The Barri (more than one Barrus): Barrus Family Reunion, Day 1

We gathered today at Brian Head for a Barrus Family Reunion. In talking about the last time we had a reunion, we determined that it was ten years ago, which is way too long. For a bunch of people who really like each other, we haven't been all together in a while. Except for funerals. Those don't count.

We were to meet at 2:00pm in Parowan for a relative race and visiting with Craig and Monica who weren't going to be able to be with us. Craig can't breathe above 4500 feet, and as Brian Head is at 10,000, they had to stay home. We only learned this days before we were to gather, so there wasn't a chance to make changes. We all trickled into Parowan, with us and Craig and Monica arriving at 2:00, Dave, who was alone because Sharon went to Florida to be with Brooke who just had a baby, coming about 2:20, then Brenda and her group and Michelle and her group coming shortly after them. Lee and Cammie arrived about 3:15, and we all talked and visited. It rained and rained so we weren't able to do the relative race, but we all traipsed into the old rock church that is in the city park, and ran into people who knew George and Merlynn. One man asked Kent where he was from, and he said he'd spent some years in Cedar City and then largely grew up in Provo. He looked at Kent closely, then said, "George Barrus." Kent looks like his dad, and this man saw the family resemblance.

The rock church is a museum with an odd collection of pioneer stuff. They have lots of portraits of prominent former residents of Parowan, clothing, instruments, books, tools, histories. There were some interesting family history charts, and just lots and lots of old stuff.

Brenda, Alice, Brandt, and Jace

and if you count all those portraits, a myriad of other people, too.

After bidding Craig and Monica farewell, we headed up to Brian Head. It was nice and cool up there, especially as the rain kept falling. We had a great room, and there was an indoor pool and hottub, plus we had reserved the use of a conference room and large gathering room with tables and chairs. After getting stuff to our rooms, we met down at the gathering space for some fun activities.

Brandt thought it was hilarious that there were shower caps in our bathroom.

I think he's hilarious.

Brenda had put together a guessing game. In advance of the reunion, she asked everyone to tell her something about themselves that no one else would know. She put these statements on a paper, and we had to try and guess who each person was. Our entries were as follows:

Kent--Got kicked out of a HS English class for circulating a petition questioning relevance of teacher's assignments. Absolutely no one had a hard time guessing this was Kent.
Katherine--Was Snow White in a 3rd grade production. This probably wasn't terribly difficult to guess either.
Brandt--He likes watching old reruns of the original Batman TV series.
Blythe--She checked out 42 books on a recent trip to the public library.

Some of the entries were very funny. Craig has sung in an opera, James is the current ward organist (he doesn't play the organ, but he does start the songs on the programmed organ), Nate slept on the sidewalk to experience homelessness, Ty wants to own his own ice cream parlor, Joel ran a marathon on his mission, Brenda ran away from home when she was 42. Funny stuff, and a delight to hear the stories behind each entry. I only got 16/34. I don't know how others did.

The pictures on the back wall are Barrus family ancestors.

Alexandra had gathered pictures and information for four generations.

Each picture had a bit of a story with it, so we could get to know all those people better.

On Saturday, we played a trivia game.

Alexandra took down all the pictures, and we tried to put them back where they belonged.

She also told us a bit more about some of them.

It was wonderful to get a better idea about those who went before us,

and the joys and sorrows of their lives.

After our trivia games, we did a speed dating game. Brenda gave us a question, and we were to answer the question, sharing with our partner across from us. We laughed and laughed! I would have gone out with pretty much everybody; it's an interesting group of people.

After gaming and talking, some of us got in the pool. The kids played, the adults visited, we all got wet. It was a great first day, so fun to be together, especially with family members we hardly ever see because they live far away. We love them and miss them and are delighted we get to spend three whole-ish days with them!