The Uphold Family
We are trying to find all of the descendants of Walter Uphold (Uppole) & Kate Matthews. If you have any updates email echoeve@yahoo.com swaney@verizon.net

Our Legacy

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

July 25, 2009

What a great reunion y'all. There is so much to write about this year. I think everyone had a really good time. I am going to try to update this more often this year. Alot has happened and there hasn't been any posts.

The reunion wasn't until Saturday afternoon, but we went to the Pavilion Friday night to set up. You might be asking yourselves who are those magical elves that get all the stuff ready for everyone. Well today is your lucky day because I shall share all the details with you..Hee Hee

Harmony, Becky, and Echo (with kids in tough) went to the pavilion to clean up and set up what we could. You know the essential stuff like tables, chairs, redneck slip and slide, ect.... To our surprise Timmy, and Stevie were putting in horseshoe pits...Yeah baby! not only one set but the next morning they came and set up a second...Yeah baby! Thanks boys. You know what this means....The 1st annual Uphold Horseshoe tournament. (more about that later)

The pavilion wasn't to bad this year, just needed a good cleaning. However, out of the 9 tables and 18 chairs there was only 5 tables left. This was a bit of a problem, but in the end all was found. Disclaimer: When you borrow something please make sure to bring it back when you are finished with it. Thanks! So when we were done we ate and headed back to the pavilion to socialize. We will call this the pre reunion party. In attendance was Harmony, Becky, Echo, Frank, Butch, Chickie, Greg, Tim, Terri, Timmy, Stevie, you get the picture....

Thanks to the following: (this of course isn't everyone, I mean I didn't have a pen and paper out keeping score, so if you can think of anyone I have missed please leave a comment)

Judy, and Greggie for bringing such a wonderful covered dish(firewood)

Cindy and Sandy for leading off the dancing when the D.J. started, and kept the kids moving.

Rich for taking over the horseshoe tournament organization when the committee was busy.

Amy (Dave's daughter) for going around and collecting addresses, and history this year.

Brandy for walking the memorial plaque, and good luck horseshoe around.

Amanda Lankford (Margie's daughter) for taking some really great pictures at the reunion. I am most thankful.

Margie for bringing the large basket that we raffled off.

George did such a good job on the fireworks

Katlyn for making sure the port a potty got to the right location

Echo brought some old photos, and made Volume 2 for the heritage books.

Food to remember: (if you liked something else, or brought something please leave a comment)

Coon did the meat, and brought the apple pie (and it ain't the kind you eat with a fork or can buy in a store)

Butch brought the Jim Beam for the drink on Jim, and the buttershots. I know Amanda (Margie's daughter) would like to say a big thanks since she drank all the buttershots, and Katlyn would like to say Hey that's not fair I didn't get enough.....hee hee (just kidding girls)


Margie brought a cheesecake, a (freshly squeezed) key lime cheese cake, a warming oven with lasagna, and scalloped potatoes.

Terri brought pigs in a blanket, and potato salad, and an extra pool for the kids

Rosa brought taco salad...I was so excited..I had really wanted this stuff and I didn't think I was going to get it since Sam is dating some guy who makes the 'best' potato salad ever...whatever. (the potato salad was good)

I don't know who brought the chocolate oatmeal no bake cookies, but they were great. Thanks and please bring them again next year.

Michelle made two pans of you famous broccoli rice cheese casserole (that is the stuff)

Someone brought a great big thing of really yummy looking cupcakes. I didn't eat them but my kids fought over them.
Someone brought a great big dessert pizza with fruit on it. I didn't get to eat that either but it sure looked good.
All that was missing was Grandma Betty's tapioca.

On to the 1st Annual Uphold Horseshoe Tournament. We will be doing this again next year. Everyone signed up and partners were picked. Everyone threw in $1.00, and the winner took it all. We had 36 people sign up. Congrats to Tim Uphold, and David Lytle. Runner up George Mitchell, and Jay Jay. (Steph's Son) (sorry Jay Jay your last name escapes me.) I think Cindy and Sandy wanted to win real bad, but there's always next year ladies!


The auction was great fun. We didn't make as much money has we have in the past. We can blame it on two things: 1) the economy 2) the rain. Some of the interesting things in the auction were Moon Sand, a stuffed Dog, Vansformers, ect. At the beginning Dianne Lytle passed around a Prada (okay Frada but it still looked good) and everyone put money in it, and then we sold it at the auction. Grandma Betty won the bid for $165.00. There was only $75.00 in the purse, but she felt like it was a good cause and she had a good time.

Last year we had volume one of the heritage books and took donations, this year Echo made volume two but we only had one person donate. Thanks Ashely for the donation. We will keep the volumes coming. I am going to keep the heritage books going like fine wine, they will just keep getting better with age. For those who didn't get Vol. 2 and wanted one please contact the committee. Inside Vol. 2 were newspaper articles, some good, some very bad, but all were about family.

The kids had alot of fun on the giant slip and slide. They just can never get enough of it.


At 6:00 the D.J. Mat the Cat started playing, and Cindy and Sandy and the kids started dancing. What fun. Some of our other adult solid gold dancers included Michelle, Trisha, Becky, and Echo.

After the D.J. played for awhile it was time for the annual photo. Well the committee just didn't fell right asking everyone to sit on that hill since it had rained. So, the asked everyone to pull a chair down below the fire ring, and Harmony pulled Butch's truck over so they could stand in the bed to get the best angle. I love the way this picture turned out. I think we should use this spot again.


At dusk the children started getting out the light up gear they brought. I saw Becky and Harmony had on light up devil horns. I think it suited them to a tee. I didn't have any light up stuff for myself, but next year I will not be out done...Hee Hee. For the kids that didn't bring their light up toys the committee handed out glow in the dark neon necklaces...Great fun, maybe not as great as a flashing wand, or flashing sunglasses, but great fun non the less. Disclaimer: Moms, Dads, and Grandparents please try to remember the light up stuff for next year.

At dark Georgie put on the fireworks display. It was really cool. They had a little mishap with a tube blowing up. It was a little dangerous....but he did a good job. Disclaimer: Teens should not be hanging around where they are letting the fireworks off, and they should not be lighting them.

Harmony, Becky, and Michelle sat in chairs and let people throw water balloons at them for $1. If the balloon didn't break they would throw it back. It was alot of fun to watch. Morgan (Brandy's daughter) thought it was great fun too until she accidentally got hit with one of the water balloons. Sorry, Morgan. We only had 15 balloons, but we did sell them all.

Then Echo made an announcement that Harmony and Katlyn would be lighting memorial balloons for James Uphold, and Dave Humberson while the D.J. played 'That's Life' by Michael Buble. The balloons were a little more tricky then we thought and Katlyn almost caught Harmony on fire instead of the balloon. While we were watching the balloons float away Echo passed around the Jim Beam bottle for a drink on Jim. It was a really nice moment that we have not pictures of. Well we just can't do everything.

There are just so many people to thank, and I know I have forgot someone. To everyone who came Thanks. If you would like to be more involved please contact a committee member. You may be asking yourself how does one contact a committee member? Well leave a comment, email, visit, or make a phone call to: Harmony, Echo, Becky, or Katlyn. We are not elected or anything we are sort of self appointed....hee hee The pay sucks, I guess the benefits suck to, but it is totally worth it.....

Congrats to the newly appointed members of the committee: Amanda Lankford (Magie's daughter), Amanda Lytle (Dianne's Daughter-In-Law), and Amy Sanners(Dave Humberson's daughter). Ladies for more information (to find out what is required of you) please call one of the original committee members...hee hee

the end for now.......Keep checking back because there is so much more like time capsules, secret meetings, and pictures...tons of pictures

Did I forget something? Do you have a great story? Do you want to write a disclaimer? Do you have a suggestion? If you are thinking any of these things please leave a comment or email me at echoeve@yahoo.com

5 comments:

Sam said...

Hey.. Good news... Who is always thinking?? Yep me.. I got a few pics of the memorial balloons that were lifted.. I will send you the pics as soon as I get them downloaded to my computer..

John had a great time @ his first Uphold family reunion, but it is the best macaroni salad ever not potato.. ha ha He just could not believe how the Uphold's loved to have fun.. Definitely not your typical family reunion he said.. I agreed with him.. We do have the best reunions ever..

Coon did awesome again this year.. The meat was so delicious..

Anonymous said...

i THINK IT IS WONDERFUL...CANT WAIT TO SEE MORE

Anonymous said...

i agree the unopld reunion freakin rocks.....for all ages.

Greggie said...

Me and Timmy built the first pits.. I need some credit. haha

Greggie said...

It was another great job putting it together. Our reunion is so kick ass fireworks, great food, beer wagon. The other reunions I go to are so boring. But not ours =)