Pre-Reunion Festivities

Wow have we had a wild, chaotic, fantastic summer! Almost the entire month of June was spent getting ready for the the reunion and welcoming friends and first arriving family members to the lake. Not a day passed without some exciting events which left no time for blogging!

We decided that the time had come to do some real landscaping, most of which will be an enormous relief in trying to get a handle of the problem of weeds….my nemesis! I like pulling weeds….to a point. When it got to the point that I couldn’t keep up with them (which was several years ago) and several places were looking like a ghetto, we bit the bullet and the bank account, hired a landscaper who could get things done by the reunion and to my delight, things are looking a lot better around our places at Bear Lake!

The flower beds take lots of hours to get weeds under control and replant but they turned out pretty well this year.

   

Our cute niece stayed at the Tennis House (our original little A frame) for a week with three friends and we were delighted to get to know them better. They have experienced hard times in their lives and were terrific kids who left the house spotless and found a beautiful big old TV by the garbage containers that was just what we needed for the kids to watch DVDs.

Our really big project was leveling the lot below the Bamboo House, dumping many tons of top soil there and rolling out grass for what Grandfather is calling “The Grandchildren’s Green”. 

Several of these semis showed up with tons of beautiful new grass. I don’t have a picture of the finished product because it was a surprise for the kids as they arrived.

Those squares are the grass stacked and ready to roll:

While cute Mexican guys were rolling out the grass, we were back home for a couple of days celebrating Lyla’s birthday with Noah and Krisiti and their darling friend Sherry and old friends from college days.

Sherry brought Lyla’s spectacular Princess Birthday cake and a yummy adult cake as well!

It was great to have Charity and her boy (Ian) with us for a few days before we journeyed back to the lake. My eyes are not going bad, I realize this is blurry but it’s the only one I have!

Then it was back to Bear Lake to enjoy the festivities of the 4th of July where they were celebrating 150 years since my ancestors helped build the historic tabernacle in Paris, Idaho which is the county seat of the Bear Lake Valley. We had a a great day with Jonah and Aja and their kids. There is always a patriotic program in the old tabernacle and a fun parade with literally tons on candy being thrown out, of which the kids gathered about a fifty pounds themselves.

Jonah was fascinated with the workmanship of the craftsmen 150 years ago.

Ana won a free hamburger for doing a little dance:

 

We even got a photo shoot with Smokey the Bear!

I always love being back in the stomping grounds of my dad and my grandparents who were the first settlers in a little town called Bloomington about three miles from Paris. Each village has its own charm and history of hard-working pioneers who created the history of the Bear Lake Valley.

And then the gathering began!  What a delight it was to see little 18 month-old Bennett meet his new cousin, 6 month-old Zara! 

And the fun begins with Grammie Camps….coming next…….