New Hampshire Fun

We had another fun day Saturday with Kristi, Karl, Kylie, Elle and Cordie seeing their beautiful part of the world. We started with a hike through the woods that ended on top of a granite outcropping. We ate lunch on top of the granite with a 360 degree view of the valleys on all sides of us. What a beautiful spot to eat lunch and enjoy the horseradish cheese that Zeke enjoyed even though he said he only enjoyed the creaminess of the cheese. On the way home we stopped for ice cream. Kristi suggested we order small as small is really big. Eileen order the baby size and I think we all should have since the small was big. My vanilla, blackberry and chocolate chunk was really good though so I thoroughly enjoyed my small. Next it was off to a swimming pool and then pond for the kids. Kristi topped off a pizza dinner with delicious blueberry puffs. Oh am I glad we picked those blueberries Friday. We have been enjoying them with every meal. Karl built another fire but I think I am the only who enjoyed it - I think others were too tired out from the days activities.

On Our Way To PEI

We left Austin Wednesday morning headed eventually to Prince Edward Island. We spent the first night in Sandusky OH. Thursday we continued on to Kristi's stopping at the Hill Cumorah to show Zeke. We are going to stop in Palmyra on the way home with Amanda so Zeke and Amanda can see all the sights then.

Friday, Kristi had a full day planned for us starting with picking blueberries. It was fun and easy for all of us as the bushes are tall so no stooping necessary. Then it was off on a quest to find the treasure with a stamp for the girls Quest Books. We first stopped at the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge - the longest wooden bridge in the US and the longest two span covered bridge in the world. The next covered bridge was where we were to find the treasure. Kristi has a book that describes each of the quests with clues on how to find the treasure. We looked for some time without any success. We finally decided that the recent clearing done for power lines must have destroyed all the landmarks necessary to find the treasure as we could not find the landmarks by the clues or the map. We finished the day with a delicious dinner Kristi made and then a "campfire" and some-mores. It was a great day.

Home for Gunnar

We arrived home Friday night so we could see Gunnar perform as Jay C. Hormel in the Hormel Girls musical Saturday night. Lisa picked us up in Rochester and we saw the kids before getting home.

The show was fun and we were sure glad we were able to make it home for the last show as Gunnar was great in the part. Some of the original Hormel girls came for the show along with James Hormel - Jay's son. We are not supposed to take pictures in the theater so this one of the stage is curtain call. Gunnar's other grandparents were also at the show. I am not used to my iPhone camera so I deleted the wrong picture of Gunnar and James Hormel but here is one of him as Jay with the real son James.

Updating

Last week I spent with my mother in Lake Oswego Oregon while Eileen spent it with her mother in Gilroy California. My Mom does not have internet so no posting for me. Then this week we have been on the Oregon coast. We have had such intermittent internet service I have not tried to post until now.

The week with my Mom we visited with family and cleaned out old files and trimmed some bushes and other odds and ends. Our first trip was to Aunt Marion, my Mom's 93 year old twin sister. We had a fun visit as they talked about old times which brought up the question of old photos. This subject brought about our next visit. When we left Aunt Marion she said come again so I can see my sister. They enjoyed themselves.

Because of the conversation of photos I called cousin Jean who lives in Camas Washington to see if she might have the pictures of the twins in a convertible Stearn-Knight in the Rose Festival Parade. She didn't known but said she would pull out what she had. A few days later we went to her house high in the hills above the Columbia River with a great view of Mt. Hood. She did not have the pictures but we scanned some other old pictures and documents and had a good time just visiting. After all the many apple pies my Mom has made for us, I decided to make one for her. I won't say it was as good but she said she liked it.

Then on Friday I picked up Eileen at the airport and we went to the beach where we have experienced beautiful weather and the fun of just walking the beaches and forests. Otter Crest has the most to offer of along the coast where you have beautiful beaches and sea life and great forests to enjoy too. Our first walk on Beverly Beach I spotted an agate and then another - not even looking for them. Eileen found another very dark one the light barely shows through. We have enjoyed walking the beaches and the forest everyday.

Cenny's Birthday and the 4th of July Celebration

Cenny's 10 year old birthday did not start out as originally planned - it was to be a Ward event at Lisa's but the weather would not cooperate. Due to rain the Ward event had to be canceled. However with our whole family still in town we went to the Church to have space large enough for all of us - it even seemed like a Ward event with so many of us. After a great birthday party for Cenny with way too much food and delicious and beautiful cakes, we were to go to the concert in the park and fireworks. It kept raining and we figured they would be canceled, however just before 8PM it stopped raining so we headed to the park. It was very wet and even sprinkled on us a little but we still enjoyed the concert, more glow sticks (the unique design was Qatar's attached to his arms) and fantastic fireworks. The fireworks were constant and lasted more than 20 minutes - the best fireworks yet. Music and famous quotes were played during the fireworks that added a special touch. There was even one that formed a red heart and many others that looked like waterfalls - great end to a special day.

Family Reunion

What a great day July 3rd turned out to be! We had a great Family Reunion with the entire family present except the two great-grandmas who could not travel. We bought lots of food and it seemed we ate all day long. The weather was hot and humid but we had a strong breeze that really helped make for OK weather. For all the grand-kids we rented a bouncy castle, snow cone machine and hot dog roaster. Thanks to David's truck I was able to pick them up Friday and then Saturday morning with David and Karl's help we put everything together. The bouncy castle was huge and heavy so I was very grateful for their help. It was a full day and fun to see everyone in their reunion T-shirts. The kids enjoyed the bouncy castle and snow cones the best. Especially when the circuit breaker would blow because all three items were on one circuit and the bouncy castle would deflate on top of them. Lisa's next door neighbor provided power so we would not continue to blow the circuit but the kids kept trying to shut it off anyway.

We gave each family a Families are Forever clock and each of our children a DVD set we had just had made of our old family movies from 1968 until 1981. Now we have to work on all the VHS tapes. About 8 PM we cleaned up and headed to the park for the concert and fireworks. Again the kids had the most fun as Lisa, Amanda and Eileen had been stocking up on glow sticks. Our area of seating was a glow with all the glow sticks covering the kid and several adults. A stranger came by and said we needed to take pictures as we were quite the sight. It was an exhausting day but it was worth it to have all the children and grandchildren together.

Family Reunion Begins

The long planned for family reunion finally began to come together a week ago Tuesday when we picked up the T-shirts 1+1=33 2/3 and the arrivals started with Kristi's family. Wednesday Micah and kids arrived. Thursday Heidi's family, Randy's family and Steven arrived. Friday finished off all the family when Paige arrived. Thankfully Lisa and David bought our old house so we had a place big enough for many of the meals and the actual reunion day activities on Saturday. Friday we had a lunch picnic at the park and pizza dinner at Lisa's before gathering for family photos. The photographer handled the large group really well so we are looking forward to great family photos. As my photos seem to rearrange themselves when I publish my posts, hopefully you will grasp who is who from the following descriptions: Two pictures from the lunch picnic are Paige with Peter and Roxie and Randy with Lily. From dinner we have Jake and Eliza with Randy, Benjamin, David and Lisa in the background. Then from the family picture session we have the spouses of our 5 married children, and Qatar holding Lily and Gunnar holding Martin. I missed many great shots. Then for the bribe to help all the grandchildren survive the photo shoot, we offered root beer floats which we had at Eric and Vanesse's where Lisa is lounging after a long hard day.