Merry Christmas! Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, by the way...

Finally, some pictures from Thanksgiving! I wish I could use the crazy holiday season as my excuse for being so far behind, but you all know the truth...

This past Thanksgiving we flew out to Arizona to attend the Stout family reunion (my mom's side). The timing couldn't have been better because Erik finished his last rotation for this year on November 21 and didn't have any residency interviews scheduled until early December. Erik and Abigail had never met any of my mom's family, and we weren't sure when else we'd have the opportunity to go visit them. I especially wanted them to meet my grandparents.

We left on the 22nd, a few days earlier than anyone else in my family, so we got to spend some nice time with my mom's parents in Mesa before we all headed up to Heber, where the reunion actually took place. It was a good thing we checked the weather forecast before we left Atlanta; otherwise we might have packed for typical Arizona weather. Heber, however, is in northern Arizona, so we had to kiss our visions of a warm, sunny Christmas goodbye and pack our suitcase full of sweaters. And heavy wool coats. And scarfs. And thermal underwear. And packs of Swiss Miss. Ok, just kidding. We had to leave the thermal underwear and hot chocolate at home since those darn airlines decided to start charging for a second bag!! (And did you hear? Now they're charging for one bag too! Sheesh people!)

So let me tell you a little bit about the reunion. There were 77 of us, 10 being under the age of two. One cabin. Seven bedrooms. (And "bedroom" might be stretching it a little bit. Some of them were about the size of a large closet.) Three toilets. Two showers. I repeat: three toilets, two showers. And it was snowing outside, meaning every sane body wanted to stay indoors (mind you, we do have some crazies in the family who preferred to be out rolling in the snow). So....I haven't left much to the imagination. It was crowded.

Really crowded.

It took some amazing acrobatic feats to get from one side of the living room to the other, which you had to do to get to the bathrooms or the kitchen. If you weren't extraordinarily coordinated, you usually stepped on someone's baby or one or more of the 20 people sprawled out playing cards.

Mealtimes were especially fun. Thank goodness someone remembered to bring the sharpee. Otherwise, I might've been sharing my red cup with all kinds of folks.

Yes, those are my pajamas. You think there would've been any cream cheese left for my bagel if I got showered and dressed before I ate?
I didn't feel quite as threatened as my nephew Lincoln did, though. He had to bring his sword to the table to make sure no one ate his bagel.

Now let me tell you about my room. First of all, I was thankful even to get a room. Since I fit into the category of "married, with a young child" I was blessed with a bed and a semi-private room during that week. The unfortunate couples who couldn't claim a young child were consigned to beds in the most public room of the cabin--the living room, where people were constantly coming and going. (When my grandpa found out he was assigned to sleep in the living room, he threatened to steal my baby!) And heaven help you if you were single! It was your lot to sleep upstairs in the loft, where your bare mattress was touching other bare mattresses on all four sides. (Not everybody slept in their assigned quarters, however. Some people just fell asleep wherever they pleased.)
When we got to the cabin, I quickly began touring, hoping to stake out a good room for my family before they were all taken. However, I quickly discovered that the rooms were not going on a first-come-first-serve basis. Uncle Dave, the oldest in my mom's family and the one who planned the reunion, had already taped signs on all the doors indicating who was sleeping where. I finally found the sign for the Heisses. We were sharing a "semi-private" room upstairs with my brother Caleb and his wife, Shannyn and their son Clark. (What is a semi-private room, you ask? It's a room without a door. Any person or wandering toddler who had a mind to climb the stairs would be in my room. There were also two adjoining closets --I mean, bedrooms--in the back, so the people in those rooms had to go through my room to get into and out of theirs.) Fun times. So I'll give you the breakdown:

Closet #1 slept Clark, Abigail and Adam in their pack-n-plays (if you saw the size of this room, you wouldn't believe we managed to squeeze in that many) and my noble parents. We put the three youngsters down early, all at the same time, and later my parents would sneak in as quietly as they could and somehow get into their pajamas in the pitch blackness.

Closet #2 slept my brother David, his wife, Char, and their 4 children.

Then Caleb and Shannyn and Erik and I shared the "semi-private" room. (Room, mind you, not the bed!) Now, being upstairs, the side walls of all our rooms were angled sharply inward by the roof. So if the rooms weren't already small and crowded enough, this definitely tipped the scale toward claustraphobia. Not only that, but I somehow lucked out each night and got to sleep on the side of the bed next to the wall/ceiling, so if I ever sat up in bed during the night (like, for example, the night all four of David's kids telepathically decided to start screaming at the exact same time!), I would smack my head on it. It happened more than once.

With all that said, you probably think this reunion was torturous! Well....it was...for some people. But not for us! Erik, Abigail and I had a blast! The experience, from start to finish, was a memory-building one that we will remember for the rest of our days. I always love experiences that supply me with good stories to tell later on.

So here were some of the highlights for me:

-Being surrounded by my family: It was definitely fun to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that I rarely get to see, but the family I'm really referring to is my own immediate one--my parents and siblings. Can I take a minute to brag? I can't talk about them without sounding cheezy, but so be it. They are the coolest people on Earth! The older I get, the more amazed I am by each one of them and the more I relish spending time with them. My parents--I could spend the rest of the night writing about them, and I still wouldn't be able to fully convey the warmth of their smiling faces, the depth of their wisdom and understanding, the clarity of their perspective, the pure goodness that radiates from them. They inspire me. They lift me. They love me. And they love my husband and my little girl. And let me tell you, it's a great feeling to be loved by your heroes. (Hey, I warned you I was waxing sentimental here!)

I love hanging out with my siblings too. I think the feelings are mutual....but not because I'm as cool as they are. It's for the simple reason that they can make me laugh. Everyone likes to have someone around who laughs at all your jokes, right? And I am a pushover! Ask my brother Michael. Or David. Or Caleb. Or Joseph. Or Hyrum. I can't help it. I seriously think my brothers are hilarious. I about split a gut every time we get together. Especially when they start telling stories about each other. Oh, good times! But what I love most is the wholesomeness (is that a word?) of their humor. Our fun is always good fun. Fun you can have and think back on without feeling guilt or regrets. That's what I love about being with my family. It feels so good! I feel good when I'm with them, and when we part ways, I still feel like I'm glowing. What's more, I always leave their presence wanting to be a better person--to be kinder, to be more honest and sincere, to work harder, to learn more.....and to spend more time with them.

One of the most enjoyable experiences of the whole reunion for me was sitting with my parents and siblings and their spouses in our "semi-private" room one night, everyone sprawled out on the floor and mattresses, and listening to David wax eloquent with his impressive Harvard-law-grad vocabulary and oratory skills about the great benefits of reading. Caleb has never been the avid reader David has, so David was trying to pursuade him to "see the light" and recognize that reading is the most effective means of gaining knowledge. Caleb really held his own against the newly employed attourney, however. The two went back and forth, with occassional comments and insights from the rest of us, and it turned into a very stimulating debate. As much as I enjoyed the content, though, I had a lot more fun just watching the two interact--both so different, but so respectful and open-minded and intelligent. I wish political debates were more like that....

-Watching this....

That's my mom, known affectionately by her family as "Sis," with her two brothers. They are the three oldest in the family and were really close growing up. I can count on less than one hand the number of times I've seen them together. That's one of the sacrifices my mom has had to make all these years, not being able to visit her family out West very often. So this was a magical moment for me to see--the three of them standing in the middle of the kitchen with their arms wrapped around each other, talking and laughing together as if nothing has changed in thirty years. Maybe nothing really has.

-Driving home with my family in a whale-sized RV that averaged 40 mph!!
Believe it or not, Erik and I agree that the trip home--slow and wobbly and full to the brim with vomit as it was (for details, keep reading)--was worth the whole trip, and we'd do it again just for that. Erik said that was the highlight of the trip for him. I can't tell you how it thrills me to hear my husband say that.

Here are some of the memories from the ride home that I'll savor for the rest of my life:

-Waking up in the middle of the night and seeing Erik completely engrossed in conversation with my parents. My mom was driving; Dad was in the passenger seat, and Erik was sitting on a cooler behind them, leaning forward so his head was right between them. Despite the lateness of the hour, Erik's voice was alive with energy and enthusiasm. I found out the next morning that he stayed up and talked with them until 6 am. I still don't know all the things they talked about that night, but it made a big impression on Erik. He wrote about it in his journal. So did my mom.

-Watching my little girl melt the macho-hearts of my younger brothers

Come on, doesn't she melt your heart too?

-Sitting in a circle one night with Bethany, Joseph, Hyrum and Melody, our heads bent together as we took turns telling stories about our most embarrassing moments growing up...and laughing our heads off. We were literally holding our sides in pain. For those who don't know my family, the aforementioned siblings are younger than I am. Bethany is a senior (18), Joseph just turned sweet 16 in November, Hyrum is almost 14, and Melody, the baby of the family, is 10. I can't believe how much they've all grown and matured since I left the house. Joseph and Hyrum are growing like weeds. They are all such good kids. I would be incredibly happy if my kids turn out like they have.

Just a side note here: the night described above was our first night driving back to Atlanta from Arizona. Like I said, it was a night that'll be preserved for the rest of my life in the category of "warmest and fuzziest memories." We all hugged and kissed goodnight and told each other how much fun we'd had, and then we separated to our various sleeping places.

The next morning I woke up, refreshed from a very nice sleep in the comfortable, queen-sized bed in the back of the RV, to find that Joseph and Dad had been puking their guts out all night long....among other things equally as charming. Before too long, Bethany was bent over a bucket as well. The poor thing practically camped out in the bathroom that whole day. And afterwards she and Joseph slept like rocks for about 24 hours. The nasty bug caught up with Erik one day also, and he spent a good part of one day in bed.

So....with the delightful sounds and smells of influenza ringing in our ears and hovering around our noses, we continued our cross-country journey with a little less umph than when we had commenced it. Not that I could complain. For one thing, I didn't get sick (well, not until the following week when we were in Charleston...), and for another thing, my sweet little daughter was likely the vector....

We also made a stop at the Snowflake, AZ temple on our way home. That was the first day on the road, when everyone was still happy and healthy.

This picture just cracks me up. Didn't I tell you Joseph is growing like a weed?

I think Uncle Dave's family summed up the reunion best. They had t-shirts made for this thing. The fronts read "Stout Family Reunion, 2008." On the back were the words "I survived." Here are two brief, funny clips that capture some of the delightful chaos of the Stout Family Reunion 2008. I've entitled them "Breaking Fire Code" and "Stuck in the Bathroom." In order to appreciate the second one, I have to provide a little background info. The door of the main bathroom in the cabin consistently refused to open without someone on the outside slamming his full body weight against it, so it became a regular occurrence to hear some poor stranded soul in the bathroom banging on the door, calling for help. If you listen carefully, that's what's happening in the background of the second video. Enjoy!