Sherwood Reunion 2024

Family reunions! Get togethers! Meeting cousins for the second time ever (in some cases) and for the first time in at least 10 years! We had it all. Well...almost. My brother Dan couldn't make the trip, but overall it was great. I also didn't take too many pictures---trying to "be in the moment" people call it.

But of course I took some pictures. Like of my kids with my dad. 

My dad's the fifth of ten kids, all of whom made it, just not all on the same day. That in itself was pretty impressive.

This year the shenanigans was held in Denver. Well, Westminster, out HWY 36 to Boulder, but the Denver environs. This made a strategic sense: some siblings drove in from Tennessee, some drove in from New Mexico, and some drove in from Minnesota. Some of us flew in from LA, while others flew in from other places, like Montana and Maine.

Also, my dad's wife is immuno-compromised, so picking a centralized location made it possible for him to make appearances (he told me he would have skipped it, otherwise).

The logistics of the whole deal means that the ten years since the last one makes a certain sense. Now, Corrie's family---with their big reunions every other year---shouldn't be the exemplar...they have more space and a comfort level with being all up in each other's business.

Anywho, in the last ten years, I settled into my job, Corrie birthed two kids, started and maintained her own firm, and beat cancer. It's been...it's been life, yo.

This year we stayed with Beth, Corrie's cousin. Actually, we stayed at her house in Denver, which she uses for an AirBnB. Right now, she can't, because the secondary residence in the basement has an asbestos issue, and now everything's up in the air. But Beth was gone, where she generally lives and works now, a few hours away. We had a whole, cute little house all to ourselves, for no cost. We did some tree-trimming and other yardwork activities during the short time that Beth did show up, and that was pretty cool for those of us who haven't hard yards in a few decades.

The evening skies were awesome:

But it turns out that living in Long Beach has wussified us: the mid-90s temps was TOO hot for us, but the daily thunderstorm and downpour was pretty cool.

Steamy park over from Beth's

Seeing my dad's family is generally pretty great. It always seems like my dad's group (me and Dan) lived and grew up away from everyone else, while they all tended to have spent holidays together and traveled together, and had many, many shared memories.

This trip was neat in that all of the Bob & Peg great-grandbabies were there. There was Cass and Camille, then My cousin Jake's son Jackson (who got along famously with Cass, as they're just over a year apart, and since they live in SaMo, we should be able to arrange playdates), my cousin Mike's son Jimmy, and my cousin Dan's son Asa. So far, those are the five: Cass, Camille, Jackson, Jimmy, and Asa.

Most of my cousins were there, too, and we all enjoyed trying to get caught up with the past ten years. My cousin who was in China last time was here with his wife. Another cousin's wife is a representative in the Montana state legislature (D, so that was nice). Another cousin is headed off to Iowa to teach in special ed, and another lives in Portland, Maine.

It was an eclectic, intellectual group. Hell, I have a 23-year-old cousin I still haven't met, which shocked her mom, my dad's sister. I heard many stories and told many more.

It was a special time and trip, and I'm glad I kept my phone away. Some people got pictures, and I'll put some up if I get some I like.

We flew home a few days after it ended, getting to spend some extra time with my dad and Beth, and having a whole new sense of kinship.