The BASH

Butters Annual Summer Holiday


I am remembering this Memorial Weekend back to all of the fun times we had at the BASH.  We had a wonderful family reunion for  20 years.   My Aunt Lynette had an idea to do an extravaganza 3 day reunion. We didn't want any ol' eat-potato- salad at the park reunion....We voted on an ...eat together..swim together ..sleep together family reunion.  We all thought that would be great to really bond with each other and we had plenty of sleeping places in Bountiful...so all of the out of towners from Colorado, Spanish Fork, Orem and Idaho would travel to Bountiful and we got to have visitors at our home.   

 After the first year we voted on a name...the BASH.... and we all made family banners that we would bring and hang in Grandma's breezeway year after year.

THE BASH was mostly on Memorial weekend, but moved around the summer calendar as well.

We always did some sort of service, whether it be cleaning grandma's yard up, or collecting stuff for another cause.  We assigned out food, crafts and games and activities.  We played soft ball and visited cemeteries.  We also tried to go to church together and would double Grandma Butters' ward attendance.  We even put on a sacrament program a couple of years with the Butters family choir singing Families Can Be Together Forever and Families to Match the Mountains.  We even provided the speakers.  It was truly an extravaganza.    Some years we gathered to share testimonies...and memories of Grandpa Butters.
 I loved every minute of it.  Yes, it was work.  Yes, it took planning.  Yes, it was worth it.
The kids were in cousin heaven.    On Sunday night we always put on a talent show.  Grandpa Butters and Grandma Butters were in the front row cheering us on.  We had a variety of acts.  We had Wayne and Gary dress as Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers one year and lip sync, Islands in the Stream.  We had arm pit fart music.  We had break dancing, singing, magic acts, jokes and baton twirling.  We made family videos....ours was Hakuna Matada.... we had treasure hunts and carnivals.
Always a show of some kind.  We even had Guy as Red Green one year with Adam as the side kick Lyle.  It was so funny.

1998

We had BASH university in 1998, where we taught each other things and stuff that we were good at.  While we were having a genealogy type class, my cousins Krystin and Paisley were running the nursery for the under 5 and can't-sit-still set.  It was a great class, then as we went to collect the kids to have lunch...the nursery room was quiet as can be.  We opened the door and all of the kids were duct taped into chairs with tape over their mouths...eyes smiling.  They thought the joke was on us.

1991

I love this pic of  my Grandpa Butters  and Grandma Butters in the front  row.  My mom is sitting by Grandpa with my dad on the ground in front of her, holding Truman.
 This was the last Bash for Grandpa Butters.   I miss Grandpa and Grandma both so much.

1999

We did the BASH a few times down in Spanish Fork/Orem.  It was a good change.  We got to be the guests.  We always ended up back in Bountiful swimming though.  We always had so  many kids in the pool that it looked like people soup!

One memorable eating experience was in Uncle Steve's back yard.  We had just said the prayer and taken the lid off of the chicken gravy for the Hawaiian Haystacks.  We all started smelling poop.  We were checking little kids diapers and blaming the teenagers for "letting one."  It was the GRAVY.  Something happened between the making of it and the eating of it.....or the non eating of it.  This might have been what caused the end of the BASH come to think of it.  It was the stinky straw that broke the family reunion's back.  We all thought it was very funny....my Aunt Dar did not.

One Talent show year we dressed up all of the COLE cousins...my kids, Marcie's kids and Adams kids to represent Grandma and Grandpa B. and their  children..... We had wigs and old clothing  galore.  It was a hoot. 

 Addison was Sir Grant and Megan played Sweet Mother. 

The  song sums up the BASH and who was involved....

(Sung to the Brady Bunch theme song...sort of)

Here’s a story of a great big family

Started by a guy with love light in his eyes

When he saw that redhead named Eulala

He said, “Baby, I think that we should marry

We can go off in the sunset hand in hand.”

She said, “Well, ok …let’s have some babies

A family would be grand.”

Here’s the children they had together

The girls are Darlene, Diane, Lynette and Sharolyn

The boys are Steve and Brad  and Bailey and Grant Michael

(He’s iiving now in Heaven)

Sweet Mother’s happy they all got married

And they all had many children of their own,

And those children had lots of children

We’re never all alone.

There’s an Ostlund, Sweeten, Poulter, Fulton, Morley

There’s a Callister, a Call, a Welch, a Brown

There’s Tarrant, Sweeten, Smith and  a Butters

An Ostlund and a Cole.

There’s a Butters, Ashworth, Butters, Black and Poulter

There’s the Hills, Poulter, Cole and VonLutzow

And it started with Sir Grant and sweet Mother

But that was years ago.

The Butters Bunch

The Butters Bunch

All hundred thirty seven—We’re the Butters Bunch

Every year we try our best to get together

It’s called the BASH—we eat and sleep and laugh and play

We swim and party,  love and learn and make memories

We go on night and day

We do the BASH

We do the BASH

When we’re together we have fun,

We have a BASH!

Change happens.  

We all grow and our families get bigger and family needs change too.

I am so grateful we had the BASH for as many years as we did.  

Now we do our Cole family reunion at  Bear Lake every July.... I hope that lasts forever!

I guess we could call it THE CASH!