"Family" Reunion

Most of you will not be interested in the following paragraph. For that reason I have put it at the bottom. I hope you appreciate how I organize my posts to better suit the diverse backgrounds of my readers.

I am finally back in my normal routine. Last weekend I flew back home to Denver, only to go to my Grandpa's 80th birthday party in Breckenridge. On the one hand, it was awesome to get to see all my family together. I miss family a lot in Utah. I was able to learn a lot about my grandpa. His mother died of tuberculosis at a young age. I had never seen a picture of her, but she was pretty. Her hair reminded me of Daisy in the Great Gatsby (not the crappy movie). His dad, who I've also never seen pictures of, almost looked airbrushed. But the best part was seeing the pictures of my young G-Pa. He is always very playful, and it shows from an early age. The really awesome thing was that you could see the resemblance. You know with a lot of older people, you see their younger pictures, and you think to yourself, "I don't get it. I don't see it at all." With my G-Pa, he looks exactly the same, though perhaps with a little less plumpness in the cheeks. He was a hotty. And you can still see that mischievousness. He has lived a very up and down life, losing both is parents, previous relationships, and then having to raise two of the most nonsensical, and yet self-proclaimed "practically perfect" girls, simultaneously. And he has literally worked his butt off the whole time. If anybody deserves to be appreciated it is him. Especially after 80 years.

On the other hand, this birthday party turned into a huge family reunion, with all sorts of people showing up that I haven't seen or heard from since I was a wee little munchkin. What I did not like about the family reunion thing is my poor mom and aunt were so busy stressing over the details and preparations, they did not have much opportunity to sit and enjoy spending time with their dad. Sort of defeats the purpose. Kudos to my dad and uncle, who have been active pincushions through this whole 3 month (planning, it was an all consuming operation) fiasco. But the twins did an excellent job pulling things together, dealing with obstacles, and putting up with a sometimes uncooperative group (not me of course). We had a scavenger hunt, which was more fun than previously anticipated, especially since my team won (and that is all that is necessary for having a good time). Teenage cousins, Sibling, Dad, Gas Monkey, and an 80 year old man provided very entertaining conversation. I got to spend the weekend with my G-pa, G-ma, cousins, parents, sibling, aunty and uncle, and Gas Monkey. That's all that matters. Plus Breckenridge is beautiful this time of year, and the nice mountain air did some good. Of course that made it all the harder to come back to Utah.