We had a great time and family get-together at our little farm in St. Charles Idaho on the banks of Bear Lake. Here is a view of our place from the air as Roy came with his airplane and buzzed the house as he had made his way to Paris, ID, to land. You can see the house, garage and a great collection of cottonwood trees that surround our place.
Roy buzzed our house at about 200 feet to let us know he was
coming. He brought with him his son, Adam,
and a bunch of shooting gear for our
annual Fourth of July Schutzenfest. Here he is exiting his airplane in Paris,
ID. He recently recertified instrument flying. It only takes 1 1/2 hours to
fly from Denver to Paris, Idaho.
Jeff drove over as well. He was doing his locum tenens or psychiatric
on call at the hospital in Idaho Falls, He drove over and brought the great sleeping chair from Spokane. He also stopped in Montpelier and bought a bunch of groceries including some rib eye steaks. He could only stay a short while so we grilled him a steak and off he went.
Suzanne and her family were there as well as Rebecca and her family. It was great. At one point there were 28 people on the scene.. Emily and Joseph came also. Mike and Rayanne and their children (now reduced with one on study abroad in England and one entering the MTC) came with their tent trailer which increased the sleeping capacity. It was great! The weather was perfect, much cooler than SLC and the stars were out at night.
Everyone went to the beach each day. Suz and Emily would go to the North Beach at 7:30 in the morning and save a spot for the pop up canopies. They had it down to a science. Paul and Rebecca got out our jet boat and Paul pulled numerous kids around the lake with tubes. Mike brought over the paddle boat and it was non stop beach each day
The kids entertained themselves the entire day. Here they are after building an Aztec temple in the sand.
In the evenings and some mornings, it was laying around the couches watching real old movies and musicals. Here are a bunch of them watching Mr. Bean. Note the little Bear Footstool and Bison trophy on the wall..
Scott and Roy worked on the plumbing leak in the bathroom and after a lot of work and multiple trips to Ace Hardware, they replaced pipes and got it all soldered up. There were moments without water so the kids had to resort to a hand pump in the front yard to get water to the facilities.
We found time for target practice and sighting in a couple of rifles. Here is Tillie acting like an Annie Oakley hitting cans all over with her BB gun. We managed to make a few booms with the Tannerite as well. Roy did his sniper school and all were busting cans at 150 yards or more.
We had picked up some fireworks and mortars in Wyoming and had a grand firework display on the evening of the Fourth, It was so great to have everyone there.
In the evenings, Scott, who is a master trout fisherman, went to the local streams and kept us in fresh trout. Here are two beauties he came home with one night. Suz and Becca and Scott made some fish tacos with ingredients that Jeff brought over.
On Sunday, we went to the St. Charles ward. There must have been over a thousand there with all the vacationers and second home owners coming for the holiday. They were finally turning people away and routing them to the ward in Paris. We saw so many of our friends from Salt Lake there. The meetings there are great.
Everyone left and Mom and I were there alone and it was deathly quiet. We sat and watched two operas, La Boheme, and Hansel und Gretel. We closed up on Monday and it was back home. I never get tired of having the family get together. We have had partial reunions all year. Next year we hope to have the entire family to a reunion for my 80th celebration. Start planning.
Love, Dad
No comments:
Post a Comment