The Great and Wonderful Travelling Jackson Reunion

What a great week!!! :) Thank you to all who supported Carly and Jesse at the reception in Calgary. It was a great party. Now we are on the road.

Carly and Jesse.

Each year our family has a "Family Reunion". Over years the event will take on much greater meaning but for now, it is a party for our family to hang out together. This is our 5th reunion and in order to accommodate the wedding in Salt Lake City, have taken a road trip.

Sunday afternoon everyone except Lee and Andrew, who will join us on Wednesday, met in Shelby, Montana. A strange meeting place but it worked great and on to Butte.

One of my choice lifetime experiences will be the memory of holding hands with the 5 oldest grandchildren, all of them extremely excited, as we crossed the street from the Hampton Inn to a local pizza restaurant. The event was made greater when the children realized that it, the restaurant, had mini games and rides. One of the popular games was the bowling game where you roll a ball up the ramp and it drops into a hole that is labeled with points. Before his Mom climbed up on the game, Cooper Jackson found that he could almost fit into the 50,000 point hole. The small merry-go-round was almost full when all 9 children got on board. Kristy made a hasty departure as one of the twins chose dessert time as the time to get into the hazardous waste business.

Monday morning early Mark Ehlert, Spencer and I made our way out to "Old Works" golf course in nearby Anaconda to start the vacation right. Another timely meeting at 11:30 at a truck stop on I-15 and we were off to Salt Lake City. Doug and Nancy joined us at precisely the appointed time and we were now a convoy of 5 vehicles. We have 3 walkie-talkies between us and were able to visit almost non-stop, Kristy, Carly and Jenn assigning everyone "handles".

Jenn and Mark grab a quick rest from
chasing their 4 cute little princesses.









Aunt Nancy and Uncle Doug join the party.
Hope they know what they are in for....

one hour stop at the Idaho Temple grounds to have a good run and a visit with cousins Tom and Glenda Tucker. Their son Brian came over from his nearby office to meet and greet. The Tuckers are my grandmother Jackson's family and are our deepest LDS line. I like to keep the relationship alive.









Max and Sol, 15 month old twins wondered if they would ever get free of their car seats.

















Cooper never stops smiling and always keeps running.















Braelynn, Anna, Jackson, Sam and Kelsie all take 30 seconds to pose before doing more laps.

The Tuckers and the Jacksons

Arrival in Salt Lake City at the Shilo Inn at 6:00 p.m. to find all the reservations properly messed up. Hardly the time to get in the way of mothers whose children needed to be tended, cleaned and fed but we managed to straighten things out, calm a few grands and on to a great party at Cafe Rio.