ellgen family reunion - pictures of the ranch

so i honestly think this was my favorite ellgen family reunion of all time. and i've been to a lot of them! we were celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the homesteading of the ranch. my great grandfather homesteaded it in 1909. my great grandmother also homesteaded not far from where my grandfather did and that was how they met. so we were celebrating them too and all their hard work.
here's a brief rundown of the reunion:
on thursday night, we all met at the church for a big dinner. it'd been a while since we'd seen each other so it was nice to visit a little bit and get caught up. then we had a short program of history about my great grandfather and grandmother by my dad's cousin. i really enjoyed that
part.


then on friday, we all met at the ranch bright and early. it was a beautiful day! mason and i went out a bit early to get some pics of the ranch. honestly, i've never before taken pictures of the ranch. i've taken pictures of people doing things at the ranch, etc. but never like this. and it was a lot of fun. it helped me see the ranch from a different angle. i guess you could say that i grew up there. i lived there until i was 7 and then we moved to town but the ranch has always been a part of my life in one way or another, for good or for bad. i'm sad to admit that i haven't always appreciated it. sometimes i saw it as more of a burden than a blessing. even though i loved the ranch and i loved spending time out there, i used to wish that my dad could have a normal job so we could go on fancy vacations like everyone else. i wanted the best of both worlds i guess. i can't really articulate what i felt that morning as we were riding the 4-wheeler around taking pictures, but i felt a sense of love and gratitude. i finally saw it as the blessing that it is and all the hard work and effort that has gone in to keeping that ranch alive the past 100 years. and i appreciated all the sacrifices that have been made by my great grandfather, great grandmother, grandfather, dad, uncles, brothers, cousins and others for the sake of the ranch.

then we did something that i have never done before... we played at the ranch all day! it was so fun! we had breakfast and then my grandpa and great uncle took us for a little "tour" around all the buildings at the ranch that my grand grandfather had built. it was wonderful because they told stories i had never heard before! my grandpa and great uncle were super funny together too because of course they remembered things just a little differently from each other... that made for a lot of laughs!

following that, we had lunch and everyone just relaxed a little bit in the shade. anders started to get a bit fussy so my dad offered to put him down for a nap in the cool basement of the ranch house (also where one of my cousins and her husband happen to be living right now). i wasn't sure it would work since we didn't have his pack 'n play but my dad was fairly confident that he could do it. he once got anders to drink an entire bottle and then take a nap during sacrament meeting which had never been done before or since so i thought maybe he had a chance. anders is funny about sleeping, if there's anything to play with, look at, touch, listen to, watch, etc, he'll fight sleep to the bitter end. i don't think i've ever gotten him to sleep in a public place. so anyway, i wasn't sure but i thought it was worth a try. it was going to be dark after all and complete darkness has been one of the only effective things to get him to sleep. so minutes passed and after about 30 minutes, there was no sign of either of them. i said to anyone who would listen, "well, one of two things either happened. either it worked and they are both taking a nice nap or my dad's not willing to admit defeat." to which my youngest sister melissa responded, "no, i think dad's fallen asleep and andrew is just crawling all over him, playing in the basement." a little while after that, melissa came running up to mason and i saying, "i was right!!" so anders didn't get a nap that day but my dad did and he really needed it! :)

once everyone had eaten their fill and rested to their liking, then there started to be some activity again. the horse rides and 4-wheeler rides resumed and my cousin mandi took some of us over to see her 4-H pigs. and then a whole bunch of us went and played in the river for awhile which was perfect on a hot afternoon!

soon, it was time to eat again! it's that the highlight of family reunions?! following dinner there was a game of kickball in one of the fields and pretty soon everyone started packing up and heading for town. it was such a fun day but everyone was exhausted! and i personally was suffering from the worse case of hay fever i think i've ever had! it's no fair! i used to never have allergies.
the next day went quickly. we met at the wave pool and played in the water that morning. unfortunately we didn't take many pics as we were in the pool too playing with andrew. he was having a blast! although he didn't like the waves as much as i thought he would. he preferred the pool when it was calm and then when the waves started he would head for the shallower end and hang out until they stopped. he had a blast though and wore himself out!

we then had lunch and everyone said their goodbyes. it was a quick reunion but it was a good one, a very memorable one in my opinion.

this is a cement grainery that my great grandfather built.

this is the barn that he built.

this is the original house that my great grandfather built when he homesteaded. my grandfather was actually born in this house. they added on to it later when the family grew but the addition has been torn down.