SHE'S BAAAACK!!!

Yes, I am back from my 5 day family reunion in Red River, NM. Let me tell you, the blast of hot air that hit me when I climbed out of my dad's truck in front of my apartment, made me want to climb right back in and spend another 10 hours in the car getting back to Red River. When we left NM yesterday morning it was 48 degrees, when I arrived in Mesa, AZ 10 hours later it was 110 degrees. Aggghhhhh!!!! However, it was nice to sleep in my own bed last night.

As you will notice I only posted on the first day, that was because it was just too much trouble trying to upload photos onto my brother's lap top each day. When I finally sat down to upload my photos last night, I had 690 pictures about 15 short video clips. Needless to say it took a while to get everything uploaded. Now, I know you're probably thinking "Oh, I sure hope she's not planning on posting all 690 photos!" No worries there, I'm just going to give you the highlights. So sit back and get comfortable, because it's going to be a long one...

Day 1 - Wednesday: We arrived at the Copper King Lodge in Red River, NM, which is located about 45 minutes north of Taos and situated at about 8,500 ft. It's a cute little OLD ski town. We got there in time for some food on the green behind the lodge. As everyone had been traveling that day, we called it quits early.

Day 2 - Thursday: PHOTO day! Started the day at Millet Park having family photos, which took almost 2 hours, cuz there were some many of us. We actually looked like blue locust descending upon the unsuspecting population. Did I tell you that there were 63 of us?!? After the photo shoot we just hung out in Red River for the rest of the day (please refer to the previous post, as I'm too lazy to re write anything).
Day 3 - Friday: Family Fun Day! That's right an entire day spent elbow-to-elbow with fellow Johnson clan members. My mother had to rent a portion of the Red River Convention Center in order to get enough room for all of us to convene. The days festivities started off with the "Three Piggy Opera" as performed by all my nieces and nephews and a few of my brothers. My sister-in-law video taped the program and as soon as I get a copy of the video I'll post it because it's a production that can't be missed. The rest of the morning was filled with kid games, a candy hunt (for roughly 11 pounds of candy -- and I'm not kidding you should see the loot the kids got), and a family jeopardy game.
We had lunch and then started back in with the fun. I prepared a family history mini-scrapbook album for everyone to make and then my cousin Adele and her husband Matt handed out a FABULOUS family cookbook which they had compiled. If you're lucky I'll post some the secret family recipes. Finally we of course had the Johnson Family Talent Show. It's actually weird how much talent this family has! Agghh!! So we had some dancing, original songs, hula, and more dancing. Wow! The day ended with a ukulele/guitar jam session in Auntie Andi's cabin. There were about 12 of us on ukuleles, at least 1 guitar and a harmonica. Fun, fun, fun!



Day 4 - Saturday: This may have been the funnest day! We went white water rafting down the Rio Grande! It was a total blast. It was a relatively short trip, but tons of funs and the pictures tell the story.
Back Row: Uncle Reed, Justin, Megan, Jared, Kiki and Ryan. Front Row: Jeff, Ellie, Dennis, Reed and Jamie.

I rode in a boat with my Dad, Kiki, Jared and Justin. Our guide was "Rojo".

After rafting we just played games and hung out with family until dinner. For dinner we went to a place that puts on a cowboy dinner including a barbeque, cowboy music, and some great photo ops. It was a lot of fun, too.

Day 5 -- Sunday: My Uncle Steven prepared a wonderful short church service for the family. I love having testimony meeting with my family. It's such a wonderful experience and confirmation of the amazing blessings the Gospel brings into my life. After the service it was time to hang out with the family and do some site seeing around town. I watched a munchkin or two while my siblings took the ski lift to the top of the mountain. Later I helped Reed and Jamie pedal their kids around the town in a Surrey bike for 8 and I ALMOST DIED! AGGGHHH!!! I don't know that I've ever done anything as hard as pedaling that stupid bike at 8,500 ft -- I was sucking wind like there was no tomorrow. It was ridiculous! But the kids seemed to enjoy it.

We spent most of the rest of the day eating and playing games. We taught our cousins how to play "speed scrabble" which is a ton of fun and then we also got everyone hooked on POP 5 (a game by Cranium co.), another AWESOME game! We stopped playing games long enough to eat a ton of food for dinner, pack up for departing on Monday, and then we played Pop 5 again until 10:30pm ("Is it a J or an L??"). I love playing games with my family.Day 6 - Monday: Everyone had to hit the road relatively early. Fortunately the drive was uneventful. I did finish 2 books -- Fablehaven and Goose Girl. I LOVED them both and will be checking out their sequels today at the library.

Anyways, a huge hug and thank you goes out to all the Johnson Family members. I love you all!! It was a blast and I can't wait till 2011! I'll post my pictures to Picasa and send out the link for those that are interested in seeing the other 645 photos. :)