arnett family blog: May 2009

I love learning about family history. One thing we have tried to do on Sunday afternoons is learn more about our grandparents and great grandparents. We have wonderful books on so many of them thanks to our parents. We love them and love reading and feeling like we are getting to know them. Life was so simple - yet so tough for many of them. Well this past weekend we took a trip to learn about Grandpa Roc's family. Grandpa was from a small town on the Arizona/New Mexico border called Duncan, AZ. We packed up our little family (smiles and all - especially from Ashlynn), took Grandpa with us and were on our way to meet up with over 100 family members - all descendants of Tom and Annie Arnett. We had arranged a small bed and breakfast for our stay. It looked a little better on the website - when we arrived, there were goats, chickens and cats roaming the grounds. A little uneasy at first - but once your asleep - all is forgotten. That is until the train rolled through town at 4:30 am and awoke us all! We were glad to have a bed while the others all stayed together in a large church house - now used for reunions. The group gathered together at this church house for dinner. We had a little program that evening with memories from Aunt Doris - the only remaining child of Tom and Annie, and then the next morning was breakfast and a tour of Grandpa's childhood. The tour was wonderful...so many memories were brought up for the cousins that brought on many tears and laughter! I was so glad my children were there to be a part of it. Grandpa does not think he will ever get back so I am so glad we took the opportunity to go and see this and have him as our personal tour guide! It made him happy to have us there! Here are a few pictures of what we saw!