ROGER STRATFORD REUNION, 2022!

After the Covid drought, the Roger Stratford Family Reunion is back!

Rick and Jodie's next-door pool, hot tub, pickleball court and poolhouse were completed just hours before our 40 family members gathered en masse. We missed granddaughter Sydney's family in Florida, grandson missionary, Sam, in Bolivia and granddaughter Anna's, new husband, Jack, leading a youth program in Africa. Everyone else was there!

Some began arriving on Wednesday. Some families met up at Lagoon for the day. Missy's family stayed with Mindy and Jeff's family in Alpine, Ryan's family stayed at Clark and Christine Gilbert's family (Emily's brother) in North Salt Lake and Stacy and the twins and Roger and I stayed at Rick and Jodie's. We were all so tickled to see each other! And what would turn out to be a big highlight of the reunion was holding and loving on our newest great-grandbaby, Caleb, Josh and Jalene's adorable new son. As you can see, that started immediately! 

Blake was beside himself with excitement, having so many visitors coming to his house to play with him - Grandpa is a definite favorite!

Josh and Pete got right at playing ping pong - Josh is a BYU Intramural's champ and Pete loved picking up some pointers!

There were two foursomes who wanted to play golf at Eaglewood - 

Josh, Ryan and his two sons, Pete and Ben . . .

. . . and Rick, Sadie's husband, Joe, Jake and Roger. Tom couldn't come until later Friday.

Rick and Jodie's new pool, waterslide, hot tub, pickleball court and poolhouse are a dream come true for Jodie - she was sooo excited to have this option for Blake and their family loves the water and are major swimmers and divers. It was such a perfect place to have our family reunion!

We tried to take random pics of some of the happy campers - Jodie, Missy and daughter, Ellie, Stacy and Jaylene.

Rick, son, Josh, Pete, his dad, Ryan and Grandpa Rog.

The water slide was quickly broken in and, with the little curve jog at the end, it delivers a fast ride!

There were lots of daring dives off of the two diving boards! The cousins how so much fun egging each other on, teaching each other gainers and doing synchronized dives!

Many games were played with different teams of water volleyball - fun to watch! They also played games of water basketball.

These two little cuties, our two youngest grandkids, Fiona and Claire, were little buddies!

Our Miss Ellie will be a junior in  high school next year - she was one of the 7 in our family who could do a gainer - a front-facing backflip off the high dive.

The pickleball tournament went on throughout two days - singles and doubles with several different combos, single elimination. I am amazed how many really good players there are in our family, all ages. That's what's so cool about pickleball - it appeals and can be done by little kids through old folks, like Grandpa. Wish my knees allowed me to play!

We had yummy food spreads for many hungry mouths!

These two cousins, Katie and Jared, are great buddies! They served their Church missions about the same time - Katie in NYC and Jared in Scottsdale, Arizona area.

Friday evening we had a fun program. Each family gave updates of what they had been up to, showing pics on the big screen and sharing talents. 

A huge highlight for Roger and me was watching Rick and Ryan do a surprise reprise of Casey at the Bat. They had performed it together when they were in grade school. It was hilarious!

We had an old-fashioned Hootnanny! We started with a Blake-favorite - She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain with gestures . . .

. . . then sang Where Have All the Flowers Gone and and what Hootnanny is complete without If I Had A Hammer? Jared is really good on the guitar and cute Anna has a great strum on the baritone uke.

As stated, the big hit of the reunion was Caleb! Jaylene, his mom, said that every person at the reunion held him at least once and he was perfectly happy with that!

It amazes me how our kids and their kids just pick up where they left off from the last time they were together! Cousin Love is real! With unbounded energy, they played, chatted, laughed, ate and sang together. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Rick and Jodie, for making everything down to the last detail perfect for all of us! It couldn't have been better and I think we all can't wait 'til the next one!