we had Blue Bell ice cream and visited for a bit. They put on a movie, but Caitlin and I were so tired we just went to bed and fell asleep right away.
The next morning, Mike and Rachel made a delicious breakfast of homemade biscuits, bacon and eggs. Then we got ready and took off for the cabin. Michael's wife, Mariela, rode with Uncle Mike on his motorcycle which looked pretty fun. It was great to see and catch up with all of the cousins, aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa Barrow! This is the first time I have ever been to Texas and seen the cabin. I always hear stories of events that took place at the cabin whenever Caitlin and I get together with a member of that side of the family. I saw the bridge over the bar ditch that Caitlin's little brother, Derek, fell off of once. I've heard that story a lot, so it was fun to finally see that bridge! The cabin is pretty cool! It's next to a lake and it's an older looking cabin with the chairs that spin around which Caitlin wrote a poem about when she was little.
It was fun to see relatives we haven't seen in a while once we got to the cabin! When we saw Katie Barrow, it seemed like it hadn't been that long since we had seen them, but then we saw Kelly and she was so big! It was crazy! After catching up with cousins and aunts and uncles, we did air-boat rides on the lake with Uncle Kenny and had dinner. Jessica was there with her kids. They've always been shy around me, but in the cabin I juggled for Maggie and then she was my new best friend. It was pretty funny! We also did a scavenger hunt and then hung out in the cabin under the fan because it was so hot outside. Oh yeah, we also played ultimate frisbee on the grass across from the cabin. There were a couple obstacles like a swinging bench and tire swing. After dinner, we put a fire in the fire pit and opened the family reunion with words from the grandparents and some games. We also presented the quilt that Aunt Susan made for Ken and Diane with the quotes from the family. We finished up the night by playing Taboo in the other huge cabin with most of the cousins. That was really fun. Here are some pictures from the first day at the reunion.
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| Mike and Mariela riding out to the cabin |
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| Family members catching up. |
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| Maggie and I were playing "push-my-arm-and-watch-it-swing" |
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| In the cabin visiting. Ethan was showing us some neat magic tricks |
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| Tyler, Alex, Mike, Mariela, and what appears to be Godzilla between Alex's feet |
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| Jessica and Luke |
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| All under the fan after the scavenger hunt. Caitlin is probably wiping away a tear from laughing so much. |
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| Planning the boundaries for ultimate frisbee |
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| Some action shots. Even the dogs, Max and Jose, were getting into the game. |
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| Kelly watching the game with Buttons |
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| Mike was pushing Maggie on the tire swing super high and she was loving it! |
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| The lake at sunset |
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| Me and my super good-looking wife! I'm way lucky! |
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| Best Friend Barrow Cousins - Caitlin, Rifka, and Cami |
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| I've been staring at this picture for 10 minutes trying to think of a good caption... speechless. |
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| Air-boat at sunset |
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| MC Katie Barrow |
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| Grandpa Barrow telling a story about Kenny |
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| Checking out the quilt Aunt Susan made with everybody's quotes. Everyone picked a favorite scripture or quote for the quilt. |
The second day of the reunion was pretty fun too! I think I was experiencing some jet lag because I woke up at like 2am and could not fall asleep. I was looking out the window for a while in our cabin and saw an armadillo cross the road. That was pretty awesome. Anyway, I started to fall asleep again about the time that everyone else was waking up for the day. I also had a crazy headache, so I slept while everyone else left the cabin to participate in the morning activities.
The morning started out pretty fun from what I heard. There were relay races and part of that took place on the lake racing canoes. Mike and Rachel flipped over and dumped Maggie in the lake. Good thing alligators didn't get them! I started to feel better and wandered over to the big cabin. Lunch was being prepared and when everyone got there, we ate sandwiches for lunch, then went downstairs for Grandpa Barrow to present his Masters thesis on the Barrow Family. It was an awesome presentation! I learned a ton about Caitlin's Barrow family history from becoming plantation owners, fighting for the South in the Civil War, and the hardships faced afterwards. Also, Maggie kept sitting on my lap, then getting up and saying before running off somewhere, "I'll be right back." It happened like 1,539,468 times during the presentation and was really funny. Maggie also gave me a hug which was sweet, and got nacho cheese Dorito remnants on my shirt and Caitlin somehow spilled mustard on my shirt. It was pretty funny.
A little later, Steven and Katie Barrow led some fun games involving peanut butter. Caitlin and I were on a team with Uncle John and Ben. We had to lick peanut butter off a plate that a team mate was holding to uncover the hidden words, and later we had to race to build the tallest peanut butter and bread tower. It was pretty fun! Afterwards, we prepared for dinner which was catered BBQ and it was way good. The boys took a turtle out of the bar ditch and everyone was having fun looking at it as it hid its turtle face in its shell, especially Caitlin.
In the evening there was another family gathering with people talking about how Ken and Diane have impacted their lives and words they wanted to share with the family before Ken, Diane and Ben leave for Korea. The whole thing was awesome! The Barrow family is so inspiring. Caitlin added to it with some thoughtful remarks. I was proud of her for taking a turn and sharing. After this event we all went to a spot by the lake and Jessica took a family photo. There was an alligator lurking in the water nearby which was pretty neat. Afterwards, there were more air-boat rides, some talk of capture the flag which never happened (I was okay with that because it was still pretty hot outside), and later we all went to the big cabin and were visiting with the cousins. This was hilarious because the jet lag had hit Caitlin by this time and she kept falling asleep during the conversations. Family there were like, "Billy! Look at your wife!" and she'd be struggling so hard, head bobbing, to stay awake, then she'd be gone. Caitlin and I decided to go to bed before everyone else that night. Here are some pictures from the second day.
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| Morning relay races |
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| Mike and Rachel tipped over. They had Maggie too, but Travis or Tyler paddled out and got her. |
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| Retrieving Maggie |
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| I heard that Jose was everywhere, in and out of the lake. I'm bummed I missed it |
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| Travis and Cami |
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| Travis. Loves. Peanut. Butter. |
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| Rifka and Aunt Susan got creative and used peanut butter on the outside of their bread tower for added integrity. |
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| Me looking crazy and Caitlin looking normal |
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| I like how Dallin is looking at Ben and Tyler. So precious. |
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| Teammates Tyler and Alex |
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| Our teammates, Uncle John and Ben |
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| We tried to make ours a little taller by sticking the plate to the knife with peanut butter protruding from the peak of the break tower. Sadly, our tower fell over. |
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| Katie explaining the rules for the bread tower |
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| Another shot of Ben's face |
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| Rifka was letting Max lick some leftover peanut butter |
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| I was trying to get a photo of Max's continual licking to swallow all that peanut butter and came up with this gem. It's MAX! |
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| Catered BBQ ribs and chicken. It was pretty good! |
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| Maggie and Kelly checking out the turtle. |
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| I love this shot |
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| Buttons and Bonnie and someone's left foot making their way to the family photo. |
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| The lurking alligator |
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| Uncle David caught this catfish and let Rifka pose holding it. |
Sunday morning we packed up and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Barrow's house to change and get ready for church. We rode with Grandma and Grandpa Barrow and their friend Doc Peterson. Doc is an interesting guy. He's traveled the world working as an entomologist and has lots of great stories. When we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house we were immediately attacked by mosquitoes, but we made it past their attack and into the house. We ate cereal and changed into our church clothes, then went to church. We got to church early to be there for Ben's ordination to become a Priest. It was really neat and there were a ton of people there for it. Church was great too! Diane and Ken gave great talks. I'm very excited for them to be serving as mission president in Korea. The whole time we were at the reunion I was able to re-live a lot of my mission in my mind since there was a lot of mission talk and Korea talk going on. It was fantastic! After church, we left with Mike back to his house, ate dinner and watched the movie, "Rookie of the Year". Jessica was there too with her kids, so it was fun to talk to her and play with the girls before they left. Mike took us to the airport the next morning and we flew to Orange County.
I was glad I got to experience Texas and be at the cabin! Thanks to all the Barrows for being so awesome!
