Otte Family Reunion

It was nearly a 7 hour one-way trek, but every mile was worth it to spend a few days up at my Grandma and Grandpa Otte's house for a family reunion. I have so many wonderful memories from their house while I was growing up, and it is almost nostalgic for me to go back there. It is so fun to see my children playing and running around at Grandma's house. The Otte crew consists of Grandma and Grandpa, their two sons (one being my dad) and then all the grand- and great-grand kids.

We all met on a Friday night and set up camp. Most of us stayed out in tents in Grandma's backyard, and it turned out pretty good.

Here are the girls playing in the tent with cousin Claire:

Ty found this little net on the ground and was in heaven toting it all over the grass:



Grandma and Grandpa live on the outskirts of town, and behind their house is a huge field of sugar beets. The Otte's love a good round of target shooting! I am proud to say I hit my fair share of clay pigeons. Ya, me and the old 12-gauge are good buddies. Here are Uncle Matt and Grandpa, with Christian and Blake checking out the action:


The lineup of spectators. A wild, rousing crowd. Jacob, Aunt Steph, Kenna, and Cousin Olivia:


And here is Mr. Sharpshooter himself- Jacob. He's actually a pretty good shot, I must say. I think he gets it from me.

My Grandparents have a wall of pictures of all their grandkids as they were growing up. I LOVE this, especially as it hasn't changed one bit from what I remember as a little girl. Even the wallpaper hasn't changed! Oh so many good memories:


In the living room, there are two of these lamps that hang from the ceiling. When they are turned on, little beads of oil flow down the diagonal metal pieces. I would stare at these as a little girl and loved to watch the oil drip down.

We had such a fun time catching up on everyone's lives, and of course sitting and laughing well into the night. Even Grandma Donna stayed up late with a few of us chatting. I could sit and visit with my Grandparents for hours. They truly are two of my heroes, and I love to hear their stories and perspective on life. They are such down-to-earth, good people and have taught me so many lessons over the years.

The next day was spent playing and laughing. It is SO fun to watch all the kids play together! Here they are loving the pool and slip-n-slide. Grandma Shelly even cracked out the snow cone machine!









Here the girls are with cousin Ethan writing on the chalkboard at Grandma's house. This is the very chalkboard I would sit in front of and write on for hours when I was little. It was so fun to see my girls do the same thing. Allie wanted to make sure I got a picture of her name she wrote, too.



And of course we had to get a picture of all the great-grandkids. We weren't missing any of them, it was so fun! (Except for Ty who is MIA- a nap was imminent and couldn't be put off any longer).

Everyone else stayed one more night until Sunday, but since we live so blinkin' far away (and much to my teary dismay), we decided it would be best to go to Logan on Saturday night, then finish the trek on Sunday. And, many thanks to my over-achiever as a husband, we also had to venture an extra hour and a half over to Blackfoot, Idaho to pick up some cattle before our said trip to Logan. To be perfectly honest, adding live animals into the mix had me less than pleased. I'm quite sure a grumpy wife had Jacob less than pleased. But, alas, we managed to get the blessed creatures after a much-longer-than-expected layover in Blackfoot and rolled into Logan around 12:30. That is a.m, mind you. Sometime in the venture Saturday night, we also learned that Jacob unexpectedly needed to be back for a church meeting Sunday afternoon, so we got up and headed right home. We made it just in time for Jacob to shower, throw on his suit and head to church. I'm tired again just writing this.

All in all it was a great weekend with family. We even got to stop in for a bit to visit the Israelsen's too before we headed up to the reunion. They are always so very good to us. We learned once again how incredible family is, and also that family reunions and extracurricular farm adventures really don't mix. I suppose you live and you learn, eh?

Oh, I must mention also: On the way up, we got to stop in and visit Jacob's sister and her husband and cute little girls who are just a half hour-ish away from my grandparents. It was so good to stop and visit seeing as though we don't get to see them very often. She let us borrow the CD's of the book The Undaunted which is about the hole-in-the-rock pioneers from Southern Utah. Jacob and I are still listening to them and are absolutely hooked. It is such an amazing story. We lay in bed at nights and listen for a bit before going to sleep. We did the same thing a year or so ago with the story Fire of the Covenant, about the Willie and Martin handcart companies. They are both by Gerald N. Lund. He is an incredible author and brings those pioneer stories to life. It brings a whole new depth and appreciation to all they went through while trying to cross the plains and establish settlements in Utah. If you need a good read (or a good listen) I highly recommend them!