Our Family Reunion

 Every year we have a family reunion, shifting responsibility for it among our kids.  This year Reed and Dorothy were in charge. Dorothy found a lovely place in Bear Lake.  It was our most expensive place yet, but promised to be very nice.  As it turned out, it was just being built when we reserved it.  It was barely finished when we arrived, so we were just about their first visitors.  The place was pretty luxurious.  But, like any new place, there were things that could be improved upon.  The owners asked for our feedback, so we began listing things as we went through the week.  They were little things really, and didn't put much of a dent on our enjoyment.

One of the things I love about our family is that there is little if any contention between families.  It makes our gatherings safe and enjoyable.  Everyone works to accommodate everyone else.  Bear Lake offers a variety of activities; there is shopping, boating, beaching, various places touring and, of course, raspberry milkshakes.  Bear Lake is known for them.  We made sure to get our fill of them.

Some of the family rented fun stuff to do at the Lake.  Some of us toured a nearby cave, which was really interesting.  There were lots of formations inside, which were accessed by lots of stairs going up and down throughout.  A college student was our tour guide and she knew her stuff.  She made it all fun.  I must say that we got enough exercise climbing up and down to last us for a week!  Here is a shot of the longest set of stairs, which our tour guide ran up; it instilled admiration in us all.

Here we are, just after emerging from the cave.  L to R:  Timothy, Bruce, Reed, Dorothy, Layne, Jessica (#1), Chris.

Not all of the family attended the reunion this year.  Our grandchildren are starting to have families of their own, with increased obligations to inlaws and such.  We have decided that we will continue to have our yearly reunions and not worry about who can come and who cannot.  We plan to just leave it open for whoever is available to come.  This year we were missing some of the older grandkids.  But we had fun with the ones who came.  Isaiah and Avery brought their sweet little Mercedes, which everyone made a fuss over.  They are soon to be moving to New York, to go to school at Cornell.  So this will be the last time we see them for awhile.  Avery brought her tree yoga equipment.  (I don't think it is called tree yoga, but it is done from a tree or pole).  She put up the equipment and taught some of the kids some moves.  It is pretty fascinating to watch.  Here you can see Peyton, inside the fabric that is used for the yoga moves.  It might not show, but she is actually in some sort of stretch in this photo.  

Pretty interesting, yes?  Here are a couple of snapshots of Mercedes; in one of them she is with her grandfather Cliff.  Wow, our son-in-law is a grandfather.   Our Jessica is holding her in the second picture. 

It is wonderful to have babies in the family again.  Grandson Scott and his Jessica also came, with their little son, Thomas.  What a cutie he is.  See what you think.  Here he is with his Mom, Jessica (#3).

We had lots of great time to play games and visit.  Our balcony gave us a lovely view of Bear Lake, and also a great view of a robin's nest.  We watched as mama Robin hunted for food for her three big babies and fed them.  It was a treat.  By week's end the babies had all wandered out of the nest and flew away.  

Perhaps our favorite activity was attending a performance of Beauty and the Beast at the local Pickle Theater.  It was amazingly professional.  We all loved it.  It was fun to learn that the girl who played Belle was engaged to the boy who played the Beast, in real life.  Here they are after the performance, with Olivia and Victoria.

Timothy put in his mission papers shortly after his High School graduation this past May.  While at the reunion, the call came.  We all cheered as he read his call to TEXAS DALLAS!  I think he was excited and felt our love and support.  Here he is, reading the mission news to us.

We ate, played, talked, gamed, and just generally had fun together.  Family.  One of the greatest blessings in life.

Late Spring; I found my blog

 For awhile I could not get into this blog.  Don't know why. But I got in today, so I will attempt to catch up a bit.  We have two more great-grandchildren, which are such a sweet blessing.  They are babies, so each time we see them, they are much changed.  Here is a snapshot of me holding Thomas.  He is full of good spirits and cute dimples when he smiles.

Of course it is several months later now, so he is even cuter.  

Angelica's last school dance was in April.  The boy she quite likes asked her in such a cute way.  He lined our sidewalk with chocolate kisses and put a sign on the porch for her which read, "I kiss the ground you walk on...Prom?"  How could you resist that.  Of course she was so excited.  It was a group date, as usual, and which is such a great thing.  They had a glorious time.  Their friendship has grown a great deal these last few months.  After school was out, he asked her to be his girl.  She was excited to say yes.  Of course that arrangement is only good for a few months, as he will soon leave on his mission.  Here is a picture of Angelica and her Clayton, all set for the Senior Prom.

Our Jessica is now working for Alaska Airlines and she is beginning to really enjoy it.  She is working with the recruitment department, trying to get potential pilots onboard with Alaska.  There is quite a shortage of pilots right now, so there is lots of competition between airlines for recruits.  Her working group had a meeting here in Boise in late April.  We got her for a few days visit and loved it.  She drove my little sports car to her meetings and then we played when she wasn't busy.  Here we are, just before she left for home.

Angelica was involved with a dance team that has traveled to various places throughout the school year for competitions.  Some of the competitions were local.  Here she is with her dance group after one of her performances.  Can you spot her on the right?

Some of her competitions were out of state.  The travel and accommodations were up to us to arrange and pay for.  That bothered me quite a bit.  Her lessons were not cheap yet there were no arrangements for group travel or accommodations.  It seems to me that there should have been.  We made trips to Provo, Utah and to Phoenix, Arizona for competitions.  Groups came from all over the west for these.  I watched tons and tons of dance performances.  I thought I'd be in dance heaven, but dancing has changed a good deal from what I remember.  There were lots of hip hop numbers, which I think are basically guy dances.  The girls dress like guys and move like guys in those routines.  It's fun, but call me old fashioned; I don't like to see lovely girls moving like rough guys.  The girl groups were skilled as a rule, but I didn't always like the routines, even those that weren't hip hop.  But it was a fun experience to travel with Angelica and experience all the dance excitement that goes with big groups of girls competing for awards.  Fun times.  And over for Angelica.  She is a lovely dancer, so hopefully she will find an outlet for it during her college years.  Dancing can be, after all, a euphoric experience!

While we were in Phoenix, our Mongolian daughter, Brynn, and her family drove over from Tucson to meet up with us for dinner.  It was so fun to see them.  Here they are, in our motel room, and on their way back home:  Brynn and Roy Long and their boys.

Angelica and three of her cousins, Alexis, Timothy and Peyton, were all high school graduates this year.  Well, Alexis graduated early, but she is the same age as the grads, so we included her in our group of four.  My Jessica and I thought it would be so fun to plan something special for the four so we picked Memorial Day weekend and invited all four and families to come to our place for a weekend celebration.  My mind filled with ideas for making it special.  As it turned out, all of my children came, with many of the grandchildren.  Even Gerald made it, on the wings of our prayers.  

Angelica and Timothy graduated on that Friday night.  The ceremony was held in a large auditorium at the Ford Center, here in the Valley.  It was held in the evening so by the time it was over, it was dark outside, even in the late light of late spring.  Here is a snapshot of Timothy and Angelica after the ceremony.

One of Angelica's graduation pictures.

By Saturday, everyone arrived.  We spent the day visiting and playing games of all sorts.  There was an especially sweet spirit with us.  I spent lots of time planning for the special tribute for the four, to be presented on Sunday, after Church.  I drew portraits of all of them, plus one of Miles, who came and graduated several years earlier.  I felt badly that I didn't do it for him sooner.  I made a slide show of all four through their years and we talked about each one; their personalities and talents and our love for them.  I gave them the portraits and presented a special message about overcoming obstacles.  The Galbraith motto is "strength through opposition" so I used that as my theme, telling them that obstacles are built into our life on this planet and that is a good thing.  Overcoming them is what provides growth and strength.  Nothing to overcome leaves us unchanged.  I gave each of them a picture of the Galbraith crest, the motto and a medallion with the motto on it.  In my mind it was going to be special for them.  Usually things like this don't come off as I imagined, but this time I felt like it mostly did.  The sweet family spirit continued and enlarged upon us throughout the day.  Dinner and dessert was each grad's favorite.  So we had a good selection!  I felt so happy with this weekend; it was a sweet, bonding time, for all I think.  Here is a selection of pictures of the weekend.

TIMOTHY

                                                                            PEYTON

ALEXIS

ANGELICA

MILES

Our four graduates:  Angelica, peyton, Timothy and Alexis

For the first time in a long time, all of our children were together.  My heart melted to see them all gathered in one place.  Here they are:  Gerald, Jessica, Reed, Audrey and Benjamin.

Here are all our girls:  top-me and my Jessica; bottom-Ben's Jessica, Audrey and Dorothy

Here are all the boys:  top-Layne, Benjamin, Gerald, Reed; bottom-Cliff and Chris

Everyone left Monday morning.  All the bedrooms had to be cleaned, and all the bathrooms.  We did it all that day.  Being busy is my antidote for sadness in seeing them leave.  It was a wonderful time!

Peyton's graduation ceremony was in June.  We drove to Seattle for it.  Peyton got tons of awards!  It was a bit of a surprise as she said nothing much about it.  What a lovely girl she is, as you can see from this picture of her.  She plans to attend the University of Arizona, in Tucson; the same university that her brother Miles attends.  It should be a fun experience for her.  I so hope so!

Peyton with the quilt I made for her graduation.

Me and Gemma, who was visiting for the weekend.

It has been a spring full of family and good times with them.  I'm so grateful to have them in my life.  I can't think of anything that could bring more joy.