Picomania: A Family Tradition

Every year in August, a group of us pull out of our driveways in CA, AZ, UT, NY (have I missed anyone?) and meet in Cedar City, UT at the El Rey Best Western for The Shakespeare Festival. Some of us attend the plays and some don't (depending on the year). Essentially, we are all there for one reason: A Campbell family reunion. I started going to the plays with my husband the first year we started dating (that's been 17 years). We missed some years due to babies, med school, residency, etc, but when we can, we are there.

Every year since they were little my husband and his cousins have been going to the Shakespeare Festival and now we are continuing the tradition with our kids and their cousins. I'm just hoping we don't get kicked out of the El Rey any time soon. Like in any family or big group, some years almost all of us are there and some years people can't come for certain reasons, but the "show must go on".

The days are long and lazy and the nights filled with laughter, tarts, and of course Shakespeare plays. This year we saw A Midsummer's Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. The girls and I saw the first play together and it was fantastic. Cam, Annie, and I saw Romeo and Juliet and truth be told, we were a little disappointed (we weren't the only ones). Some plays you're impressed with and they impress you and some don't. That's the nature of theater.

This year we picnicked at Duck Creek, played at the new community water park/pool, went to see Planet of the Apes (some of us saw it). Uncle Ed entertained all of us, especially Annie at the movie theater. "Hey, Annie, you want a poster"! We sat around the pool while the kids played, talking and eating (what's a family function without food?).

We also came together as a family when we received some bad news about Cam's mom. Her doctor called when we were all there with the news that her breast cancer had metastasized to her liver. Devastating to the whole family, but most of us were there with each other and that was of great comfort. I hope we were able to distract our Mae enough, so that she enjoyed a very long, otherwise stressful weekend. Since that time, she's undergone a biopsy and they are trying a new hormone blocker and perhaps chemo therapy. We're also praying she gets accepted to an experimental program at UCLA. We continue to pray for healing and health as we wait to see what happens.

Our trip went something like this...