Viva la Mexico!

So, I just finished this blogpost for our family blog (www.benandmarindashaha.blogspot.com) and thought I'd just post it on here for all of you.  Lots of pics, many of which are thanks to Bonnie.  

So, back in June our little family joined my very large family for a reunion in Cancun, Mexico.  

I feel a little sheepish even blogging about this… like my five loyal readers are thinking, 

"Who does this girl think she is?  Traipsing all over Europe isn't enough for her?  Now she shows up in Mexico?!"  

Let me explain.  My mom has been planning this reunion for our family for quite some time.  It's not our typical style to go on outlandish vacations.  But you see, back in the day, my dad built a beautiful cabin.  My parents saved for YEARS to build it.  All growing up I remember them talking and dreaming and planning it.  My dad finally started construction on it when I was in high school… he and my brothers did the bulk of the labor…and it finally came to fruition when I returned home from my mission.  It was a beautiful and peaceful place to be and we made a ton of great family memories up there. 

Fast-forward seven years later to my dad's untimely death.  The cabin was too much for my mom to upkeep and maintain on her own.  So, with a heavy heart she sold it.  I was crushed, but I knew it wasn't practical to keep it.   The silver lining was that she promised to use the proceeds from the cabin to finance family gatherings every now and then.  That is how my dad would have wanted the money to be used… to gather the family.  So, that's how we ended up in Mexico.  

The flight really wasn't all that bad… it was direct from Frankfurt to Cancun.  Now that is awesome.  

So the reunion consisted of seventeen adults and nineteen grandchildren!  You may wonder how we managed to feed ourselves for a whole week!  Costco, my friends.  There is a Costco in Cancun!  Each family took a turn cooking.

We ran into a few glitches…. like the promised "beach front" property had NO beach.  And we had a major tropical storm with torrential downpour for two days… to the point where some of the rooms flooded… and the wind never stopped!!  BUT it was so great to spend time with my siblings and the kids, of course, couldn't get enough of their cousins.  

One of the calmer days

We did a couple excursions… one day an LDS tour guide named Helaman (no joke) took us to some ancient Mayan ruins in Coba and Tulum

This is the Blackburn Bus!! Check out that bad boy!

We got to ride bikes in Coba, which made it handy to get from site to site. 

Do the on-lookers look impressed or what?

We stopped at a cenote, or water hole. 

Check out how ripped my brother is… he has like a ten pack!

Because my mom is da bomb, she arranged for us to give some clothing, toys, and school supplies to some less fortunate Mayan villagers… she's always looking for ways to think outside of ourselves

And then finally onto Tulum… so beautiful!

We hiked to a beach one afternoon… wish we would have had more beach time, but the weather wasn't very cooperative!!

Playing Four Square

Our last day we went to a resort called Xel-ha.  We did snorkeling… I saw a giant sea turtle!… and zip lining.  I was so proud of Em for going on the zip line!

She had a blast as we did it over and over and over again!

I got to hand it to this amazing lady here, my mom.  She has so much drive and persistence… I don't know if I would have the tenacity to plan a family trip like this one, but she did and we are so appreciative!

Before you go, I do have to add this awesome tidbit… this trip was especially meaningful for Ben and me because we met in Mexico ten years ago to the month!  I can't believe it's been ten years!!  So, here is a pic of Ben when I first met him at Chichenitza.  What a stud, eh?

And here he is ten years later in Tulum… still pretty studly I must say. 

FRUSTRATION

So one of my bigger frustrations in life is that I sort of understand computers, enough to attempt things; but I never have it down cold...always run into a glitch here or there.  I have so much to share in the way of pictures over the past several weeks...wondering if this site will cooperate, or if I will be smart enough to pull it off!

Whew, so far so good.  This will introduce you to Cousins Camp.  I will include some of those fun pics!

Our first "event" was Family Feud, played with the Griffins vs the Blackburns (Phils and Travs kids)...Emery was a "floater."  In this pic, first hand down answered the question first.

The Blackburn's won this event...tho it was hotly contested.  Do YOU know how much a newborn wolf weighs?  Ask your kids!

Here we are making sugar cookies.  We made wolf tracks, a howling wolf,  a moon, and other weird shapes.  We took a plate of finished cookies to John, the 90 yr old WW II veteran that I sit next to in church, and he told WW II stories to the kids.  They were all very polite and attentive (except when Rachel first sat down and said "This place stinks."  I shushed her and told her that was rude and she was quickly repentant and was a model child after.  Hopefully, John's old age deafness worked to our advantage!)

Official Cousins Camp Picture...Sort of good, especially Emery's rapt attention and 

Matt's delighted expression

This One's Better

Each family took a turn doing Devotionals.  

This discussion took place after the Sam & Neil shared scriptures about King Benjamins address on service.  You parents would have been proud of your children's Devotionals.  Scripture Power!

              The kids enjoyed beading projects....the little ones made necklaces and bracelets...

.....and the big ones made Geckos that will be sent by a Humanitarian group to poor children in other countries

We made our traditional pilgrimage to Pizza Pie Cafe, where we ran into a face painter.  Various forms of spider man, princesses, exotic animals were found on kids faces.  If you're wondering about Lizzy, she opted for the wolf paint, in preparation for her role as the wolf in her

 Little Red Riding Hood skit, presented later that night.

A Popular hangout...the Hammock

This is Debra to the rescue, reading to Emery who we thought had a broken arm from a trampoline fall (off of Rachels tummy to the tramp surface...I know, how could that be?)  As it turned out, it wasn't, cuz after many tears and whimpers and wails...a very unsettled night, a splint and sling applied by a worried Nana, and an on and off stressful morning, her mother took her to the doctor with the diagnosis:  NO BROKEN BONES

Maybe she was inspired from the skit that night, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"

(Actually, I will attest to the fact that she REALLY WAS in pain....maybe my middle of the night splint healed her before she got to the doctor)

So here's Lizzy getting ready to wack the pinata.  It was supposed to be a wolf, but a dog had to fill in with no wolves available on Amazon.  It was a cute little puppy, but we tried to imagine it a wolf as we beat on it.

It was actually a rather creepy pinata, especially after Neil decapitated it early on, and we had to reattach its head multiple times with masking tape so everybody could get a turn.

Very patched up pinata, on one of it's last runs.  The kids all had a blast, with Eli applying the final fatal blows to release the candy .

So, that's the end of my pics.  Lots of other good moments, but understandably, I was often too frantic or flustered to be taking pictures.  Suffice it to say, we can put that puppy to bed for one more year.  

I have to add that we missed the Shaha kids terrible.  Talked of them often, and I will be sending them a package of t-shirts, beading kits, pinata candy, etc.  Next year they should be in town, so we'll get them then.  Be thinking of a good theme.....

Draperites update

I don't know how time just kind of slips on by.  I'm struggling with a few things as I get older.

1.  Where does time go?  I feel like for the first time I'm starting to think that there are too many things I want to do in life, too many things to get accomplished, too many things to learn, and I don't have enough time

2.  My body is no longer growing stronger, I think I've passed my prime.  I can't run as fast as I used to, I can't jump as high as I once could, and I'm constantly sore.

3.  I have aged a lot in the past 6 years.  Amber was showing me pictures from when we were first dating.  I blame it on my scout calling and last year busy-ness and stress.

I know you who are older than me are thinking "just wait Reed" and I know you're right.  IT just kind of crazy to realize those things and feel them on a small level for the first time.

So with all that I've made the goal to be more active.  I have barely exercised over the past year, just hadn't had time to.  So this past week I got into it.  I did a workout at the gym the other night.  It's three days later and I can barely lift my hands over my head.  I don't recover as quickly as I once did.

I've also run a couple days.  I ran yesterday 5 miles, and a couple days before that 3 miles.  It's crazy to think that during my glory days of marathon training 6 miles was the least I'd run.  Yesterday I stopped and walked a few times and just tried to enjoy it.

I guess I have this fear, and it's that I'm not going to be able to be an active Dad with my future children as they get older.  I've been blessed (I think, still yet to see) with a job that's going to allow me time to be with my family.  ON my run yesterday I was just thinking about how I can't wait for Hyrum (and hopefully future kids) to grow up, to spend time with them.  I was envisioning Hyrum running cross country, playing baseball, basketball, and tennis.  All of those things I could do with him.  I envisioned him on the cross country team and him getting out of school at the same time as me and me going to their cross country practice and running with him.  How cool would that be??

So I have good motivation to work out, a good purpose.  #1 is from a gospel sense, our body is a temple and we are to keep it healthy and clean, and #2 I want to have a good time with my kids as a 45-60 year old father!  I also have thoughts and visions of buying a new house one day and building a sports court where my kids and their cousins/friends can go our and play tennis, basketball, and have a batting cage out there.  These are just thoughts/dreams, maybe one-day things.

Here's a quick update

Reed-Loves seminary thus far.  What a unique opportunity in the summer to be immersed in the scriptures.  Have enjoyed the Old Testament, but man there's a lot of doubt for me there too.  Some CRAZY stories that I am constantly thinking "that can't be right, or we're missing some info. here, or what the heck just happened?  One question I have is that the Jehovah of the Old Testament seems a little different than Christ in the New Testament or Jesus in the Book of Mormon.  Not something that affects my testimony at all, but something I'm sure I'll come to understand more.  Jehovah of Old Testament seems so harsh, rash, justice driven, whereas Christ of New Testament and Book of Mormon seems more merciful and kind.  For example the other day I'm reading a story in Joshua about a guy who steals something.  Joshua finds him out.  The guy admits to his guilt.  I'm waiting to see the result (in the Book of Mormon it would seem like this guy admitted his guilt so God would forgive him).  The result after this guy admits what he has done is wrong is that they take him out to a field and stone him and his family to death for doing wrong.  What???  Just doesn't seem right to me.  I think some of it has to do with Law of Moses vs. Law of Christ.  But it still seems that Christ is the same yesterday today and forever but at the same time he was different with how he treated Israelites from Nephites.  I know there's an answer in their somewhere that makes sense.

Amber-Keeps herself busy being Mom.  Has begun helping me set up my classroom at Olympus.  She's gifted in these type of things.  She's also bought a bike trailer for Hyrum that's a little broken down.  She's spent hours on it sewing and fixing so hopefully Hyrum can ride in it.  She loves projects like this.  She loves being creative, solving problems, and fixing things.  We've also been reading a book together called Left to tell about the Rwandan Hutu-Tutsi silver war in 1994.  It's an insane story.

Hyrum-Going to turn 1 soon!  He's growing every day.  Amber remarks to me about how much of a little boy he is becoming.  He's figuring things out, getting smarter every day, and just growing up.  He's at such a fun age.  He's starting to get a personality and say no to things by swattning a spoon away or throwing a toy you give him he doesn't want, or spitting out some food.  But he's still so young that you don't get upset with him, it's just funny when he does it.  He has a water table that he loves.  He really enjoys going places and while he loves Mom and Dad he also loves being held and spending time with others who love him.  He is one loved little boy.

We love you all.  It's been so fun this past week with Phil in town.  Mom, thank you.  I've also really enjoyed doing the BOM Facebook page with you.

Reed

Cool Stuff

So, sorry I haven't been on here forever… there's so much to write about, I don't know really where to start.  Ben and I had an awesome opportunity to go on a Baltic cruise. (Can I just say it was HEAVEN?? not so much for the destinations, which were great and all, but just to be with Ben and spend quality time together alone.)  Ben's parents came out and watched the kids for us.  The cruise departed from Copenhagen and included stops in Warnemunde (Germany), Tallin (Estonia), St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm.  

We had an amazing time, but I wanted to share something cool from Copenhagen.  Ben's mom told us about a memorial in Copenhagen that was created by an LDS sculptor named Dennis Smith that honors the many Danish Mormon converts who emigrated from Denmark to the US at the end of the 19th century.  Ben has Danish ancestors, and of course, we have a great-grandfather who is Danish!  Hans Jensen emigrated when he was five years old with his parents, Niels and Anne.  Besides Papa being born in Canada, he is the closest foreign born ancestor we have.  

So, the memorial consisted of three parts… a sculpture of a young woman named Kristina (loosely based on Dennis Smith's grandmother) who is looking out over the harbor, the relentless Baltic wind blowing her hair (notice the horizontal pony tail), then there is a plaque that describes the memorial and the LDS immigrants, and then there are several cobblestones with LDS immigrants names engraved on them, with the town they were from and the date they immigrated to the US.  I guess there were like 40,000 Danish converts in fifty years of missionary work there.  

So, we found the memorial on the way home and it was way cool.  It is at the location where the LDS immigrants sailed from in Copenhagen.  It was cool to think that this was the location the Jensens left from.  Familysearch.org shows that the Jensens sailed from Copenhagen in 1882 to Liverpool London, from where they sailed to New York. I have to think this was the location.  I looked and looked for Hans Jensen's name… or his parents Anne Jensen and Niels Jensen, but didn't find them.  I guess you can contact Smith to see about getting your ancestor's name added to the memorial.  That would be really cool.  We did see a ton of Andersens, Nielsens, Jensens, Larsens, Madsens, and Christensens… basically all the Mormon names.

Me looking for Hans Jensen's name.  

Here is a Hans Jensen, but it can't be our Hans Jensen since he wasn't even born until 1877.

We did find Ben's ancestor though, Ole Nielsen.  Here is a pic of him in front of the cobblestone.

So, it was cool to be in Denmark and feel of our ancestors' spirits there.  We did a fun bike tour and learned some interesting tidbits about Copenhagen and Denmark.

*Denmark only has five million people… it's made up of 70 islands, 40 of which are inhabited.  Or something like that.  Don't quote me on these numbers, ok?
*The climate is miserable.  We were there on a beautiful day, 75 degrees… our guide said that is very unusual.  Usually there's a lot of wind and clouds and it's colder.
*Denmark is very vanilla… not much diversity.  Our guide referred to his fellow countrymen as "country bumpkins."  I thought this was particularly amusing since Oprah once did a special on Denmark as the happiest place on earth to live….touting their progressiveness, etc.
*Denmark has shrunk more in size than any other European country.  I guess they were once quite the force to be reckoned with.
*The Danes helped quite a few Jews escape to neutral Sweden during the Nazi occupation.
*We can thank the Danes for Legos
*And Neils Bohr, a Dane for figuring out the anatomy of the atom
*And Hans Christian Andersen for The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Snow Queen (Frozen), and a myriad of other fairytales, plays, poems, and novels
* The Martin Luther reformation had a huge impact on Denmark… most Danes are Lutheran.
*The port in Copenhagen is so clean you can swim naked in it.
*One in four wind turbines are made in Denmark
*Most people get around on bicycles… most places in town are more quickly accessible by bike than car
*It's a very liberal city… the first country to give same-sex unions the same rights as marriage (just short of calling it marriage), one of the first on woman's suffrage, and freedom of religion (hence all the Danish Mormon converts).
*There is a 30 km bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden
*The Danes love Obama… he has been there twice and loves to go there since he receives such a warm welcome.  Our guide says he goes to Denmark to boost his self-esteem after being dogged in the U.S.
*If you retire from the same company after working for 40 years, you get invited by the queen to the palace for a cup of tea.
*The Danes are nuts about their royal family, who are just figure heads and have no power whatsoever
*The largest 4th of July celebration outside of the U.S. is in Denmark… because of the close ties Danes have to America… so many immigrated to the states! 
*Kids don't start school until they're seven years old

And Wow!  I'm amazed I remembered so much from that tour!  Worth the $50 I suppose.

The Little Mermaid:

The Royal Palace

And this little guy celebrated his second birthday on the 2nd of July.  That chocolate nutella strawberry cream cake was TO DIE for.  I am making that on every birthday for now on!!

WHAT HAPPENED?

What happened to life that it got so busy.  It is the first Sunday of the month, and I'm not putting very good odds on you all getting on here!  Still, if for no one else but Mindy, I will post a few things.  I am sitting in my living room on Sunday night, July 5, watching "Glory" on TV, and listening to the sound of fireworks outside.  I hope you all had a good 4th of July.  I think I got a sense of what most of you were doing (tho some of it I had to learn through facebook/instagram-who says it isn't a good thing), and I think we're all in good shape.  Just a quick family rundown, in case you're wondering who was doing what:
1- Becky and Dave and family headed to Grand Junction, where they attended a Griffin family reunion
    at Dave's brother's home.  THey have returned to Utah, giving the trip rave reviews.  THeir numbers
    are similar to ours, tho their ages put them about 5 years ahead of us.
2- Phil and Kathryn, I hear, went to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Looks beautiful.  Details, Phil?
3-Travis and Tammy?  He checked in with me to see if the family was doing anything..when I told him     not really, he said they might head to Cedar City to Tammy's family cabin.  That's the last I heard.
4- Mindy and family were sighted in Copehagen.  Where in Europe will the Shaha's turn up next?
5- Reed and Amber went on a hike with Hyrum  in the morning, bbq'd with Amber's family in the
    evening.
6- Dennis went on a bike ride in the morning, then spent the late afternoon/evening in Kamas with the
    Engars.
7- Bonnie & Greg headed to Arizona, where they paid a visit to Greg's brother and wife.  Again, my
    best information is from posted pictures...it looks like they had a great time.
8- Mary & Trent.  I've been told it's a good thing I had lots of kids, cuz there will always be
    SOMEBODY to keep me company.  Mary & Trent were those SOMEBODIES this weekend.
    I realize I had claim on you all for a FULL WEEK in Mexico, so I am more than happy to yield to in     laws and other pursuits, but still I count myself lucky that I got Mary & Trent for part of this holiday.     I had an invitation to join my cousin Diane and her family for a trip to Payson Lake to swim, paddle       board, etc.  Mostly, it sounded good to kick back and not be in charge of anything and relax.  When       I  realized we would all be scattered this weekend, I accepted the invitation, and when I invited Mary
    and Trent to come with me, they were up for it!
9- ME!!!!  So I rented a paddle board, packed us a picnic, and we left here shortly after 10 am Saturday
    morn.  The day was great, and I was very grateful to have Mary & Trent along.  We ate, visited,
    relaxed, and played on the paddle boards.  I worked up the nerve to attempt the paddleboard in a
    standing position at the end of the day, and actually managed it, only to have a major rain storm            overtake us (Mary, Trent and me) on the lake.  Our scramble to get in to shore was a grand                    adventure, as was taking down our canopy and packing up in hard, soaking rain.  We got home and
   Mary and Trent left for a bbq with his family (thanks for the kind invite, guys), but I decided to
   spend the night at home.  I was pretty content until it got dark, and I heard fireworks all around me,
   but could see nothing for the trees.  You know how I can't stand to miss a party, so I put Buddy on a    leash, and headed to the high school field.
   On my way, I met up with some nice neighbors, and we sat together on the lawn in the middle of the
   field.  We could see fireworks all around us, some far away, and some right on top of us.  All
   beautiful, and I felt the spirit of the 4th!  I had worried a about this day....would it be hard as "special"
   days can be when they are no longer familiar or sure.  Grateful that it was good.

So that covers the 4th, and the weekend was rounded out with a dinner invitation from Dennis and Ashley today.  They had invited some neighbors for dinner, and I was asked to join them.  Wonderful meal, wonderful time.  I am surely blessed!

In other news, Phil and Kathryn are arriving Sunday,  July 19th, and will be here for two weeks.  The weekend of the 24th will be our only whole weekend with them, so save some time for gathering!

Cousins Camp will be July 28-30.  Invitations have been sent, and I have big plans for it!  Our theme this year will be WOLVES.  Mindy, you will get t-shirts and stuff in the mail.  Just cuz you're not here in real time, doesn't mean you're not in our hearts and minds.

It is way late, so that will have to be enough for tonite.  Love to all....when are we going to pool our Mexico pictures?