We rarely get to see our son Gerald, wife Fran and kids. So while they were here with their Taiwanese English students, Chris and Jessica and kids decided to come for a few days. Then Ben and his Jes and their kids also decided to come. If you are counting, that amounts to some 30 or so people. All here. At the same time. We could not turn that down. So on they came and, for a few days, we had a wild, wonderful time. As it turns out, the Chinese students really liked our kids and took great care of the little ones. They went swimming, drove the ATVs around the area behind our house, played volleyball and, just in general, had a good time. We invited our friend, Evan Green, to do a fireworks show for everyone one night. It was so fun! We had beds for the adults and the kids slept in sleeping bags anywhere they wanted. It was crowded to be sure, but I'm so glad that we were able to host them all.
Here's an example of Evan's fireworks show. He ties them to his arms and then moves around to music. Pretty fun to watch.
Here is our houseful, with three of our families joining with the Chinese kids. Gerald, Ben and Jessica with their families are all here!
Here is our newest grandchild, Olivia, happy on her brother Will's shoulder.
Seth and Angelica are now 10 and 12 years old.
These three were all born the same year. Miles and Jacqueline recently turned 13; Seth will in October.
Peyton and Angelica present a lovely contrast, and Alexis makes three sweet granddaughters.
Monday the 20th through the 24th we all met up in Lake Tahoe for a family reunion. All but Ger and Fran, who stayed at our house with the Chinese kids. I'll be so happy when they can join us for reunions. Reed and Dorothy arranged a place for us to stay--a big house that had room for all of us. They also arranged a different activity for each day we were there. Everyone got along great. I made some family slide shows to show the kids each night and think they enjoyed them. I'm thinking it is a good thing to include each year. I showed them a total of 4: one on Layne and his dream of flying (have a dream and work to make it come true), Layne's g-g grandparents, the Mortensens, who crossed the plains in the Willie Handcart Company (be willing to sacrifice for what you believe to be true), a review of Carmen's life (we must never forget that she is a part of our family), and a collection of pictures of family through the years being together (our family is stronger together than apart). I felt so tender about the family at this reunion. There is no one among them that I don't absolutely trust and love.
The grandkids went fishing in a tourist trap pond and caught all of these. We had a major fish fry!
Jessica happily entertaining Olivia.
I love this selfie of daughters Jessica and Audrey.
Here's the whole reunion gang!
I am noticing that we are definitely the old people now. There was lots of, "help grandma...look out for grandma...get that for grandma" and so forth. Gotta look out for the old lady. To be fair, we were the oldest people there by quite a bit. So, with our family, we are the old birds. I'm glad, though, that they choose to look out for us. They could choose not you, you know. Next year Layne and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary! I can't believe that it could be here so quickly. It seems like just a short time ago that we celebrated Mom and Dad's. And they seemed to be pretty old at that time. So I guess we are too. Ger and Fran are going to plan next year's anniversary reunion and seem excited about it. They want to have it here in Idaho. I like that idea. Perhaps we can convert some of the kids to the beauty and fun of Idaho. And that means that Ger and Fran will be at our next family reunion!
We returned from the reunion to Ger and Fran and gang for a few more days. They all left last Monday. It took us three days, give or take, to get things all cleaned up. It is now all in good order. Now to get the old lady body back in shape. I'm so tired! And so is Layne. We have been laying around, pretty much, since the kids left. Except for one day devoted to ATVing with a group of dedicated riders. I cut my finger pretty badly the day before so it was all bandaged up for the ride. Our ATV gas pedal is maneuvered with the right thumb. Mine was already touchy when the ATV day began. By days end I could hardly move my right hand. As we progressed along the trail, I tried every thing I could think of to press that pedal besides using my thumb; the heel of my hand, other fingers, left thumb. By the time the ride was finally through I felt like I never wanted to go again. Its taken a few days for my right hand to recover. But recover it has so I'll quit complaining now.
Here's some of the ATV gang, with Layne on the left.
I'm looking forward to a quiet August. Think it'll happen?
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