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JFR Reunion Photos


August 11, 2007
JFR 2007.1

JFR 2007.2

2007 Reunion Notes
Top photo
Front row: Gabriel Uleman, Hannan Uleman, Derek Johnson, Emma Johnson, Brook Uleman, Barbara and Ken Sansoucie
Second row: Lyman Diego, Brittany Becker, Barbara Uleman, Bev Moulton, Marlene Johnson, Shelley Johnson, Trudy Brown, Jolene Baird, Trudy Johnson,
Third (back) row: Brandon Becker, Ryan Brown, Robbie Brown Tony Johnson, Richard Johnson, Donna Hill, Julia Johnson, Merrill Baird, Grant Johnson

Bottom photo
Left to right: Grant and Trudy Johnson, Brandon Becker, Emma Johnson, Brittany Beckcer, Derek Johnson, Tony Johnson, Bev Moulton, Richard and Marlene Johnson, Donna Hill, Shelley Merjil, Julia Johnson, Barbara and Ken Sansoucie

The Johnson Family Reunion – 2007 edition
August 9, 2007
Thursday, this is arrival day for everyone except Tony and Bev. About 5:00 I took Derek and Emma to ride the escalators at the airport as we waited for people to arrive. I was bringing Dick and Marlene home but Donna, Shelley, and Julia were also there and we had a good time getting our luggage and getting reacquainted.

When I arrived at the airport, Julia was already there. She was very considerate and rode the escalators with us for some time and then decided it would be good to wait at the baggage area for everyone to arrive. We joined her at the baggage area and she had already met some young man who was waiting for his family to arrive from Salt Lake. Julia created a JFR sign from a piece of paper and we waited. It was not too long and Donna, Dick, and Marlene were there and then Shelley came in from the other side of the terminal and we just had to wait for our baggage.

We had pizza for dinner and  played games, pit and apples to apples and then to bed.

August 10, 2007
We got to sleep in a little and I got up and made pancake batter with Derek and Emma, we cooked bacon and eggs for everyone. Watched Napoleon Dynamite until he did his dance and then went to down town Grapevine. We saw the train and Grapevine museum, very interesting. Derek loved the guns and tools. I went to get Tony and Bev at Love airport and took them to downtown Grapevine and had some lunch with the rest of the bunch. We had some free time and most folks played apples to apples and had a lot of giggling fun.

In the evening we went to the Rangers baseball game by popular demand. It worked out great. We ended up getting free tickets and the weather was nice, warm but nice. The game was a win for the Rangers. We also got bobble head dolls.

Trudy and Brittany stayed up late Friday night making breakfast, brisket and getting ready for Saturday. Brittany has been extremely helpful as well as Lyman.

August 11, 2007
Saturday Derek, Emma, and I were preparing breakfast when Donna, Shelley, and Julia came in. I put them to work doing bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs. Then Donna made the blueberry sauce and what a big help that was. Marlene filled in on all the other duties that could be done. I got started a little later than I expected but having so much help got us back to schedule, sort of.

We had the family meeting and got it on video. We had a good report but we need to finish up after the scavenger hunt. The Brown side of the family started showing up at 12:00 and were well assembled by 12:30 which worked out well.

The photo scavenger hunt went very well. It was hot but everyone survived and we had some very good photos. It was a blast for the gang to look at the photos and ooh and aah all the nice pics. I was impressed at how many were so nice and well done.

While preparing the scavenger hunt photos, Trudy got the brisket and all the other food ready and everyone ate and mixed. Mostly the Browns mixed with the Browns and the Johnsons with the Johnson but that could be expected. It was still a very nice afternoon and everyone had a good time. After the Browns left, we continued the family meeting with Shelley asking about a January JFR in about a year and a half in Phoenix. Partially to avoid the heat but to ring in the new year. Julia asked about having a 3 day rafting trip which would start at Moab Utah for her turn at the reunion and Barbara wanted to know if we would plan to go to Hawaii in 2011. A notable absence was Tony did not currently have reunion plans.

After the reunion planning Donna had some family history to share with us and we got several documents and items from our parents. The next item was for Grant to present a short recap of the “scanning all of Mom’s photos” experience and share a few memories from that experience. The next order of business was to go through all the photos and have everyone take things that were memorable to them. This went a lot faster than I expected it would and we threw out a bunch of things but all of them were scanned. Our digital world makes things a bit different. Even though the memories we were looking at were from our family, they were not all our memories. That makes it hard to put reference to the ideas, memories, people, and places. Still, we have the digital record and with everyone taking their CDs to different parts of the world, we should have the ability to get them any time if needed so the photos will not be lost.

I need to get a print for each family member of the “line-up” in Oceanside. Tony and Barbara are not in the photo and Julia is a very young girl. But this is a photo most everyone can enjoy. I also found the long lost photo of Dad and Danna’s’ hands from so long ago. I have it scanned, retouched, and ready for printing. I’ll need to send the photo to Christine and get her a CD with all the photos and that one too.

Nothing but fun is being had by all. We are the beneficiaries of a great host and hostess.

Family Stories
Richard and Marlene’s Contribution for the 2007 JFR
A couple of years ago Ben and Nathanael were driving west on 106th South near 5th West when an east-bound car flipped a U’y in front of them and paused briefly on the shoulder of the road, facing west now. They thought he would wait for traffic to clear before coming back on the road, but he did not and pulled into traffic and almost hit them in the side. Nathanael honked at him, as they drove along side by side. Ben says the guy looked over with a kind of blank stare and flipped them off.

He then got ahead of them but when traffic stopped he failed to start up when he could so Nathanael honked at him again and got the third finger wave again.

By now the boys had concluded that the driver was drunk so Nathanael called the police to report that he thought they were following a drunk driver.

About this time they reached the intersection of 106th and 13th West, just south of the Jordon River Temple. The drunk driver was in the left turn lane and stopped by the light, with the boys right behind. Ben decided he would see what was going on so he got out of the car, went to the passenger side of the drunk’s car and looked in. He saw a nearly empty bottle of booze between the guy’s legs. So he got in the car, put the shifter in park and took the keys out of the ignition.

By now the guy recognized that everything was not as it should be so he asked Ben what he was doing. Ben told him he was too drunk to drive and that he should just wait there until the police got to the scene.

Ben went back to sit in Nathanael’s car, but not before kicking the drunk’s passenger door shut with his steel-toed boot. In just a minute or so the drunk came back to their car and asked for his keys. When Ben told him ‘no’ he ran across traffic and headed into a nearby neighborhood. Ben moved the guy’s car out of the intersection into a gas station on the corner.

About then the police arrived and were able to find the guy w/o too much trouble. When the police were taking Ben and Nathanael’s statement they noticed a piece of door trim hanging off the car and asked how the dent got there. Ben admitted that he had done it because he was mad at the drunk for driving drunk and flipping them off. The policeman let it go.

There is a sequel to the story. Ben has had a few too many speeding tickets—for the way he drives his motorcycle. He felt unjustly accused with the most recent one, of about a month ago, so decided he would go before the judge to plead his case. In preparation of this event he went to the police station to get a copy of the incident report with the drunk driver--to demonstrate that he is a good citizen. But the clerk would not give him the report because it has been written up as Nathanael being the principle reporter and Ben as a secondary witness. He can not catch a break.

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Donna's Family Report

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Grant's Family Reunion Story
I’m sure most of you know the joys of child rearing. I decided to wait until I was 44 to get married but I’m glad I still had kids at the age many people are becoming grandparents. Shortly after we were married, Brittany and Brandon said something about wanting to be treated the same. To the outside observer that might seem like a good idea but it is obvious to any parent that no two kids are alike and cannot always be treated the same. However, the important thing is to treat each child fairly according to who they are. In conjunction with that, Trudy and I decided to have more kids even though Brittany and Brandon were 11 and 9 and were about to be out of the house, in a comparative sense. Part of my decision to go ahead with kids at such an advanced age of marriage is another story but I’ve chosen today to tell two stories about Derek and one about Emma.

Both of these kids are very special to our family and we are sure they were sent to us on purpose, not by accident. My first story is about Derek and it happened before Emma was born. We were at the Olive Garden eating dinner and – what is the first thing they bring you at the Olive Garden? Yes, bread sticks. We had several of those and Derek was enjoying them as well. However, when our food came Derek did not want that but just to eat the bread sticks. After some efforts to get him to eat his food, Trudy said to him, “Man does not live by bread alone.” To which he replied, “What?” The timing was so perfect and innocent that it could not be forgotten and has always been remembered with amusement.

Emma – at our annual new year’s goal setting and past year remembrances meeting, Emma was remembered with several of the phrases of the year. The one I remember most is, “Its pretty heaby.” Of course, her way of saying “it is pretty heavy”. Being Emma she only used that term when she needed to be the cutest.

Derek – at our annual new year’s goal setting past year remembrances meeting relieved a slightly tension filled moment with the phrase, “I’ll jot that down in my palm pilot.” Everyone cracked up and he got mentioned for that on our sheets of phrases to remember.

Derek wanted to tell a story to participate as it appeared he needed some attention. He told one story about a snake he had seen just down the street which a diamond pattern on its back. That story seemed a bit suspicious but his next story was a good memory for me. Before Emma was born, so Derek was less than 3, he would hide from me everyday as I came home from work. He always hid under a blanket on the couch in the front room. Although it was very easy to find him, it was always such a joy to see his excitement about hiding and the thrill of being found. He always wanted me to hide with him after he was found so others could find us. He still remembers the hiding even though he does not do it now but it was a special time to spend with him almost everyday, sometimes many times a day.

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Shelley's Family Reunion Story for 2007
When we were living in Orem and the kids were about the ages of 5, 6 and 7, I was asked to go to camp with the girls from the ward. Of course, it was impossible to ask Rudy to alter his schedule whatsoever to actually perform any fatherly duties associated with the raising of the three children that he only took note of if it concerned accolades for him. (The preceding was an editorial comment added to this story to help Shelley with the healing process of living with such a Stupid A for so many years.) So I asked Julia and “Volatmort” who graciously agreed to watch the kids for the days I was going to be gone.

Julia was not familiar with the feeding habits of three growing children. Before breakfast was over, they would be asking what was for lunch. While they were playing outside, they would be speculating about what was for lunch. When lunch was half over, the plans for snacks and dinner were forming in their tiny brains. Anyone who has already raised a couple of kids knows that this is normal behavior but to Julia, this was unexplored territory.

One afternoon Brandon came into the house and asked if he could have a cookie. When he left the house with the bootie Brian went in and asked for a cookie, too. Just as he was coming out Courtney screwed up her courage to ask. Julia had come to the end of her rope. She told them all that they needed to stop bugging her and they could have as many cookies as they wanted. Shortly after she saw all three kids carefully balancing arms full of cookies as they left the house for the afternoon.

Lesson for the day: Kids take you literally, be careful what you say.

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Julia's Family Report
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Tony 's Family Report
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Barbara's Family Report
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Parr park scavenger hunt
Be creative for extra points
Get a photo of:
  1. Something unique in nature
  2. With as many people as possible
  3. With a child that’s not your own
  4. Your group on playground equipment
  5. A domestic animal – bonus if with owner
  6. Something pink
  7. With a stranger who is exercising (jogging or walking)
  8. Of someone in your group doing a cartwheel
  9. At least some of your group in a tree
  10. Your group on a bridge
  11. With someone from Hawaii
  12. An older person (use your own interpretation of “older”)
  13. As many strangers as possible
  14. Someone reading a book
  15. Someone laughing/crying
  16. Someone kissing
  17. Picture of another group
  18. At least part of your group with a truck
  19. A wild animal
  20. A flower or blossom
  21. Someone on a bike
  22. Picture of something Julia can identify for us
  23. Scenery picture
  24. Funny group picture
  25. Pretending to play basketball or baseball
  26. A non-Texas license plate
  27. Someone eating something

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