Tahoe, Reunion, and Mac's Blessing.

What a fun filled week with friends and family.  We love you all and want to thank you for sharing your delightful selves with us.

We woke up on Monday at Tahoe in a very nice resort hotel.  The gondola lift drops at the front door.  Its a great ski hotel, but beautiful in the summer too.  Thanks to Randy and Barb who provided housing.  You two are the best!

We were pretty low key the first day, mostly playing games and catching up.

In the afternoon we drove down to Truckee and did a walking tour of the town.  I thought these old gas pumps were great.  We also picked up some ridiculously pricey groceries at the Safeway there.

The town name should have been spelled this way.  It came from a phrase repeatedly used by the Indian guide who lead the first settlers to the area.

 On Tuesday we drove down near the lake and hiked down a mile to see Vikingsholme a summer house built by a wealthy woman in  1929.

 She thought the bay looked like the Norwegian Fjords with the steep hillsides and the tiny tall island in the bay.  She traveled to Scandinavia with her architect to copy historic homes there, and to collect many antiques, though some she wasn't allowed to remove from the country and she took photos to have those items copied.

 This chair is an actual antique from Finland, circa the 1700's.

Here's Dad in front of a ryijy, a decorative wall hanging that was super popular in Finland when he was on his first mission.

 This is the painted interior of a closet door.

The house was setup like the square formation of four buildings with an open courtyard, like those we saw in Finland.  The kitchen wing, housed servants as well.

 Here's a lovely detail.

and another.

This clock was a gift to the owner from the architect.

Then we headed to lunch, where I ate at my first vegan restaurant.

Next we boarded this paddle boat for a two hour tour, a two hour tour.

We ended up back at Emerald bay and got to see the house from the lake.

Here's the island.

 That night we went to Jeff and Randy's aunt's house for dinner.  She is in St. George with Jeff's newly widowed mother for a few months.

Her oldest son, far right, and his wife, live with his mother, and two of his younger brothers joined us for a lovely dinner.  In this picture all the men are first cousins, born to three different sisters.  Briahnna's mother, Lisa, is the daughter of a fourth sister.  The boys all knew Bri, and it was fun to get to know them. The young man to the far left is a tattoo artist, and is amazingly talented.  He showed me several of his favorite works.

 On Wednesday, we spent the morning playing games, then headed past Truckee to the Donner Party Visitors Center.  Here we are standing before a monument built on the site of one of the makeshift cabins built by one family.  The height of the pillar shows the depth of the snow at the site when they built the cabin.

That evening we returned to the hotel to spend some time in the hot tub ...  I alone did a bit of swimming.

 After another day of game playing on Thursday Robin and I went to a street fair in Truckee...

 I loved the steam punk lamps in one booth.

 How cute is this family of fiddlers?

 Mean while the rest of our group went on a moon light kayaking trip.

Dad and I got up at 4:30 the next morning and headed back to Utah, picking up the family reunion shirts in SLC on the way.

We got to Trevor and Nell's around 4:00 and started passing out the t-shirts.

 ... while people were getting the camp set up.

 Ben and Hannah brought lots of nerf bullet guns and water guns that added to the overall fun.

Trevor gathered us all and explained the activities for the weekend.  Becca made french bread hoagies for dinner, which were always a favorite when the kids were growing up.

  Then we started getting ready to go for family pictures.

... and we finally found out how Hannah keeps Ben under control!

 We headed to a park after dinner, and had family pictures taken.

When we got back from the pictures, Ben passed out glow sticks to all the kids ... and we got ready for the ....

Talents show.

Here are the offerings I remember.

J. Scott as the moderator (He was amazing)

Trevor played a few songs on his guitar.

Nenna singing the Little Mermaid ooohhhh song.

Elias on the mike.

Reagan dancing to music, with spontaneous helpers

Grandma P reciting a poem by Emily Dickenson called "I'm a Nobody"

(Elias, after I started, called out ... "you're not a nobody, you're a grandma, you're a mother ... etc.  He's great at affirmations, and we all loved it.)

Kai told some great jokes

Grandpa P did an imitation of a gorilla

 Then he recited an Ogden Nash poem. 

Spencer did a stand-up comedy routine

Emily and Bekie did a Studio C skit about baby Marvel, or the like

Briahnna sang a lovely show tune, she has an amazing alto voice, and it was charming.

Davin did a narration of the 'face on fire' incident when he was fourteen

Ben did a magic show for the grands (which they loved)

After the show, we all watched a movie, Paddington, which was very fun.  Then Dad and I headed home.

We were back early the next morning and everyone gathered while Dad and I made breakfast.

Then the games began,

 These gents put elastics on a watermelon until it exploded.  It was pretty cool

 a moment after the explosion.

 Kai with the remains.

 Alex with the largest 'flyer'.

 The spoils.

 That was exhausting.

Awards.

  Bri and Nell put together this puzzle.

Brittany made amazing sliders for lunch, even made vegan sliders for a few of us.

We had three little blondies about the same size, Nell captured this sweet photo

The four pictures above are by Nell!

So just for the sake of history keeping, the following is a list, as closely as I can remember, of what happened at the reunion,

Arrive

receive reunion t-shirts (designed by Nell and Trevor)

settting up tents

Dinner compliments of Becca and Brady

(Hoagie sandwiches on French bread a family favorite growing up)

Instructions on contests and family trivia questions for which those with the correct answer received points for the overall contests. The questions were periodic through out the activities.

 the Family Talent Show

After the talent show Davin had set up his huge telescope and showed us Saturn and Venus.

Then we watched Paddington II which was surprisingly great!

Dad and I headed home after the movie for a mid summer's nap, then got stuff to make Mountain Man Breakfast and scones and came back to make breakfast.

After breakfast there were games, where our children and grandchildren could earn points towards winner King of the Grandkids (Which was won by Eva) and Favorite Child (won by Davin)

My Personal favorite game was where I got to stick marshmellows all over Bekie's face.

The grand finale was the watermelon explosion.  Who knew?

Below are snaps of the smaller family groups Dad took during the shoots.  We can't wait to get the real pictures back from photographer.  It looks like they will be amazing. We so appreciate Nell's amazing effort in pulling off the family pictures.

On Sunday some of us headed other directions, but those who could met up at Becca's church for Mac's name and blessing by his dad.  Afterward we went over to their house to visit and compare notes on our super fun reunion.  Thanks again Trevor and Nell for all your hard work in making it happen.

It was a great week.  Feel free to contact me with other talent show entries, I know I missed some.