The Toomer-Anderson Reunion 2009

My Grandma and Grandpa Toomer were both born in the States, but their families moved to Southern Alberta, Canada when they were children. They married in their 30's and had four children. My mother, Shirley Ann, my aunt, Dixie Eva, my uncle, Richard Robert, and my aunt Marilyn Jean. As a child we made the pilgramage almost yearly back to Canada to visit my Grandma Toomer. More often than not one of my aunts or uncle, or all of them would be there. Us cousins spent a lot of happy times together. We also visited each other outside of Canada. When I went away to BYU there were a lot of us cousins there or in Salt Lake City and we would have cousin parties. The point of all this is that we are a close group. I have such great memories together. So, it was great to see everyone and their families at the reunion. Many of my cousins I haven't seen since the last reunion 5 years ago. In those last five years we have added a lot of kids, including Anna.There were a total of 98 people at the reunion. We went to a place called the May Family Ranch in Clayton, Idaho. It was such a fun place because everything was close together. In fact 8 of us shared our cabin! I wanted to get a picture of all our cabin mates, but I forgot. All the lodging was around the main grassy area, and the dining hall was along the other side of it. There was an awesome water slide. David was the king of the splash! They had these swings that were really long. Anna could have stayed on these the whole weekend. She is the one in the blue t-shirt. See the cabin in the back? That wasn't ours, but similar. There were horseshoes, a play house, basketball court, etc. Some people went rafting (we didn't go, so this is the only picture I have:). There were games. The adult generation - boys against girls tug of war. We lost badly, sorry to say. The younger girls, however, won handily. Here is my niece Camille and Anna in the sack race. This is my other niece Carly in action. Most of all there was sitting around and chatting while we watched the kids play. This is my Aunt Dixie and her son, my cousin Michael the wood carver. David and my sister Cyndi. Cyndi. My Crazy Uncle Robert:) I have to preface the next picture that is of my father and my two nieces Camille and Chelsea. My parents are involved in the pioneer Trek for their stake this summer. My dad was asked to play the part of Brigham Young, so he has been growing out his beard and hair all summer long. He does not usually look like such a mountain man. My mom having the time of her life with all her family around her. My crazy brother Craig:)I had so much fun catching up with everyone. We are talkers in my family.

We had a Talent Show. This is the Newell family with their song about visiting all the other families. This is my cousin Marc and his son Jed doing Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in Magrath. This is the Fuller family doing the Virginia Reel. This is the Toomer family with their song about Canada, eh?My cousin JJ brought her boyfriend and he proposed in front of all of us at the Talent show. It was so sweet! The very best though was to see Anna connect with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents - just like I did when I was a kid. This is Anna and my sister Cyndi. Cyndi with all of her nieces and nephews(except the three missing nephews). Anna and her buddy Katelyn (my cousin Tricia's little girl). All the Brown family (minus the slacker nephews:) Anna and Grandpa Heber.

Thanks Aunt Marilyn for organizing such a fantastic get together. Thanks for the food - I hope it doesn't take me six months to take of the weight I gained eating your home cooking. Here is the rainbow from our last night there. A perfect good bye to a perfect weekend.