Family Reunion 2012

This summer has been a hectic one. I think I might have mentioned this before, but . . .

• Matthew graduated from Business School
• We had our first baby boy
• We moved across the state
• We bought our first house
• Matthew started a new job

• And . . . my little brother Paul and I were in charge of Booren Reunion 2012. Other than buying a house, Paul and Bre's experience was very similar. And yet, it was just our turn to plan the reunion. And really, it should have been last summer but Paul was going through Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps and Matthew and I were in Hawaii for his internship, so this was really the better summer for us to do it.

And now that it is all said and done and the stress has dissipated, I can say that it was a successful reunion. Currently half of my siblings live on the West Coast (mostly Oregon) and half of us live in Virginia/Pennsylvania. So while we've always done reunions in Oregon in the past, this year Paul and I mixed it up and made half the siblings and most of the nephews and nieces travel across the country to us. One day we went to an amusement park, another day we headed into DC for the Zoo and Arlington National Cemetery, another day we spent by the pool and at the bowling alley, Saturday we hung out by the lake in my parent's backyard, and finally on Sunday, we watched as my oldest nephew was ordained an Elder and the youngest nephew was given a newborn blessing. Really fairly lovely, mostly drama-free, and completely exhausting.

But what I want to focus on is the night I was in charge of providing dinner for the family. Friday, we were gone all day to the Zoo and Arlington Cemetery. The plan was to drive to the Washington Mall afterwards for a soccer game and dinner. We were on our way, my father acting as navigator in my car while several other cars followed behind. I hate driving in downtown DC. Too many confusing turns with few chances of quickly correcting a false move. So after one such miss-turn (per my father's directions), we opted to make an illegal left to get us moving in the right direction. DC traffic had cleared out mostly, and it looked safe so we turned followed by the others. The cops were waiting. Multiple actually. I have a feeling we weren't the first ones to make this maneuver. So while a cop came to interrogate me, there were two others ready to interrogate my siblings and their equally faulty turn. I'm not sure if he planned on giving me a ticket from the first moment, but thankfully for me, I had three very enthusiastic boys singing in the backseat and poor Zachary screaming in my ear. All this going on, while I told the cop, in a very frazzled (I've been sight-seeing all day and I'm tired) voice, that yes, I knew I was making an illegal turn, and yes, I was extremely sorry, and yes, the other two cars made the turn because I made the turn and it was all my fault. He must have taken pity on me with the circus going on in my car because he waved us and the other cars on. Thank you crying Zachary.

We found a place to park next to the Washington Monument and Jared and I went in search of a Costco to get dinner for the night. Everyone else had provided sandwiches for their meals while we were out and about, so I figured I would mix it up and get pizza for everyone. And where else to get decent cheap pizza than Costco. It helped that Jared needed to pick up a cake for his sons' sixth birthday. So Jared and I drove off leaving the crowds behind to enjoy a summer's evening in the Nation's Capitol. I knew the Costco was within a couple of miles of us, and I had a rough direction in my head as to where we were going. But, unfortunately, my phone died just as we were pulling out and Jared had neither smart phone nor GPS. No big deal, we'll find it. It's Costco, it will stand out. Sadly, this is DC, and as I said before there are a lot of confusing turns. And let me reiterate, I hate driving in DC. 45 minutes, many wrong turns and a stop at a hotel to ask for directions later, we found Costco only to find out that while they accepted the order I had called in an hour before, something happened either with their ovens or with the dough making machine, and they did not have my pizzas. Oh, and it was going to take an additional 45 minutes before they would be ready. It was already almost 7 pm, the crowds were mostly restless and I had a baby with no backup formula to get back to. So after already standing in line, Jared marched me back through Costco, me following behind completely panicked about what to do now, and picked out some sandwich platters that were just going to have to do. 

We finally made it back to the Washington Monument, an hour and a half later, the sun had set, people were most decidedly hungry, and my baby was screaming for food of his own. It was all I could do to apologize profusely for failing on dinner, grab my baby and B-line it back to my car to feed him and cry.

Thankfully, my sweet sister came to bring me dinner and reassure me that I had not failed, it had been a lovely evening and no one was blaming me for not having a better plan. The kids got to see fireflies, something they had only ever heard about, little Joel got to blow out candles from an iPhone app, and everyone got their fill of both cake and ice cream bars. 

And to make matters even better, by the time we got back to my parent's house, Matthew had made it down from PA, where he had been, unable to make it any earlier due to work restraints. I had made it through my dinner and I had my husband. Life was definitely better.