Thoughts on food (more about reunion)

Cleaning floors doesn't take much mental exertion, so I thought about what we might do at the reunion concerning mealtimes. Breakfast would probably be simple -- cereal, muffins, toast, etc. Maybe one day we could have pancakes and bacon. For lunch, we'd probably have sandwiches or eat out.

Dinner would be the big meal. If there are sixteen adults and we're staying for four days, we could divide into groups of four and everyone could help prepare a dinner. Chinese one night, Italian another, a barbecue if we could find a grill . . . it depends on what the kitchen has. Maybe we could have two couples in charge of the meal. Or we could divide it by sisters, the brothers and Dad, Mom and sisters-in-law, and the brothers-in-law and one of sisters (maybe Mindy). Frankly, I'd love to see Adam and Aaron in the kitchen together.

I think this is a good way to do meals, even if it doesn't happen at this reunion.

Nauvoo cabins

Here's the website I'm guessing Mom was looking at to stay in log cabins in Nauvoo:


Nauvoo Log Cabins

The lodge has a full kitchen, 3 bathrooms, free wireless internet, and sleeps 13. That's half of our group of 26 (16 adults, 10 kids). It costs $400 a night, so assuming we were there for 4 days and 3 nights, that would be $1200.

Looking at what the other cabins are priced at, what if - instead of getting the 2nd biggest lodge - we got one of the smaller cabins that sleeps 6 and has only a fridge and microwave? We would be doing the meals all together anyway, wouldn't we? The lodge has the kitchen and we could use the other fridge as extra storage or all the snacks, or something like that. The 6-person cabin is priced at $85 (rather than $185 for the 10-person lodge) per night, for a 3-night total of $255. Either way, we'd have 4 showers, because the 10-person lodge has only 1 full bathroom.

So it would be about $1500 for the lodging. Yes, that's beds for 19 instead of 26, but all the adults would be covered and I would be willing to put my kids on an air mattress next to our bed so we didn't have to keep reserving and paying for more. But it's $300 less than getting the lodge for 10. Unless the number is high enough that you think $300 isn't that big of a deal.

So just to throw a number out there, let's say $2200 total - $1500 for the cabins plus $200 or so for tax and fees (I'm guessing here), and then $500 for four days worth of meals. (Those with kids can get their own snacks because I'm sure every kid likes/is used to different things.) Divided by couple, and putting Tawnia/Emily together would make 8 couples - $275 each. (Tawnia and Emily could split that.) NOT BAD! If we were to each do this trip separately during the summer, you couldn't even get your hotel reservations for less than that, let alone all your meals. And that was rounding up pretty high.

If everyone did put that amount of $275 (or a little more) into a group account to make the reservations and do the grocery shopping out of, and we came in under - we could either split the extra evenly and give it back to everyone, OR we could leave it in the account to start us on another reunion trip.

Oh, and the catch is, the website says that to make reservations, you have to give them half of the money immediately. That would be about $800. So we'd need to get everyone saving, and pooling their money, right away.

I vote to keep any extra in a family reunion account. We don't need to all migrate back to Oregon every time we want to have a reunion. There's a lot to see around the country! I suggest Palmyra and upstate New York for another family reunion in a few years, as well as camping somewhere in the Rockies like at Glacier National Park.

My thoughts on reunion

See Trina's post for explanation.

I'm giddy with excitement at the prospect of a family reunion in Nauvoo. The cabins Mom found are perfect for our needs. http://www.nauvoologcabins.com/

At my current job, I will have one week of vacation beginning next March. So any time is good for me, but I could only go for a week. Nine days, if we count two weekends. I'd have to fly out there.

family reunion next summer?

There have been some conversations lately - I don't know how many, but I've talked to Mom and Tawnia - about the possibility of a Palmer reunion in Nauvoo next summer. I think it would be AWESOME! We were actually planning to get up to that part of the country next summer anyway and it would be great to do it all as a reunion for the first time since 2006 - it will be 5 years. About time we had one!

It would be really fun to meet up in Nauvoo for the pageant and other things going on - from what I can tell, it seems like you need 3 or 4 days to really see and experience everything. It would be great to go to the temple all together, but based on the number of small children we have right now, it would probably be better if we went in 2 groups (I'd say Mom and Dad go with both groups, so they can be in the temple with ALL their kids, even if it is split up) just so there are enough adults with the kids.

And if people can stay out in that part of the country for an entire week, we could also go together to Independence Missouri and see the Church history sites over there, as well as anything else in the region. I have a list, if anyone is curious. For example, Hannibal MO, where Mark Twain is from and there are all kinds of "Tom Sawyer sites," is only 75 miles from Nauvoo.

Mom found a lodging location that has cabins for groups - we could all fit in two of them, and that would take care of bathrooms/showers, kitchens so we don't have to eat out, and air conditioning so we sleep comfortably. If we want the, especially the large ones, we should probably make the reservations within the next couple of months. Lodging in Nauvoo during July for the pageant is darn near full in February, as I found out this last year when I was trying to sort out reservations for our family to attend our stake's youth conference (we ended up not going at all).

Our vote is to go the last week of July, because then Tawnia should be done with her summer classes and not have started back at the school district for her school year yet. And we could still see the big pageant - it does seem a little silly to go to Nauvoo and NOT go to the big pageant, especially since it's the first time of going to Nauvoo at all for a lot of us.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts later, but this is to get us started. Please respond in a post and NOT in a comment, because those get buried too fast. I can't ever keep track of comments. Thanks!

A day at the beach

First of all, congratulations and good luck to Jared on his new job.

Now, my biggest adventure of the summer. First of all today, we went out to see the house that Uncle Gary is buying in Wilhelmina. It's got a fair amount of land, though some of it is right next to the creek (I actually think the property line is in the creek).

We headed out to the coast then. On the way, Aunt Karen said, "Look, three deer!" Uncle Gray immediately said, "Free beer?"

We went to the beach and spent an hour walking. It was overcast and a little foggy there, but not too bad. Aunt Karen looked for rocks with holes worn in them and found quite a few.

After a quick fast food lunch, we drove down to Salem. Nathan and Amanda had their hands full with some major leaking, so we kept an eye on the boys. We barbecued steaks for dinner. And afterward, we played on the Wii. I did pretty good at the free-throwing game, but Aunt Karen stomped everyone at bowling.

News

I think people are aware of this already, but I'd better post it in case anyone didn't hear the rumors... I got a teaching job!

School starts in two weeks (though I've started already) and I'll be teaching Jr. High math just a few miles up the road from our apartment. I interviewed for the position on Thursday July 22, got the offer on Monday the 26th, and Friday the 30th was my last day at Rosslare.