We had a fun time at the beginning of August having a family reunion up at Bear Lake! We've gone up there the last 3 years and it looks like we'll be going again next summer. The weather was a little cooler this year but it worked out pretty well. We had to change our dates and venue at the last minute so we could make it to our nephew's wedding. I'm grateful it worked out. We had all our children and grandchildren there except our son's family who just moved far away across the ocean. There were 22 of us.
After a yummy dinner of tortellini and French bread, we started Monday evening with icebreaker games planned by Lincoln and MiCayla: telephone charades, murder with a wink (like tag with winking), and another game played in a circle with everyone's eyes closed. My knee was hurting a lot so I didn't participate much but enjoyed watching and holding grandchildren.
The next day we had delicious pancakes with lots of different syrups and then we headed out to the beach. We took the "lily pad" that came with the house--a big floating rectangle that lots of people could get on. We also brought several kayaks, a shade, and fortifying sack lunches. We rented a jet ski for four hours which was quite popular. The weather cooperated and a few people got some sunburns. Talmage's was particularly impressive.
Dinner that night was fish tacos which were quite good with a killer sauce and the best black beans. Then we had our family trivia game. The questions (made by me) were a little challenging but everyone nailed the category of finishing the movie quotes:
"Imagine the most horrible thing you can think of..." (and multiply it by 6!)
"Waahoo! I'm the first one on the new road!" (It rides purty smooth.)
"I've got my wedding to arrange..." (my wife to murder, and Gilder to frame for it. I'm swamped!)
We also celebrated Cole's first birthday!
Wednesday morning was delicious breakfast casserole. Afterwards we took a family picture in our T-shirts.
This was the grandchildren with Oma and Opa plus Lincoln because Addy didn't want to be anywhere else but in her father's arms.
Then we had our Undokai courtesy of Everett who is carrying on the tradition Michelle started about 20 years ago in the Hansen family. He did a good job and, of course, my team won. :)
Yellow team looking very friendly and not quite as ruthless:
Red team: (much more ruthless)
Somewhere in between those two extremes was the blue team:
I have a few videos from the Undokai:
Afterwards we played 9-square, courtesy of Bruce and Michelle's set.
For lunch we had a yummy taco salad. That afternoon, Mindy led a craft, also courtesy of Michelle who gave us the idea and some of the pieces. It was spinners with a marble under a CD and colored paper on top.
We also did a treasure hunt. David and Stephanie sponsored an escape room.
For dinner we had hamburgers and hot dogs and watermelon plus oven-baked s'mores--it was raining outside so we couldn't build a fire, sadly.
That night we visited the hot tub and played card games.
The next morning we packed up and drove away. Scott and I went straight to Clyn's wedding at the Oquirrh Mountain temple. It rained the entire first hour as we drove through the spectacular Logan Canyon.
Favorites:
Giant lilypad: Jay, Felix, Katie
Pickle ball: Sallie
Beach: Jan, Susanna, Talmage, Lincoln
Minecraft: Camille
Undokai: MiCayla, Katie
Games in the evening without kids: David, Stephanie
Kayaking: Stephanie
Family Trivia: Everett
Jet ski: Caroline
Craft: Mindy, Addy
Park: Max
I think Scott and I liked all of it!
And here is our time-capsule video:
It was a great reunion and we plan to get together again in two years!
On our way home from Palmyra, we decided to go a couple of hours out of our way to visit the recently opened Priesthood Restoration Site along the Susquehanna River. This is where we believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist which gave them the authority to baptize. This site also has the restored Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home where Joseph and Emma lived for a year as well as the home where Joseph and Emma lived on their own. We spent a couple of hours there and I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes but we had a long way to go that night. It's a beautiful setting, very much in rural Pennsylvania. However, on the day we were there, cars at a racetrack nearby were detracting from the peace and quiet. I'm guessing that's not as big of a problem on weekdays. The Hale Family was quite well-off for their day so their home was probably nicely decorated with wallpaper and carpet. ...
This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy. Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all. She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate. Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in. Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios. She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities. One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not. Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable. Wha...
On Memorial Day this year, our family went to the Provo Cemetery, as we do almost every year. We spent some time at the Hansen Family plot which contains the grave of my 2nd great-grandparents, Peter and Mary Hansen. They both emigrated from Denmark with their spouses to Utah. My grandfather lost his first wife Ane to cholera on the plains outside of St. Joseph, Missouri, along with three of his little boys within a very short time--about one month. It's a sad story but it's also one of admirable resilience. He brought his one surviving son, Jorgen, to Utah. He married his second wife Maren (Anglicized to Mary) some 9 years later in Utah She had been married before but lost her first husband at an unknown date. I wish I knew more about her but she left very few records, although I could do more research! Peter and Maren had 6 more children together. The youngest two were twins, Enoch and Ephraim. Ephraim is my great-grandfather and is buried in California. He is the father of ...
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