Trasher Family Reunion

Our family's nickname is "the Trashers" because we often invade someone else's home and then invite other family members to also come to our party at someone else's home. We've done this with Aunt Kay many times, and this past week we did it to Aunt Patty. We realized that the only way Devin and Sarah and Jonathan were going to be able to see recently returned missionary Whitney was if they drove up from Las Vegas during their Christmas/New Year's holiday break and we drove down from Boise and we met in Provo for a long weekend of reunioning (is that a word?, probably not). Since we don't have a home in Provo to meet in (we didn't think Taylor's dorm room or Whitney's apartment would work) we conned Aunt Patty into hosting us. We met up at Aunt Patty's and Uncle Hal's last Thursday night where Patty had a delicious dinner of panini's waiting for us. It was so fun for Whitney to see new baby Sophie and then talk with Patty and Hal about her adventures in Russia. They even got out the Russian fur hats to add to the story telling. Devin decided to spend a night in the dorms on Thursday night with Taylor. Taylor just happens to live in the same dorm room that Devin lived in so Devin was able to relive old BYU-times eating at the Cannon center and going to classes with Taylor on Friday. We met up with them at the BYU Bookstore
where the kids enjoyed the new children's book section. The girls and kids went shopping at IKEA and to lunch at the Paradise Cafe and the boys went to class and to the Carl Bloch exhibit at the MOA. Everyone met in the afternoon at the Wilkinson center and we had a heated bowling competition.
Tom ended up winning with Devin edging out Taylor for second place. Joan was the winner amongst the women with a grand total of 105.


It was really fun!
We left from the Wilkie and went to dinner at Zupa's and then we went to Whitney's for a great game of Cranium.
Saturday morning we talked Tricia into coming over and taking our family picture. She was a little resistant when she heard we wanted one in our BYU matching T-shirts (she's a big UTAH fan) but she was a good sport ;) We then drove to BYU and went to the BYU vs. Air Force basketball game. It was so fun being there with the whole family and BYU didn't disappoint us in their big win! A highlight was hearing Eva sing the entire BYU fight song along with the 22,000 other fans in attendance.
From there we went to Taylor's dorm and then to dinner at Bajio. During dinner our chairman, Taylor, revealed the secret ingredient for our Iron Chef competition - ORANGES. We split into teams and planned our appetizer and dessert (we collaborated on the main course, Orange Chicken,thank you Panda Express, we didn't want to mess Patty and Hal's kitchen up too bad)and then headed to the grocery store to buy our ingredients. We went back out to Patty and Hal's where we began our competition. Team 1 consisted of Whitney, Joan, Tom and Jon and Team 2 consisted of Sara, Sarah P, and Devin. Andrew, Patty and Hal were our judges. Team 1 prepared Baja citrus shrimp with an orange dipping sauce for their appetizer and orange flavored chocolate cake baked in an orange garnished with whipped cream and a chocolate orange for dessert. Team 2 presented an avocado wonton with an orange dipping sauce for appetizer and a citrus fruit cobbler topped with orange flavored whipping cream for dessert.
After much deliberation Team 2 won by 2 points. I don't think I'm destined to be an Iron Chef winner (well maybe if I compete against the scouts, teachers and priests at mutual)but it was a fun event that we were glad Patty and Hal let us do in their kitchen. After dinner, we talked and played games. Sunday we met back up at Whitney's for brunch and then Whitney told Russia stories and showed her pictures/slides. We packed up and headed north and Sara, Jon and family headed south and the rest went to church. We had such a wonderful time together. A big THANK YOU to Patty and Hal for hosting the Trasher Family Reunion. Who wants to host next year? ;)