FAMILY REUNION
Susie and the boys got to go to a family reunion in Utah last week. We stopped by our friends' house in Lehi on the way there and also on the way back.
Aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins (our kids) met at North Sevier High School in Salina, where my grandpa was the first in his family to graduate from high school. Then we went to Aurora, which is where grandpa lived at the time. Then we were off to Fish Lake, which is in a volcanic crater, for dinner and a boat ride on the lake. Finally, we drove to our hotel in Torrey, which is at the mouth of Capitol Reef National Park. Check out the view from our hotel door!

The next day, we visited "The Cove." My grandpa lived there as a kid as his family tried to make a farm work there. But they couldn't get water to their crops, so they had to move. But 'til his dying day, Grandpa was still thinking about how to get water from Blind Lake to The Cove and make a farm work there. He loved that place. There are some really neat petroglyphs and pictograms on a big cliff face there. We looked at those, hiked around a bit, and the boys played with the abundant dirt and rocks. I don't know where the charcoal came from, but Zach sure found it! He gave himself a "black eye." Then we went back and cooled off at the hotel swimming pool.

The next days' family activity required quite a hike, and not an easy one, so we opted not to go along. The more adventurous family members hiked up to Blind Lake. We went to Capitol Reef National Park instead. It's interesting, because there was a tiny town inside the park area until the 1940's, complete with a one-room schoolhouse (still in use until the 40's). There's an old farmhouse still there to go see what it was like to live in the canyon. Zach had a close encounter with a horse. I made friends with it while holding Zach, but didn't notice when it nuzzled his leg. He freaked out.

That night, Mom brought out a cake and had a little birthday party for me. She brought me a purse-type bag from Guatemala, and some passionfruit flavored drink mix from El Salvador. That was my favorite juice in Brazil. And my dad somehow found some açai berry juice with a lot of the writing in Portuguese. And my aunt gave me some yummy-smelling lotion. I lu-u-uv lotion!

Sunday morning we went to church in the cool old chapel in Torrey. It was sad to say goodbye to my parents and sister, knowing that they live so far away.

We headed to Lehi again, to our friends' house and stayed the night there before heading home Monday. But our friend made me a birthday cake (my second) and gave me more lotion! Mmmmm.

We're glad to be home, but at the same time, we wish the reunion could have been longer.

There are many more photos in our online photo album in the July 2007 folder.