Family Reunion

Over Independence Day weekend, we held a Descendants of Morris and Cora Wilcox family reunion in Delta, Utah. My maternal Grandma and Grandpa Morris and Cora were both born in 1905. My grandpa passed away in 1984, and I remember it well. I was in my senior year of high school, and sitting in my "College Typing" class when I was summoned to the office, where I was informed that my grandpa had just passed away. As much as grandma wanted to go be with grandpa, she still lived for more than 10 more years. They had five children, of which my mother was the oldest. The picture here on the right is of the surviving siblings (all but my mom are there) and their spouses.

Mark had Boy Scout Camp all that week, returning Saturday (the Fourth of July), so Michelle stayed home to wait for him, while on Friday Brianna, Andrew, Steven and I drove down to Delta (about 8 hours from Boise). It was weird not having my full family with me, especially Michelle, but we had a lot of fun. Then on Saturday evening, Michelle and Mark flew down to SLC. We left the reunion early to go pick them up, then Saturday night we stayed in Salt Lake, for my cousin's baby's blessing in Provo that next morning. The pic here to the left is a picture from that.

Anyway... on Friday evening, the four of us checked in to our hotel in Delta and got ready for a fun-filled 24 hours there in that HOT SPOT of Utah (Delta, with a population of all of 3,200, in a county with just over 13,000). :-) But seriously, it was fun to experience Small Town America on the country's birthday.

Friday evening, the town hosted a bike parade, where the main street was blocked off, and the kids (and many many adults) could ride up the street on their decorated bikes, scooters, etc. Amongst all the pics I got were some of our own family that participated. But the real highlight of the evening was the family program we had. The pic here to the right is all of the second cousins singing Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be an American." I won't go in to all of the details, but it was a great program, and we had a lot of fun.

On Saturday, we all went to the Fourth of July Parade that the city of Delta had. I couldn't believe how many people were there!!! I think the entire county was there, and then some. But it was a way cool parade. To the left here is my sister and her husband and Austin, strolling down the street just before the parade. There was even an Air Force flyover - how cool is that???!!! That afternoon, many of us first cousins and their families went to the movies to escape the heat. Delta has a two-screen theater, and I think those who went to the movies were split between the new Transformers movie and the new Ice Age movie. Most of the clan was going to the town's Demolition Derby that night, but we missed it because we had headed back up to Salt Lake. I heard it was way cool, though.

Anyway... it was great fun. You can see all 66 pics I have posted here on Flickr, or here on Facebook.