Family Reunion, 2017

One of my great desires is to keep my adult children in each other's lives.  So we have yearly family reunions.  At first Layne and I organized them.  But we are not going to be here in time to come, so we decided to put the kids in charge.  This year, son Ben and his Jessica took charge.  They found a place on the Oregon coast called Langlois, that they felt would be about equal in distance for each of us.  We began our 10 hour drive there on Monday.  We were surprised to discover that the drive took us on some 15 different roads, most full of twists and turns, through all sorts of countryside, from desert to forests.  No freeway travel except the first 10 minutes or so.  It felt like a long drive, but full of beautiful views.  The place we rented was quite solitary and full of the most beautiful grounds I've seen in a long time.  There were forests, meadows and trails going all throughout, with twist and turns that produced ponds and benches tucked around bends.  The meadows were full of wildflowers.  It was as if the plants there wanted to grow.  There seemed to be no stopping them as, in every direction, the grounds were full of beautiful growing plants of all sorts.  It was these grounds that made our stay so magical.

Layne and I took a lovely walk through the nearby forest and on into a meadow full of daisies.  So inspiring!

Most of us gathered one evening at this sort-of raised gazebo to watch the sunset.

Some of the grandkids gathered at the pond's edge to get a closer look at nearby living things.  Son-in-law, Chris, is in the background.  Isn't it lovely?

Besides meandering through the heavenly grounds, we gathered in the club house for games, gabbing and meals.  Being with family is such a blessing.  I feel grateful that all of us get along so well.  Only three of our five families were here, but we enjoyed our association very much.  There isn't anyone in the family that I don't really like as well as love.  That's a pretty fine family situation, wouldn't you say?  Grandkids gather for games below.  

We were located very near the beach, so we spent a day there.  It was as perfect a day as one could hope for.  It was warm but not hot and the beach was only sparsely populated.  Kids played in the water and sand, we talked and walked.  I love the beach!  It is a little sad to me that Idaho doesn't have any.  Here's Miles and Gemma.

We headed for home on Friday (last week now), followed by Ben and Jessica and their family.  We spend some sweet time with them.  Evenings in Idaho in the summer are often still hot, even up to sunset at 10 PM or so.  So the kids played outside until bedtime, and beyond!  Here's the whole BJ family:  Abigail, Alexis, Ben with Will, Zachary, Jess with Jon, Jacqueline, Tia and Olivia in front.

Abigail worked very hard to make friends with our kitty, Cherry.  She finally succeeded!  Cherry actually chose to lay down next to her--quite an accomplishment!

Gerald, Frances and their gang returned from Utah on Monday, so we had a couple of days with everyone with us.  It was wild, crazy and fun.  Here's our Taiwanese bunch:  Ray, Gerald, Angelica, Angel, Sean, Linda, Frances and Jason.  Frances and I shared the cooking.  Sometimes the kids wanted to eat "American" and sometimes Frances' delicious Chinese cooking won the day.  This photo shows one of our American meals:  tacos.  They want a repeat.

This is our fourth Idaho summer.  So far each summer season is full to the brim with company and activities of all sorts.  What a great time it is!

A Hole in the Ground

Our quiet days have returned.  The GF gang have departed for Utah and adventures there as of Thursday.  Layne has been busy transforming the yard.  After presenting my vision for the gazebo and berm in the back yard, and with a little time for his mind to percolate, he is so on board.  He's been working all week on the hole in the yard that is to become a berm, putting in new pipes for watering.  He's even come up with some improvements to our watering system.  You know how one thing leads to another.  On and on he works, despite the hot weather.  "I love heat," he keeps telling me.  I guess he does!

I bounce back and forth between loving to be surrounded by people and loving being alone, now that I'm an older woman.  In my youth, I loved a more social life.  But now I've come to enjoy solitary times.  I would not like to be alone for long periods of time, but short ones suit me nicely.  I'm more prone to solitary interests and love open time for thinking and studying.  That is quite a departure for me.  I used to fit my studying and thinking in between the frantic pace of life that is involved in keeping up with lots of people in my household.  But now longer stretches of time open up before me and I need to learn to use them more productively.  I'm surprised by how achieving a provident life is still a challenge.

Here's a picture of our Taiwanese kids, taken just before dinner.  The kids wanted to eat "American", so we served tacos, as you can see in the photo.  They mostly liked it.  Some really did.  Everyone is in the picture except Seth.  I'm not sure where he was at the time.  They return to us in another week!

Hot Days of Summer

We have had a lovely spring, with warm, rainy days.  Heavenly, I thought.  But all of that is over.  Our summer, so far, has offered us days filled with hot, hot, let me say, HOT weather!  In the midst of this heat, we celebrated Independence Day, partly at our friends, the Greens, and partly at our friends, the Wintersteens.  Our Boise valley fills with fireworks of all sorts on the 4th of July.  One can choose to visit one site and enjoy fireworks up close, or, as we did, sit in the comfort of the Wintersteen's deck and view them in every direction, from afar.  Either way, it is an inspirational feast.  I love celebrating our Independence!  This area is a patriotic place, so it fits my passions nicely.  Layne and I also watched the movie,  "1776", as we do every year.  I still love it and am tenderized, as always, at the ending, when the miracle of independence is so dramatically portrayed.

Into our long, hot days of summer, son Gerald, Frances, their kids and 5 English students have arrived.  They are here until Thursday, when they head to Utah and scheduled adventures there.  As always, it is wonderful to have family here.  I love the spirit our children bring to us when they come.  Our days with the GF group have been very pleasant, in spite of the heat.  They helped us put up the roof on our pergola/gazebo.  It was quite a project, with many adaptations needed.  Layne has a mind for that, thankfully, and the roof is now up.  Take a look at our group of workers, which include our Taiwanese kids, neighbor Jim, and Layne.

Gerald and Frances always have a full schedule of activities for the kids they bring.  Friday night we drove to an outdoor theater, Starlite, and watched a live production of Beauty and the Beast, performed by college students, for the most part.  They perform in 4 productions all through the summer.  It was lovely to watch them on the outdoor stage, with a full moon overhead.  By the time we got home from that it was after midnight, and the jet-lagged Taiwanese fell asleep like the dead, only arising for a late brunch on Saturday morning.

The GF crowd missed our Independence Day, but we gave them a taste of it Saturday night, with fireworks in the backyard as the sun set.  That doesn't happen until 10 PM, so this activity went on into the night.  But it was fun!  Seth lit the fireworks, we ooohed and ahhhed, then followed with sparklers.  The hose was close by to make sure that no spark escaped and the kids ended the night with a water fight.  Such fun!  Here are the boys, joy jumping before the fireworks began.

Fireworks!

It is Sunday.  Everyone went to Church and now, as it is too hot to go outside, the kids are rumbling upstairs.  The house is full of chasing, charging and laughing.  Its not exactly a quiet Sabbath!

Family Connections

Why is it that things seem to come in bunches?  There are days in my life when absolutely nothing is happening.  Then there are times when too many things fill my days.  This past week was one of those.  Our granddaughter, Rayne, became officially engaged in California, as her British man was visiting and presented her with a beautiful engagement ring.  This weekend our Gendreaus were due here once again, on their way home from a southern Utah and beyond vacation.  We were determined to visit Rayne and meet her future husband, Dominic.  So we flew to California on Wednesday and had fun meeting and visiting with Dom and bonding with some of the family.

Here are Dom and Rayne.  We found Dom to be bright, pure-hearted, motivated and extremely keen on Rayne.  He lives in England, but plans to immigrate here.  They seem very compatible.  I think they will be happy together.  

The engagement ring.  Of course you can see every detail from this photo....

While we had a good visit with Rayne, Dom, Audrey and Cliff, Reed, Dorothy and two of their sons, we missed seeing Ben and Jessica and I didn't get to visit my Uncle Mike's grave. I was sad about that.  

We had to hurry home as the Gendreaus were expected on Saturday. So we flew home on Friday.  We managed to miss the birthday party for Audrey (she turned 50 on July 27th!), held before we came and Rayne's engagement party on Saturday, after we left. 

Chris and Jessica arrived with their gang on Saturday, as expected, on their way home from a traveling vacation.  They came to us full of stories about their adventures and a visual tour of the places they visited, presented by Miles.  He is keen on photography and took some extremely good pictures with his phone...and everyone else's too.  Peyton turns 13 on July 3rd, so we celebrated her birthday with a dinner as close to her requests as I could muster, and a birthday cake. 

Our visit was all too short as they had to leave on Sunday morning.  It has been a week of family connections, which is always a good thing, even if there were some things we had to miss.  That, I suppose, is the price we pay for living away from family.  Here's our departing Gendreaus, with Vincent included.  He went with them on all their adventures.  He and Miles are great friends as well as cousins.  Love those boys.  And the rest of them too.

On their way home, here is Vincent, Gemma, Miles, Peyton, Jessica and Chris.