Pack Family Reunion 2008

After a near-disaster last year with the Gus family reunion here (Steve calls it "tick fest 2007" although it was really bed-bugs:), we were ready to give Heber Valley Camp another shot with the Dimond side. It is a beautiful area and the facilities can hold almost 4,000 campers at once (even though you would never see that many people as the cabins are spread out over the mountain).
After the train ride and a wonderful dinner, Steve was up as the emcee to host the talent show/program/business meeting. He was voted as the one to sing from our family and did a wonderful job. Sometimes it pays to "have talents in other areas" as I was able to sit and enjoy the whole program:)
Here's what I mean about the gorgeous dark coloring of the Packs! This is Russell & Marion Pack and their grand daughters singing. Russell also spoke on family history and gave us hope and encouragement in this area, sharing personal stories of his experiences. My favorite part of the program was when Grandma Dimond and all of her siblings each took five minutes and gave a quick talk on "What it meant to be a Pack." All five siblings are such incredible and responsible people and learned great lessons from their parents. They all made a point to mention that as a Pack, you were always on-time! Of couse I was almost beside myself with internal chuckling knowing that their parents would have died at one of our gatherings! I remember a Thanksgiving dinner starting almost 2-3 hours late once waiting for extended family:) We are all much better now but I made a new resolution at the reunion that I would try and live by the Pack plan that "it is better to be 30 minutes early than 1 minute late!" We were 10-15 minutes early for church today (like we are supposed to be) and it felt great to everyone except Christian who asked me why we had to come so early! He said it just made church that much longer:)
Christian was trying to enjoy the program as much as I was but his attention was more focused on the trying to carve the walking stick he found with his fingernails. It was a fun night at the amphitheater, with the fire going and God's creations at their best in that beautiful setting!