The Pethel Family: DAY 1

The Whiting Reunion

August 1, 2 & 3

Northern Arizona

At the last minute, Brian surprised me by taking our family to join the rest of my extended family...and I'm talking EXTENDED...a few generations back...to make a few hours detour to my family reunion for the Whiting family. The Whiting family is my mom's great-grandma's family and every other year they throw a HUGE reuion that takes place near Flagstaff (Northern) Arizona where there is a big area of land we lovingly call The Homestead. This is land that my great-great grandpa Whiting claimed back when the government plotted out pieces of land and gave it to you if you lived on it for a year. They've had it ever since. They raised cattle, had a sawmill, made honey, etc., etc. for money. My mom tells me they were very wealthy people. It's a very large family and even though there are ten times more relatives than were there, about 1,200 showed up, which is amazing. I can't even fathom how we can keep doing it after all these years. I wonder if there will ever be a day when we don't. It's hard to imagine.

This year was so amazingly organized and fun. I've posted on Day 2 below about my favorite part of how they recreated the olden days, but they also had dances, climbing Sierra Trigo (the volcanic ash of a hill right next to the Homestead...it's actually a very beautiful mountain and view if you ever go to the top..but if you've ever climbed it once, you never do it again), a program and a caterer to do all our food. Amazing. I think mine and Katie's favorite part was the handwashing machines and another one of mine is always the shower rooms. I still remember when our bathrooms were outhouses and if you wanted to shower, you had to go to this wooden community shower room. Ya, there were peepholes. Not fun...

For Day 1, I'm posting mostly pictures of our immediate family. However, I'm SO bummed I didn't get a picture of Porter's MANY reunion faces...definition-"covered completely with dirt"...To Amber's dismay, he inevitably would fall headfirst into the dirt within minutes after showering him. hahaha. REUNIONS!

Warning!...LOTS of pictures to follow...

Xanthe & Heather...I REALLY wish I had a picture of Collette who purposely saw Heather in her purple and green, and continued to dress in the same outfit. Heather, please post one on your blog.