A month in Utah: week 2 - SO. MUCH. FAMILY.

The Monday after Lagoon, we had a family reunion of sorts.  Our cousin, Derek, and his wife and kids came to visit from Denver.  I hadn't seen him since my wedding day, 17 years ago, and I hadn't seen my other cousins since Jessica's wedding.  We gathered everyone we could.  We were only missing Amanda (Derek's sister, who lives in Denver,) and Abbey, who couldn't make it to Salt Lake in time for the reunion.  We had Uncle Randy, my Dad, Mom, Uncle Louis and Aunt Cece, Grandma Pearlie, pretty much every Mitchell we could get our hands on.  It was kind of wild.

Melissa hosted a really fantastic BBQ.  Unfortunately, it was the hottest, most humid day of the whole summer, so being outside wasn't super fun until the sun went down a lot.  I have been to so many painful Mitchell parties over the decades, but this one was surprisingly very pleasant and extremely fun.  Everyone had a great time.  Kudos to Melissa - she knows what she's doing there.

We had a little "program" as Grandma Pearlie likes to call it.  Grandma begs for a program at every family gathering since I was born.  Sean played the drums downstairs, and then Grace and Harriet took their concert outside.  Grace played her electric guitar, and Harriet played my mom's guitar from when she was the same age.  It was incredible that this guitar has survived all the moves, banging around in closets, and kids playing with it as a toy for years.  My mom took it in for new strings before we got there and the guys at the guitar shop couldn't believe it.  They knew exactly what it was, a Harmony guitar from JC Penney from about 1960, complete with original case and twisted rope shoulder strap!  They said it was in excellent condition and sent it home, tuned with new strings.  It was really cool to see my kids play it.  (dang it, most of my videos from that night are too long to load here.  but, this is a little snippet of Hattie playing Mo-Deb's guitar!)

We had brought Grace's electric guitar up from ABQ, but didn't have room for the amp, so we asked my uncle Randy if we could borrow some of his equipment.  He is a collector of vintage stuff and plays guitar too.  He was so funny, he came and picked up Grace on his way home from work and took her back to his house to try out all his stuff and see her play.  They decided on this old Fender amp from the 60's.  It sounded great.  They plugged it in outside for her and she started to shred her Ozzy Osbourne song on it.  About a minute into the song, she started shaking her hand and saying "ow, that hurts!"  I thought she was having a hard time playing or was nervous and trying to fake that her hand hurt.  But, she insisted that it did.  Finally, it dawned on Randy that the old electric plug on the amp had probably been plugged in backwards (no grounds on those old plugs) and the current was building up and going through the guitar's metal strings and shocking Grace.  It was crazy!  After he turned the plugs around, she could play just fine.  

We tried to take some good cousin photos.  I feel so bad Abbey and Amanda weren't in these.  We all look super decent!  I think it's so funny to see the way the genetics have played out.  We are all about the same height after all that and, if some of us didn't bleach our hair, it would all be the same color too.  Abbey came the next weekend, and I didn't even get pictures of us together!  Epic failure.

Lauren, Jennifer, Jessica, Melissa, Emily, Derek, Me

Trying to get a picture with Sloan in it, is just about impossible - this is the best we could do.  But, from left to right, there are Derek's kids (Savannah and Milan), Jennifer's (Tristan and Kennady), Lauren's (Mitchell and Kimber), Sean, Grace, Kate, Harriet, and Sloan.  (Melissa's, Jessica's, and my kids by that time were just one family and sort themselves by favorite cousin, not by sibling.)

This little Savannah is about the cutest little girl I've ever met (my own kids excluded, of course.) 

Even though this is blurry, had to throw it in.  

Shadow was a part of everything and everyone loved her.

Dads and kids played 'til way past bedtime.  Since the sun NEVER goes down in Salt Lake, we were already used to staying up until midnight every single night.  

Jennifer, Melissa, Derek's wife, Andrea, and Lauren

It was really so great to be with so many of my family.  No matter what happens in life, blood is still thicker than water, and you are who you are, partly because of these people.  It's great to see everyone all grown up and all successful and happy in their own ways.   

Well, after the Mitchell blow-out, we did some more Sloan tending and got ready for another epic weekend of fun.  I guess mean Aunt Shell needed to come to town to prove that, yes, Sloan WILL eat lunch, and WILL take a nap.  No one could get him to do it. Melissa had been tending him all summer.  I did have a bit of beginner's luck, but he ate a whole peanut butter sandwich and went downstairs for a nap just like a pro.  I don't know why, but they are always cuter when they are asleep!  Sloan loved napping on Harriet's bed.

More, and more, and more family!  We took a break from the Mitchells and dug up some Chapmans. Brian and Wendy's family met us for dinner at our favorite haunt:  RED IGUANA.  Well, actually, we went to Red Iguana 2, since the original location is near impossible to get a table.  Still it's the same atmosphere - in a shady neighborhood in Salt Lake, literally next to the railroad tracks.  But, that mole is to die for.  Getting a picture of a Chapman cousin is like getting a picture of a unicorn.  It really hardly happens, ever.  So, I snapped this pic of the girls while we were waiting.  The train going by shook the whole restaurant and was very loud.  

Next up, Park City!