Home with a Pandemic

 We are recovered from our reunion trip and enjoying continued time at home with no obligations.  I like this time, even though I basically feel it is unnecessary.  This feeling grows with each day our society continues to be somewhat shut down, masked and afraid.  Fear is the big issue with me.  If we are fearful enough we become willing to let go of freedoms in return for safety.  It seems a foolish exchange.  Especially if the fear is unfounded. 

Son-in-law Chris sent pictures of our reunion group that I didn't have for the previous post.  So here is one that he sent.  Back row L to R:  Dominic, Rayne, Vincent, Peyton, Jessica, Miles.  Front row L to R:  Bruce, Seth, James with son Alex (missing is his wife Alejandra, who was there but not present for the photo), Timothy, Layne, me, Audrey, Angelica, Reed, Chris, Isaiah and his love, Avery.

I am bunches of grateful for these wonderful people who make up part of our family.  I'm also terribly fond of the rest of them who didn't make it this year.

August 10 is our granddaughter Carmen's birthday.  This year she would have been 20 if we hadn't lost her to cancer 11 years ago.  Each year Reed and Dorothy and family celebrate her on her birthday by remembering her and releasing balloons in her memory.  This year we joined with them in our yard.

Dorothy handed out the balloons.

Timothy releases his purple one, Carmen's favorite color.

Vincent watches as Layne releases his.

Reed, offered sweet thoughts of his only daughter Carmen, before releasing his balloon.

It is a lovely moment to watch together as our balloons lift to the skies, disappearing before our eyes, as we imagine Carmen receiving them and knowing that we are sending her our love.

Angelica fills her days with carefully planned goals and activities.  Seth has been working all summer on his 4 online classes.  Between that and basketball he keeps busy.  I too, try and organize my days for accomplishment.  Sometimes I'm successful.  

Our next big event is Isaiah's wedding to his lovely fiance, Avery.  California temples are closed, so they will marry in Audrey and Cliff's home.  After they return to Idaho for school, they will be married for Eternity.  That will be 5 grandchildren married!  

 

Reunion

 

Things are always changing with a big family.  Isaiah and his love Avery will soon be married.  It will be a small ceremony outside the temple, thanks to CoVid.  Last week we gathered at Reed and Dorothy's to witness their son Vincent be ordained an elder, in preparation for his mission call.  Here he is with his parents, Reed and Dorothy.

Here he is again with Dominic, Layne and Reed.

CoVid has changed our lives.  Part of that involved deciding whether or not to have our yearly family reunion this year.  We took a family poll and found that most of the family were in favor.  So Layne rented the Southwest Lodge in Island Park again this year.  The Virus and other things kept some of us from attending.  We missed Ben, Jessica and their family, Scott and his Jessica, Chase, Morgan and their family.  We were down in numbers but the lodge was as lovely as ever and we had fun together, as we always do.  Rayne and Dominic came to our house a week before the reunion, which is always fun.  

 

Here are some reunion highlights.

After driving 5 1/2 hours through the high desert and farm lands of Idaho, we entered Island Park and a beautiful forest.  The lodge is nestled here.

Audrey and Cliff organized the reunion this year. But Cliff wasn't able to come because of CoVid; he has to be quarantined for two weeks before school starts.  So.  Audrey stepped up and organized evening activities and grandson in law Dominic organized daytime activities.  

We went to Yellowstone Park and hiked a trail Dominic found.  Pretty fun.  Long for some of us but we all hung in and took in the beautiful country, ending in a cooling waterfall.  Here are Jessica and Chris, master hikers.

Here's some of our hikers, with Vincent in the rear.  You can tell it is Vincent because of the water bottle he is carrying.  Vincent always has a gallon water bottle with him.  That boy is hydrated!

Miles and Vincent, our recent high school grads, bonding in the wild.

OK, I can't get the underline to delete so here is an undesireable underline to show you the family gang resting during the hike.  Peyton is on the right, Layne stands with Angelica and Seth, sitting.  Note the water jug in the background, indicating its owner, Vincent.  

Miles Vincent and Angelica are happy to be there.

While we were there, Vincent got his mission call.  There was no internet reception at the lodge so we had to drive down the road to a turn-out to get it.  Here is Vincent, reading his letter from the First Presidency on his phone.  Where is he going?  Melbourne, Australia!  When is he going?  November!  Excitement filled the air as we all surrounded him as he read the news.  His brother Timothy is beside him.

Great grandson Alex (son of James and Alejandra) fell asleep each afternoon in the midst of our activities.  One of our games was putting the name of each of us on someone else's back.  We had to guess the name we had.  Fun.  Once guessed, some of us we put our stickers on Alex.  He didn't move!

One morning Audrey organized the teens into two teams in an "Iron Chef" sort of activity.  Each team was given ingredients that they had to use to fix breakfast.  Grandpa was supposed to choose the best.  He wimped out on that.  They did an amazing job so I don't blame him for not choosing a favorite.  Here they are, hard at work.

Some of us floated down the Snake River.  Here are some of the floaters:  Timothy, Miles, Vincent, Angelica, Peyton, Seth and Reed.  

Here's Miles and Seth, easing down the river.  It took us close to 4 hours to reach the end our the ride.  It was slow but so beautiful.  

Rayne and I had the only raft.  She did all the rowing.  So I just floated along, enjoying the view.  

The problem was, our raft developed a slow leak.  So Dominic floated along side us and occasionally blew air into our raft as we floated along.  He kept us afloat.  Such a guy!

Wednesday night we had a special celebration for Layne, who will be 80 his next birthday.  We all gathered around to watch a video on his life, then enjoyed some of his favorite treats.  Audrey gave him a book with everyone's love messages inside.  He loved it.We had a wonderful time together and the time passed quickly, as it always does.  Friday morning found us all packing up for the trip back home.  All except Chris and Jessica, who stayed one more day with Miles, Peyton and Vincent.  Everyone stopped by our house or Reed and Dorothy's for a Friday overnight.  We all stayed up late visiting, with the kids staying up even later watching movies.  Or something like that.  Everyone left Saturday morning.  Just as I got everything cleaned up, one of our first foster daughters, Laura White, stopped by with two of her children, Carrie and Tim.  We had a lovely visit with them.  Here we are:  me, Carrie, Laura, Tim and Layne.  

I just got cleaned up from that when Chris, Jessica and kids arrived.  We had dinner, played badminton until dark and visited until late.  They left early this morning.  So we are back to just 4.  It is quiet.  Sometimes that's nice.  But I love the busyness of family too.  I'd rather be tired with them than rested without them.So with underlined expressions I am grateful that the Virus didn't prevent these wonderful memories in this unparalelled year of 2020.