Reunion, Of the XL Variety

We got back this weekend from our family reunion at Priest Lake. This was not a "reunion" like the one we had last year, involving the eleven of us Vaughn kids. This was the entire extended family on my dad's side edition. That's two grandparents, four kids and their spouses, fourteen grandkids (+ ten spouses), and fourteen great grand kids. Every single family member made the trek. From Brasil, Mozambique, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington. It's quite the list, I know.

There were many times throughout the week when I marveled at just how much I love each and every one of my cousins (and aunts and uncles, etc). None of us grew up seeing each other all that much - yet we seem to pick up right where we left off. It is a huge blessing that we love being together, I know. It's pretty rare for forty-eight family members to get along so well. The week flew by, as time always seems to do when you spend time with people you love.

What did we do all week? Quite a lot of things. We swam, boated, fished, hiked and kayaked. We played huge games of volleyball, ultimate frisbee, soccer and wiffle ball. We napped and read and talked (a lot). We picked huckleberries, went shooting, and attempted to slack line over water. We played the family game, loaded questions, settlers of catan, clue, and poker late at night. We gathered round the camp fire to hear the story of grams and gramps. We had a lively family talent show, where Leah and I were, yet again, coerced into performing (same ol' Jennifer Knapp song from our high school talent show ten years ago). We had a lovely girls' breakfast out to Elkins. And we ate really well. It was a great week.

I think our combined picture count from the week may be somewhere in the thousands, but we haven't gotten copies from everyone quite yet. We only had our camera around some of the time, so here are a few from the Hook camera. Not comprehensive by any means, but maybe that is good. There are quite a few pictures to share despite.

Priest Lake. Is there any place on earth as lovely? (the answer is no)

Meal time: a large undertaking

Mini table for the toddlers

Sweet Kendyl, just five weeks older than Clara

Clara with cousin Jared (yes, she loved all the attention she could get)

How much weight can a Brazilian hammock hold?

And of course we slack lined - over water this time

Trav's awesome wipe out

Jumping in the water to daddy...only because her brave cousin McKinsey did it first

Freezing!

Relaxing by the beach

The Meisel fam, out on the paddle boat

Sweet Everett

The Claranator, pondering life

Uncle Trav slathering sunscreen

The eleven of us with grammy and grandpa (no whole group photo on our cam, sadly)

The nose pickers

The boys

And the girls too

All the great grand kids with their stuffed animals, gifts from their grammy and gramps

Girls' hike to Elkins for breakfast

And Jono and Clara's hike to the waterfall (nice work with the tri-pod, love)

These three girls are within eights weeks of one another - so fun!

Holly and Leah

And a final night time photo of the lake

And that is it. Whew! So many great pictures. And they don't begin to scratch the surface. I may add a few more when I get copies of all the other pictures. But then again this may be a long enough post already ;).

Yeah for family. And yeah for reunions!!

Eight

As of yesterday, I have officially been a married woman eight years. I did a little research, thinking I'd find the national marrying age to be about where I am now, twenty-eight. I was mistaken. 28.4 is the national average for a male but for females it's 26.5. If I followed the national average, I would be married just over a year and a half. Certainly not eight whole years.

I sometimes forget just how crazy it was that I got married at twenty. I mean, I am still head over heels for my husband. And I can hardly remember life without him. But the conversation about how long you have been married just doesn't come up every day, so I don't think about it often. For some reason it has come up a few times - with various random people - in the last week or so. And I've been reminded afresh that it both was a) kind of crazy, yet b) made total sense at the time and c) is the best decision I have ever made. Maybe I wouldn't recommend it for my brother (who is turning twenty in August), but for me it was beyond fabulous.

I am married to my best friend. My strongest ally. Someone who loves so many of the same things I love but has his own list of passions and interests. Someone who loves the Lord - and people well. Who is really good at what he does...and a long list of miscellaneous other things too. He is wise. He is kind. He is compassionate. He is a great dad. And he gives really great massages. I am one blessed woman!

We celebrated our anniversary in Spokane this year - for the first time in about six years. We're usually at the lake, like last year. So we enjoyed a dinner out at a fabulous place downtown and then headed up to a venue down the street for some live music, decaf, and delicious dessert. It was the perfect summer night, spent with the man I love.

And we just had to take a picture of our plates. Jono even boasted that his goat cheese stuffed chicken over cheddar grits with asparagus and prosciutto would make his top five meals of all-time. My Alaskan salmon wasn't too bad either. Yum.

4th of July Weekend

After our plans to visit Banff, Whistler and Glacier didn't quite work out (there were about twelve reasons for each of them not working), we decided to keep it simple for the 4th of July this year. We went to the lake. And I'm so glad we did. I'm sure we would've loved any of the places we considered going (and we will make it to them all, I hereby declare), but a quiet long weekend at the lake was perfect this year.

Clara, Jono and I went up Friday evening. Since we went a few weekends ago, Clara now understands (and anticipates!) the joy of the lake. Of course she loved it last year too, she just didn't fully comprehend the greatness of the lake until this year. The whole way there she kept repeating, "The lake. Priestlake (one word). It's gonna be so much fun!" It's pretty great that she adores it as much as she does. It's not really an option not to love the lake, after all.

We spent lots of time at the beach.

Check out Clara's face in the picture. She was not the biggest fan of the surf board, despite Jono's best effort to convince her otherwise. The paddleboat, on the other hand, was just right.

We attempted a hike through the cedar forest but we only lasted about twelve steps. The mosquitos were insane, thanks to an abundance of standing water. So we abandoned our pursuit and returned for an early dinner.

On Sunday, the Blomgrens joined us. Clara and Norah had a blast together attempting to build sand castles, stealing each others toys, kicking their feet on the side of the dock, and taking boat rides with their daddies. Of course the adults had just as much fun. Maybe more.

We took a little walk along the lake near Hill's Resort and found the mosquito situation much more bearable!

On Monday morning, Jono and Dave awoke at some ridiculous hour (3:30ish, I think) to hike chimney rock, on the other side of the lake. Beforehand, we told the boys that they were welcome to plan some adventure but they had to be back by 10:30am. They surprised us by making it home an hour early - and still making it to their destination with some pretty incredible pictures to show for it. They even napped in the cabin while the girls' slept in the afternoon, meaning more beach time for Kelly and me. It was the ultimate win-win! Some day I will make the chimney rock trek, as it looks amazing, huh?

The boys made it back to our cabin just before Jonathan's parents arrived. John and Kathy came up for the day on the 4th. The eight of us had a lovely time together. We spent nearly every second at the beach, as the weather was amazing. I think every one of us jumped in the water, even though it was freezing. I'm talking really really cold. Even Clara survived (and mostly liked) her swim with Nana.

Then we dressed in our 4th of July finest (minus my husband, who somehow missed the memo) for a final BBQ on the deck before packing up and heading home.

And my conclusion: you can't really get much better than the lake. We still have a long list of all the places we want to explore within driving distance, but the lake makes accomplishing that list kind of challenging. Oh well. It's a pretty good problem to have, I think ;).

Week with Andrea

Andrea and Parker came for Hoopfest weekend (Parker from northern Canada, where he's working as an engineer at a wind farm & Andrea from Colorado) and Andrea got to stick around until yesterday. Oh the perks of having the summer off as a teacher! We didn't do too much - just carried on with the normal routine and Andrea came along for the ride. Let me tell you: having a second "mom" around is amazing. I didn't get Clara in or out of her car seat for five days. I miss Andrea already ;). And for more reasons than the fact that she made life a whole lot easier!

Here are just a few of the things we did together...

Ice cream at The Scoop with "Big Parker" before he left to go back to Panada

Landmark library moment: picking out Clara's first non board books (hopefully they will survive)

Park date: Clara showing off her signature look

An afternoon at my parents' pool

Meeting up with an old Whitworth friend, Katie, for coffee

And lots of quality Clara time

Clara sure loves her Auntie Dre. And that was our week. Relaxing. Simple. Lovely.