ILLEGAL, UNDERGROUND, UNANNOUNCED FAMILY REUNIONS

Dear Family,

Sometimes family reunions just happen and they are sometimes the best. Recently Cheryl decided to take her family back to Michigan for her 20th High School Reunion. Mom and I thought this would be a good time to go back and visit Mark and Mary, and Bryan and Kristina and their families. John heard about this and decided to come up from Florida by himself to see the crew. This is the Eastern part of our family. Jeff and Tammy decided this would be a good chance to see both sets of parents and they, in the last minute, drove 40 hours from Spokane to be at the mini gathering.

We stayed the first night at Mary's home in Bloomfield Hills. The photo shows the block she lives on near Wing Lake in Bloomfield Hills, MI. It is so beautiful there now with these old trees, large and spacious lawns and lots...memories just flooded back

We went to Leo's on Telegraph for dinner and I sent Suz down in Mexico City, a message on Facebook, that we were at her favorite eating place. She sent back a note wondering why she had not heard of this underground reunion. They just happen and mostly in the last minute.

Thursday we met at Walled Lake. It was so pretty with perfect weather. Cheryl and Paul and their eight kids showed up as did Jeff and Tammy and their kids. Bry's family came and John was there.. I think about 30 people and it was Heaven. Pizza all around and just the best time.

Here we see some of the gang at the Wing Lake picnic. There was swimming, eating and catching small fish.

Mary put up Paul and Cheryl and their eight kids at her house and we drove to the farm. Since Bryan purchased the farm, he has been hard at work to fix it up. It looked so great with his improvements. It is a constant battle with nature as there is so much moisture in Michigan, nature quickly;y takes over any piece of land.

Bryan has done such a great job of fixing up the farm, My job was to cut the field. It is not baled as there are no animals there anymore but it needs to be cut back so I bushwhacked the 20 acre field on the John Deere Tractor and it was fun.

While the work was going on, the grandkids were running all over the placewith ATV's, dune buggies, motorcycles and my old green machine. They had a blast and Cheryl's kids wondered when they could come back to Michigan again.

Then we had a party in the orchard. With each windstorm or tornado, trees are knocked over and there was a huge pile of fallen apple trees stacked in the middle of the orchard.

Here is the team, me on the John Deere, John in the Bobcat, Bry on the chainsaw and Jeff tossed the chunks and kept the chain saws sharp. John would take the Bobcat with the grappler attachment and pull the logs from the pile, hold them horizontally so Bry could cut them up. We made quick work of the pile.

Here is the log splitting crew where the grandkids, Scotty, Julius, Zander and Nicky put the logs on the splitter and stacked the wood.

Mom was in constant motion, deep cleaning the farm house and sorting our treasures stored in the barn,

Friends came to the farm on a visit. Here is a picture of Karen and Josh and their baby, Emily. Karen was a friend from Andover High School and helped one memorable time with picking up the bales of hay. She is now an endocrinologist and Josh is an anesthesiologist.. they are a great couple.

We went to church in the Bloomfield Hills ward, our ward of 23 years and it was moving to see everyone again. Monday it was back to the farm with more projects. This was one of the best underground family reunions we have had. The next offical reunion that we hope you can come to will be next July around the 4th as we celebrate our 50th anniversary. My goal is to make it there.

Alles Gute, Love, Dad