Our Family: Braithwaite Reunion

We were in charge of the Hillard Braithwaite reunion this year. The family in charge basically is determined by the order of the siblings in the family. Last year was Krista and this year was us. It’s the first time we have actually been in charge though in the 13 years we have been married because it was delegated to other families. Summer 2014 we started deciding where and when we would have the reunion and from there we shot around ideas of what would be fun with that many people. It is pretty uncommon to have a whole series of activities to do, generally 1 or 2 are planned.

We made arrangements to head up to the river Wednesday evening to have a little time to unwind before everybody got there. Boone had brought some trees for us to plant so we spent Thursday morning doing that and then headed to Redfish lake with them.

We rented paddle boat and paddle boards and had such a great day relaxing on the beach. To my surprise many people started to show up on Thursday.

Friday we spent the day at Bayhorse visiting and fishing and riding around in a little aluminum boat. The kids were meeting cousins they had never met before so that was fun for them.

One of the firs things we decided is that we wanted to have tshirts made and got in connection with a friend’s sister who does this for a living and she helped us get them done. Dustin and I were left to come up with the design. One day as I was thinking about all the “Braithwaite Traits” that are so often talked about I decided that needed to be our theme for the shirts. I think they turned out great and it was fun to have every family in their own color to represent.

Friday night as some people arrived we had a little outdoor movie night. Brian and Cindy set up their projector and screen and Johnna brought popcorn for everybody. We filled the swimming pool with Kool Aid drinks and water bottles for everybody and I think everybody had a great time with it.

Dustin helped me come up with a little badge for the kids to wear and earn punches as they accomplished certain things around camp such as memorize grandpa’s poem on the wall in the big family trailer, catch a fish, do service for somebody at camp, float the river, quote your grandparents names 2-3 generations depending on your age and pass a clean camp inspection. I was impressed how the kids took to this activity. The kids were pretty constantly asking me for another punch or coming to rehearse their memorized poem. My favorite was the 14 year old nephew who came running with his badge in one hand and a fish in the other. He went behind the lot to the river and caught a fish for this very purpose. It made me feel happy we did it. Thanks to a good few younger adults for making it a “cool” thing to do. At our program on Saturday night we awarded those who had finished their Braithwaite “merit badges” with a little treat bag.

As we counted close to 100 people would be attending the reunion I realized the potluck would be a little crazy. I think the hardest part was communicating with everybody about what they wanted to bring. We had a Hawaiian Haystack theme and it turned out awesome. We had enough to feed 200 I would say. There was lots left over. Cindy and Sindy made 6 amazing dutch oven cobblers for us for that evening too which were a huge hit.

One of Dustin’s favorite memories from his family reunions is a program with skits and songs and stories. Our family knew right away what skit we wanted to do as we listened to a cute little audio book from the library called “THE RUNAWAY PANCAKE” basically a different version of the Gingerbread Man. We asked his nephew Bryan and his family of 5 to join us in this skit and it was so much fun. I am sure one that the kids will always remember. We had some beautiful musical numbers which really brought the spirit into the meeting as well as Uncle Brent told us a little history of the Salmon River lot and his dad that purchased it for this very purpose.

A few other fun activities we had thanks to those who volunteered to do them were Bingo game with some amazing prizes and painting homemade hot dog roasters.

I think it was a success and such a good experience. However I am not sad I won’t be in charge of it for at least another 7-8 years. :) Here are a few family pictures we took of everybody in their matching shirts.

We lined up oldest to youngest.