Flaming Gorge - Family Reunion 2011

Wow!! What a fun-filled long weekend!! Everyone but Dayle was able to come. We missed him and hope to have him with us next time. Thankfully, he sent his family and they created a great stir! Tammy is always making things fun..."Mom, if you added two more little diamonds to your toes, you'd have smiley faces"! Julie and Belana were quite taken with the signs in the condo: "It's never too late to live happily every after", and "You're closer to heaven when you're in the mountains". Julie made most of us beautiful woven bracelets - or were they knotted? Chevrons and hearts were the decorations on them. Julie is quite good at this skill. I love my blue and pink bracelet!!

We had three condo rooms rented with a lovely breezeway between. Here we set up two white folding tables and served our meals. Great location. We just pulled all of the chairs out of the rooms and had a great area...for eating and game-playing.

The food - pancakes, bacon, pulled pork, spagheti, hoagies, was so good. I guess it helped to be hungry, but I've never enjoyed a sandwich and watermelon like I did after the river run!!

The river run was soooo much fun. Andy got me into a raft, thinking she was putting me in a quiet spot at the back, and then Joe turned the thing around and I became a rower at the front of the raft!! Lots of water and lots of fun - right up until Jeff and Jason tried to steal Andy's super-soaker and Mike threw a bucket of water at me and I slid right off my seat ending up on my back with both arms and legs in the air!! I felt like a dying beetle!! Joe helped get me righted and we shortly after landed. John and I took the youngest back to the condo to shower and rest. The others ran the river a second time. It was just beautiful and so much fun!!

The games and activities were engaging, too. The marathon "Minute To Win It" was just great! Everyone was
as quiet as we were all weekend, while everyone concentrated on the challenge at hand. Stack nuts with chop sticks, shack three golf balls, balance a nail head on a string, toss cheese balls at someone whose face is slathered with shaving foam. Great laughs...and thanks to Sherry our team took first place....!!

The candy bar game is tradition and always a hit. Then, John and I each gave a short spiritual thought to top off Sunday morning. After all, we did miss church!

The goodbyes were hard, especially knowing the Andersons were headed 1000 miles away. It was a great weekend. Kudos to Joe and Andy for hosting a great 2011 Family Reunion!!

The Fourth of July

We rented Wildflower Park in Sandy and invited all of the family to come. It was so nice to have unlimited space, tables, bathrooms, great company, and good food. We also got to meet Titan, Annie and Dan's new addition. He was only about a week old, so he slept a great deal. He seems like a calm, sweet
little baby. With them as parents, he is likely to have a calm personality, too!

Jeff's rocket was also a big hit! Sounds like a huge explosion, but is really all electronic - no fire. The kids - and Jeff - had great fun chasing the little parachute!!

It was overcast most of the day, which tempered the heat of this Fourth. The fireworks were fun - at the traditional spot of the "J"!! It sprinkled a bit, but not enough water to worry about.

Katie gave me a huge sack of taffy for the piano candy bucket...my, they must have collected two gallons at the Murray Parade!

Good-bye Mexico, Hello, U.S.A.!!

We planned a land cruise to Cancun, Tulum, and Chichen Itza about three months ago. The time of departure
finally came. We had a fine neighbor boy water the lawn, and some fine grandchildren water the flowers and garden. When we got home the place looked very nice! Good thing, because there is a ton of work in
that yard...remember the wedding??

We met four nice couples on our cruise, three of them from our valley. We had lovely motels, delicious food (altho we ate only food that was peeled or cooked), beautiful scenery, and TONS OF RAIN!! Upon arriving home, we learned that we were in the first tropical storm of the season - named "Arlene". I believe we had ten to fourteen inches of rain!!! On Monday night, it thundered, lighteninged, and dumped rain all night long. The only other distraction was a pair of peacocks talking all night long - at an interval of a second, musically speaking. Talk about a noisy night. We were kept active enough that sleep came easily though. We saw some amazing pyramids, statues, and relics that were very, very old.

Tulum, Ek Balam, and Chichen Itza were just amazing!! So glad we were able to share the trip together.

My right ankle did pretty well, considering all of the walking we did...at landmarks and in airports. At each location I would walk as far as I could, then turn back to the hotel. Not long later, the rain would just dump! Everyone was wet to the skin, but I managed to stay pretty dry! :-)

Our flight was cancelled, so we had to stay overnight at a Marriot Courtyard and get up at 3:00 in the morning. Landing over the Salt Lake Valley was impossible, due to a storm front. The turbulence was frightening!! After diverting to Pocatello and gassing up, we headed back to Utah and were able to land.

John and I both experienced some sort of food poisoning. Diahrrea, upset tummy, body aches. Sure glad it
didn't hit until we were home. Took us two days to recuperate! Glad to be back in the United States of America!!