The 4th of July and Barron Family Reunion

Happy 4th of July! This year was a pretty subdued festivities compared to others. Every year my Mom's family has a family reunion the week of the fourth. In years past all the aunts, uncles, cousins come into town and we have a week of celebrating that we are family. This year not many people were able to make it (boo!), but we had fun with those who were able to come and participate. We spent a day at Kentucky Splash water park. I got to go down one of the big slides which is all I wanted to do. People had fun floating in the lazy river and soaking in the sun shine (I love the summer sun!). On the fourth we kicked off the day with our annual Barron 5K walk and run. We used to do a race in Knoxville, but the registration fee got to be too much so we started our own. This year we had more walkers than runners (only five people ran). Eston finished first and surprisingly I finished second. With at time of 22:59 I have to add (sometimes you have to give yourself some recognition. When you do good, you do good!). The rest of the day we went to the lake and enjoyed delicious bar-b-q prepared by Uncle Ellis (the man knows how to cook meat!). The water was warm, the atmosphere festive, and it was great to spend time with family that I do not get to see enough. We need to change that. That night we watched the fireworks that the city puts on every year. It was a perfect fourth, except Lyndon and I did not go see the fireworks because our kids told us they were done partying and wanted to go to bed. Next year fireworks, next year.   

David and Barron coming in for the finish. Barron was the fastest baby there.

Husband came in third. Go Lyndon!

The last day of the reunion we gathered at Aunt Carol's and had a family FHE type activity. Grandma Barron answered questions about her life we asked her. Thank you Aunt Cathy for being prepared and having wonderful questions to ask Grandma. Someone recorded it so once I get it I am going to post it. We learned a lot about Grandma's life. Where she grew up in Vanor, TN There were German prisoners of war that were detained in the area. She said that they were these big burly blonde men that they would wave to as they drove by, and that the POW only got to eat unseasoned green beans which everyone in the area thought was horrible. In the South we like our green beans cooked in lard and seasoned. We also learned more about how she and Grandpa met. They met at King College and when he saw her he thought to himself, "that is the prettiest girl I have ever seen". So romantic! She told us about their trip out west to get sealed in the Manti Temple, and about the day the missionaries knocked on their door. She said Aunt Carol was five days old. An interesting story she told us about her daddy was when he was just a couple of days old the missionaries came to his house but his family turned them away. Later in Grandma's life her daddy told her that the church they were going to was missing some things and there was another church out there that would have all the answers and she needed to look for that church and join it when she finds it. Well that is just what she did many years later. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for that. All your posterity's life have been blessed because of it.

That was our fourth.
Happy Birthday America!