If you can sit down for a few hours and learn some basic principles things start to become really simple.
As for family functions, superzooms are not really indoor cameras, they need more light to focus and you might not always like the results of using flash.
We’ll be outside....the main things are a high school graduation and party, and softball games. A super zoom like that would allow me some really good shots. I’ll have to do some practicing first as you say or it won’t matter what camera I use. :)