The Family Reunion

Okay, it has been a WHILE since I have added to this blog.  I've had several experiences where I've thought: "this would be a good post."  It just never seemed urgent enough to actually put in the effort.  Now I'm realizing that I'm starting to forget about the amazing summer that I've had.  Plus I'm two days overdue, my baby's "nest" is ready, my husband is back to work and writing in my blog is suddenly a way to pass the time.  So I'll start with writing about the Allen family reunion.  The story of this reunion actually starts on my wedding day.  This is me with my cousin Jeni:

 Our fathers are brothers.  Our mothers are best friends.  We are two months apart.  We basically had no choice but to be close (but let's be honest- she's one of the most amazing people I know, so being friends with her was never difficult.)  She's the only cousin who made it to my temple sealing in Canada.  (Lots of cousins sacrificed to come to my Arizona reception, but she left her kids and traveled the extra miles to see me at the temple.  She's hardcore like that.)  She and her Mom were traveling with her Dad and our Aunts- three out of the five siblings that make up my Dad's immediate family.  They started discussing the need for an Allen family reunion.  We used to have them every couple of years when we were young.  They are some of the fondest memories from my childhood.  Families got bigger, though, and our grandparents passed away, and suddenly the reunions stopped happening.  As I was cutting the cake and posing for pictures, my Uncle, Aunts, and Jeni decided it was time to get together again.  Jeni, along with doing a wonderful job of raising her little family, manages a sorority house at U.C. Berkeley.  The house is empty during the summer, and she offered it as a possible venue for the proposed reunion.  With this generous offer, she was given the appointment of Reunion Co-Chair.  It was decided that she would need help pulling it all together, and so, without my even being made aware of it,  I was appointed as the other co-chair.  Not because I had any skills, talents, or resources that made me a logical candidate!  It was simply because she had the venue, and I was the cousin closest to her in age.  I learned about all of this after the wedding and after everything had been very much decided upon.  I was excited, though.  Northern California is one of my favorite places and the Allens are among my favorite people.  I was happy to be a part of it.  Shortly thereafter Jeni announced she was pregnant with her third, and soon after that, I became pregnant with my first, and that is how two pregnant friends, with no prior experience, thousands of miles apart from each other, suddenly became responsible for organizing a vacation weekend for 80+ people.  Here's some things I learned from this experience:

• Communicate!  Jeni was SO good at this.  She knew we had to let people know about the reunion, and remind them about it often.  She and her Dad started emailing surveys right away to get contact information and figure out when people could attend.  There were more surveys and lots of emails over the next year.  A month or so before the reunion, a Facebook page was started where people could ask questions and get ideas.  Jeni and I had to stay in close contact as well. Things started to get dangerously close as she was about to deliver her little girl, and as I started getting sick with mine.  We had to continue to touch base even during this time so that we could be ready for the big event.
• Don't over-plan!  People (or at least, Jeni and I) don't like being forced into too many structured activities and games.  Also, since everyone (besides Jeni's family) would be traveling to a place they don't normally get to go to, we knew that people would want to see the sights.  We decided to do breakfast and dinner together and have activities planned for the evenings.  Friday night was "getting to know you activities."  Saturday was "game night" and Sunday night was the talent show.  (An Allen family reunion tradition.)  We would then encourage sight seeing outings during the day.  As the reunion evolved, Sunday became more of a structured day, but this happened naturally as we learned what people wanted out of their reunion experience.  We learned later that we should have planned a bit more for the children to do while we were doing our activities.  (Especially on Friday and Saturday night.)  Oh well: live and learn.     
• Delegate!  I was personally put in charge of food.  I don't know how to cook for 80 people, so I turned to others that I knew could.  I assigned "coordinators" for each meal.  They were in charge of planning the menu for one meal and organizing the preparation of it.  (I divided everyone over the age of 8 into committees to help with meal set up and clean up.  That way the meal coordinators didn't have TOO much to do on the nights when their meals were up.)  I was so afraid of asking too much of people, but everyone did SUCH a wonderful job.  Lots of people commented on how amazing the food was- and it really was spectacular.  We ate WELL- every night.  I told coordinators to give me a shopping list of what food to buy.  Now I wish I had asked them to buy their own food and then get reimbursed from the reunion funds.  I didn't want to ask too much, and I was worried that people wouldn't be able to arrive early to buy the food.  However, if I had asked them to do it in the first place, they would have found a way.  Lots of people ended up doing their own shopping anyways.  For the meals where they didn't- it ended up putting too much on me and the few people that were there early.  Plus- it's difficult to shop for other people!  The right ingredients are hard to find, which makes it difficult for the cooks later if things are missed.  It's also difficult to fit everything in your car.  Luckily my brother is a genius at tetris.  Check out this packing job: 

• Put someone else in charge of money.  I spent a LONG time excruciating over how much to charge for the reunion.  We ended up making it quite affordable.  We charged per person (with kids at a cheaper rate) and no family paid more than $200.  I was quite proud of that.  (Of course, it helped that our venue was free.)  Once I figured how much things cost, I put a guy cousin that was good with computers and organization in charge of collecting the money and reimbursing the costs.  It was the best decision I made.  (Hopefully he will forgive me.)  He did an awesome job, and I didn't have to worry about money again.  
• There's so much more I could say about planning this reunion, and I'm sure that Jeni (and her parents, who ended up helping a lot) would have plenty to add.  It was work, but it was more than worth it.  
• My one regret: I wish that I had spent more time bonding with family that I don't get to see very often.  I was in a vulnerable place during the reunion.  I had just spent almost a month away from my husband.  I was also about to say good bye to my Mom and brothers, knowing that the next time I would see them, I would be busy with a new baby.  So I spent a lot of the reunion with Jason and my immediate family.  When we went out for sight seeing, I didn't wait to see what other families were doing- I just left with them.  I had a good vacation, but I could have used a bit more "Allen Family time."  Here's the two pictures that I took of the actual "reunion:"   

 
Here's some other pictures from our trip:  

  I really did have an amazing time, and I loved being around all of those awesome Allens.  I love them all so much, and I loved taking a small part in planning this event that brought us together.

 

Oh, and guess who's in charge of next summer's Harvey Family Reunion!?