Beverly: Whiting Family Reunion at Bear Lake

Dear Beverly,

We spent the last week at Bear Lake for the Whiting Family Reunion. I have so many great memories of Whiting Family Reunions! Great Grandma Whiting sent out an email to the whole family after the reunion and did a great job at describing the family and what I believe makes the reunions such memorable and looked forward to events. Here is what she said:

Thank you for all you did to help one another.  I saw numerous acts of kindness and service as you helped one another. with children, chores, and fun.  

Thank you for your accepting and including everyone. As a family we have always believed in inclusivisity as opposed to exculsivity. (It must feel overwhelming coming to a whiting family event for the first or second time or maybe even the upteenth time as we continue to add family members.)  

Thank you for choosing to overlook differences.  We may have different views and perspectives on many things, but we are family and the shared family tie is so much greater than any differences we might have. 

Thank you for being supportive of one another.  I felt it and saw and felt it in action. 

Thank you for your many contributions toward making the event successful. It was a team effort.  Thank you  to those who brought toys, big (James, Warren, Eric) and little (numberous), those who served group meals and often shared other food (especially with grandpa) , those who helped organize the family home evenings, etc.. You all contributed to the success of the event whether you realized it or not, just by how you treated one another.

The "feeling" of the event was special and I have been mulling over in my mind how to describe it.  Then at church today someone quoted  something like "True Christianity is showing love and kindness to all, in other words love in action" and at the moment I felt that best described the reunion, Three whole days of love in action and we got to be a part of it.  So thank you to all of you who shared your love in action with us and everyone else!

Thank you also for your expressions of gratitude to us.  We were grateful to you for coming and demonstrating love in action. 

I may be biased but I believe we have the best family! I have wondered what makes our family so great and so happy to go out of our way to spend so much time together. I believe it is the example of Great Grandma and Grandpa Whiting. They make an effort to have a relationship with their children and each of their grandchildren. You always feel welcomed and loved at grandma and grandpas house. You can also be yourself and they will just love you for who you are, no judgment. Great Grandma and Grandpa Whiting are very special to me. They were my second parents when I went off to college and before my mission. Great Grandpa Whiting gave me a fathers blessing that I will never forget right before I left on my mission. I hope we, as part of their posterity and you as Great Grandma Whiting’s name sake, can leave a good legacy for them. 

Your dad also had a great time at the reunion! He was in heaven with all the fun activities that were available. I joked with Grandma Strong that I wouldn’t see Daddy all week with how much fun he was having! He was able to go biking, swimming, tubing, knee boarding and wake surfing, and my cousin Ethan even taught him how to sail! He told me at the end of the week that he enjoyed getting to know my extended family more and making friendships with my cousins :) I had told daddy to wait and get our car fixed after we had talked to my extended family (I knew someone would be able to help us out). Your dad likes to be independent and sometimes has a hard time asking for help; whereas the Whitings know that they can ask just about anyone for help and we are all willing to do what we can to help out. Well true to my word, Uncle Andy said he could come by this week and take a look and give Dad some pointers as to what we can fix ourselves and what the auto body shop will need to fix. 

 

 
 

I also had a super fun time! I had joked that I only wanted to hold you when I was feeding you and, well, that is what ended up happening. There were so many of my aunts, uncles and cousins that were willing to hold you and help me out so that I could enjoy all the activities as well. Daddy took me sailing and I tried knee boarding! I wasn’t quiet successful at knee boarding but it was still fun! I have to admit that I felt a little guilty with how much I neglected you at the reunion, although I don’t think you minded at all with how much attention you got from everyone else, but I don’t feel so guilty anymore now that we are home and I remember what it is like to spend the whole day with you :) Beverly you are wonderful and I love you so much and wouldn’t trade it for anything but being a mom is hard work! 

Like I mentioned in my last letter, Grandma Strong picked us up on Tuesday and took us to her house. Around 11pm we went to the airport to pick up Aunt Gillian! It was the first time you met her. I was really happy to see my sister :) We left for Bear Lake on Wednesday and as I have already mentioned had a great time! The accommodations were wonderful and our house was right on the water with our own private beach! The water was so warm, as it was shallow for about 200 yards. Abby (my cousins Zack’s wife), cousin Amy and I decided to go skinny dipping Wednesday night since neither of us had ever done it. We went at about 1am and your daddy didn’t even notice me leave or come back into the room. 

The most exciting and unfortunate part of the reunion was Grandma Strongs accident. It is late and I am feeling a bit lazy so I will copy and past Great Grandma Whiting’s description of the accident with some of my own additions to the story: 

The reunion that Laura got stitches" is probably how Bear Lake 19 will be referred to in the future.  I am sure by now everyone has heard about Laura's mishap on the cleat of the boat that ended up requiring an ambulance ride and 36 stitches at the Logan hosptial.  Background: she was in the boat gpa was driving, Pete and Sam were on the sail boat, Mckay was in the kyack and there was a young (quite young) boy on a kyack who suddenly became overwhelmed and was crying loudly out in the middle of the lake.  All 3 groups rushed to his rescue.

Laura was sliding off the boat, to help and comfort the little boy. Turned out he was from the end of the lake and had taken off (with his gpa's ok) to follow his mother and gmother who were on stand up paddle boards (or something like that) and had no idea he was behind, and of course he couldn't catch them and he became overwhelmed with the impossible task. When Laura slid of the boat her leg got caught on the cleat and ripped the back of her tight open. Sam was able to jump in and help her back into the boat and Gillian kept her calm. Mckay returned the little boys to where he belonged, and gpa with the other boaters brought Laura onshore.  Alack to the rescue.  He had brought his emergency kit along and was able to put a pressure bandage on Laura's leg. What an introduction into emergerceny services, working on a large open wound of your own aunt on her backside.  (the crease where the leg and bottom meet)  Anyway he did well and then Warren and Gillian rushed to Garden City where they met the ambulance that took her the rest of the way to the Logan hosptial where they stitched the wound.  (I can still remember hearing the rocks flying as Warren was driving out the cabin driveway)  Several hours later they returned and once again it felt good because we were all together again.  Hope no one tries to top that at a future reunion.  That was enough excitement to make lasting memories for quite some time.

After 3 days of fun we left early Saturday morning. We, Aunt Gillian and Uncle Caleb, Aunt Heather and Cash met up with Grandma and Grandpa Newman to go hiking in Logan Canyon. It was your first hike and you slept the whole time! Afterwards we hung out at Grandpa and Grandma Newman’s house where we spent the night and went to church with them the next morning. Grandpa Newman told us to introduce ourselves to people because he wouldn’t remember anyone’s names. We failed, I guess we are as social as Grandpa Newman. After church we dropped off Aunt Gillian at the airport and Grandma Strong drove us back to Provo. 

Today my friend Anessa drove us to Winco so I could go grocery shopping. We got home and I started to make dinner to bring to Daddy but you were so fussy it took me 3 hours! Poor daddy didn’t get to eat until 9pm. He wasn’t at all upset and came home and held you while I finished up dinner. You are now finally asleep!!!! I think you must be hitting a growth spurt because you want to eat every 30 minutes or so. Hopefully you sleep for a couple hours tonight. We love you sweet girl!

Love, Mom