Family Reunion

Sunday May 12

Since I blogged before I went to the vigil, here are some of the pictures I took:

Tempest DuJour attempts to pull a protestor off the stage while the Tucson Chief of Police Chris Magnus speaks at the vigil. The protestor ran up on stage when Magnus was called up to the stage to protest the police’s presence at the vigil. Magnus is openly gay and married.

Kerry Sroczynski pins an orange ribbon to his shirt in preparation for the vigil on Sunday, June 12. Sroczynski and his husband are the parents of three African-American children and fear gun violence not only because of their own sexual orientation but their children’s race, according to Sroczynski's husband.

Monday June 13

I had class Monday morning. I couldn't pay attention, because I got a text message from EJ saying he finally made the decision to come out on Facebook. Unfortunately since I was in class I wasn't able to check my phone every two seconds, but after class it was so awesome to see the overwhelming support given to my brother. I'm very proud of him, he's such a rockstar.

In the evening, Stephanie needed a new profile picture for Facebook, so we went to Reid Park to snap a few pics

After taking some pics of Steph, I went to EBoard at the Wildcat. This was actually kind of an exciting EBoard because I convinced everyone to add another 4 pages to the paper so I could get the double truck (which is the centerfold of the newspaper) for a photo spread of the pictures Darien and I took at the Orlando vigil. 

Knowing it would be a little more work than usual to make a photo spread, I did pretty much all the other photo work for Wednesday's paper on Monday night, to dedicate as much time as possible to the photo spread.

Tuesday, June 14

I went into the newsroom to turn in all the photos I had finished editing on Monday, and then Steph took me out to lunch to repay me for her new profile picture. We decided to go to Cane's because I haven't been there in forever, and it was delicious as it always is. 

After lunch I went back to the newsroom and finished editing the last few pictures for the remainder of the paper, and then worked on the spread. I finished a lot earlier than I expected, but I didn't end up leaving until like 9 pm because I had to help design the page... and photo takes last priority. Brett Fera (my boss) is the bomb.com and put all my "thinks" (that's what I called my ideas on Tuesday when I was going a little bit crazy) onto the page, and I can't thank him enough! This spread is my baby and I am so proud of it.

The #WeAreOrlando is supposed to be rainbow colored, it just didn't show up online that way for some reason

Wednesday June 15

I worked the Daily Wildcat orientation booth in the morning. I ran into Kyle Snyder there and he hung out with me for a little bit, it was good to catch up with him! 

Orientations are kind of a hoot because no one really knows how to say no even when they aren't interested in hearing about something. They always come up with the funniest excuses or they just walk away slowly. It's good entertainment.

After the orientation ended I went to the newsroom to work on payroll, and Brett told me that he wants to nominate one of my photos from the vigil into some photojournalism contests, I could have cried I was so happy!

Other than orientation I don't think anything really that exciting happened on Wednesday... OH EXCEPT I SAW DEREK FUNCKES! He was my home teacher my freshman year, and just got back from his mission in California Tuesday night! He is such a solid dude and it was great to see him, even if he is still in missionary mode haha.

Thursday June 16

Happy birthday Father!

For awhile my car has been telling me to check my tire pressures, and I've been ignoring it because my car is really old and sends a lot of mixed messages to me, and my tires felt fine. But on Thursday morning I felt like I should check my tire pressures, so when I went to get gas I checked them and they were so low.... like dangerously low... I don't even know how I didn't notice! But I filled them up and now all is well.

Then I had my class, and it was good. Since I was going to Colorado for a family reunion, I didn't get to shoot anything for the Star this week, which was a bummer, but I will catch up in the coming weeks.

Then I went to the bookstore to try and buy a Father's day present for my grandpa... but it was kind of a mess trying to communicate with everyone on what to get. But I made it out with a present!

Then I made my way to Mesa. We had a birthday dinner for my daddy-o even though only Avery, myself, my mother and my father were present at the celebration haha. It was still a good time, saying sarcastic comments and ending with some nice ones about my father. He's almost 50, so he's almost really old.

I was going to hang out with Sadie that night, but our plans didn't work out so I partied with Avery, trying to exhaust her to get to sleep before we left at 3 am on Friday.

Friday June 17

We were planning on leaving at 3 am, but as family road trips usually go, we didn't end up leaving until closer to 4 am. In case you didn't already know, we were driving to Colorado for a family reunion of my father's mother's side. 

I didn't think I would be able to make it to the reunion due to my internship, but I finally made everything work, so I was super excited. During the months that I was unsure if I would be able to go I was trying to convince my Dad to drive through Ship Rock (where I was born), but he was never feeling it because he said it would take too long.

Once we passed Holbrook, I looked up on my map the difference between the way I wanted to go and the way my father wanted to go, and it was only like 3 minutes, so I convinced him to take a walk down memory lane! 

First stop in memory lane: Ship Rock, New Mexico. This is where McKenzie and I were born. We haven't been here since we moved away in '98.

Second stop in Memory Lane: Farmington, New Mexico. This is where I lived until I was 2 years old. We stopped by our old house, the seminary building where my Dad taught, and the elementary school EJ and Rory went to.

Third stop down Memory Lane: My Dad's old house in South Fork, Colorado and his elementary school in Del Norte

That was the end of Memory Lane, but not the end of our road trip. We didn't get in to Estes Park until 9 pm. We mingled with our family for a little bit, but went to sleep pretty quickly because of the exciting morning that was happening on Saturday!

Saturday June 18

The older people (10+) of the Gwen (Granny) side of the family, plus two of Uncle Bob (Granny's brother) kids came on a white water rafting trip on the Poudre river. It was all really terrifying until I found out that we would be going down the easier course, and then I was pretty excited about it. There were 16 of us total so we were separated into two boats. 

The better boat: Kate (our tour guide), EJ, me, my Uncle Josh, his step kids Andrew and Andrea, McKenzie, my cousin Carissa and her boyfriend Robert.

The subordinate boat: my father, Master, Uncle Alex, Aunt Jenny, Robbie, Krystal, and Levi.

It was such a blast, and I didn't fall out (which was what I was most afraid of)! No one fell out on the first ride down the river, but EJ fell out the second time. Good thing Kate, our guide, is all the woman you could ever want to be, and lifted him out of the water in like two seconds.

Our two boats were at war with each other the whole time. We splashed water on each other, rammed right into them, and Kate even jumped to their boat for some major offense. We totally won the battle. Check out these pics and the video:

Here are before and after pics of the whole group:

I was one of the unsmart people of the group that did not bring a change of clothes, so I was soaking wet going to lunch in Fort Collins. It was very uncomfortable haha.

After lunch we made our way back to Estes Park to freshen up and for some family games. 

Up until this point only Gwen's and Bob's part of the family had shown up at the reunion. And the Gwen family vastly outnumbered the three in the Bob family... then the Paula family showed up, and they were small in number... then the Joe family showed up in their green shirts, and they very easily outnumbered the rest of us. They also defeated us in most of the games... they are a fierce people.

I tried to take some video, but I didn't get too much, so here is a short video of the clips:

EJ took some pictures during the women's egg toss, and they are pretty funny:

 Keddy takes egg tosses very seriously

Pregnancies cannot get in the way of egg tosses

After games we ate some dinner and just hung around and mingled with family, and of course took lots of pictures.

Robbie insisted that we took photos of everyone walking, because it's cute.... but please look at how Granny is walking (far left)

The Joe family!

My father, Robbie and EJ walking backwards as the Joe family walked for their picture

Once all the games were done and the mingling was over. I went exploring in downtown Estes Park with some of my cousins. We were kind of a hoot because most us were still in our matching purple shirts. Most of the places were about to close, but we made it in time to get to a souvenir shop and so Andrew could buy some jerky at a candy shop.
Estes Park is seriously such a beautiful place. There is a stream that runs through downtown, there's live music, it's just so fun an relaxing. I'm going to live in Colorado one day (although I don't know how well I am going to be driving in the snow).
This side of my family rarely gets together, apparently this was the first real family reunion that has happened in 30 years, so I am very happy I was able to make it work to be there this year! My family is so crazy, but they're a blast to be around.

Sunday June 19

EJ, McKenzie, Carissa and Robert drove me to Denver early in the morning so I could fly home #crycrycry. But I wasn't leaving Colorado without trying Voodoo doughnuts. We were the inconveniently while a pride parade was about to start, so parking was impossible, but we were also there at a convenient time because we got to watch part of the Denver pride parade while we waited in line for doughnuts!

And holy crap people, these doughnuts are amazing, the hype is justified, everyone needs to go to one once in their life!

We got a voodoo dougnut, a maple bar, the Miami Vice, a double bubble, and an O Captain my Captain

Then we made our way to the airport! Everyone told me that the lines at the Denver airport are the worst, but I got through security in under a minute, so I guess I lucked out!

Then it was time for me to go from 85 degree weather to 112..... not so fun.

Pam Walton was a doll and picked me up from the airport and drove me around so I could get into my house! Before I left Mesa I stopped by the Walton household to say hello and to drop off a letter for a package they were sending to Zach.

The worst thing about driving in Arizona is that you can be blasting air conditioning the entire drive... but you will still step out of your car with sweat. It's a struggle. I am longing for the cool air of Colorado right now.

Monday June 20

Back to reality today! I had class this morning, and it was kind of entertaining because we practiced how to interrupt people while interviewing them. Probably only entertaining for journalism students really haha.

This week is going to be another normal week for me while my family is in Canada #crycrycry I'm so jealous of them.