Family Fun and Fish Lake

I grew up in a family steeped in traditions. Visits to Grandparents every Sunday, monthly get-togethers with extended family, big meals with lots of relatives at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hmm . . . well, the traditions mainly consisted of family and food. A good combination.


Cousins sharing a snack. That's what we do best, eat and sit.


This year, 4/5 of my mother's siblings and some of their offspring went to Fish Lake for a three-day, two-night reunion. The accommodations came in three forms. "Motel rooms", with beds, a "kitchenette," bathrooms with hot and cold running water and cable t.v. "Cabins" with beds, but bathrooms or hot water and no cable (they did include a token for a shower in a larger facility). "Camp sites" basically, a level place to put your tent.



The motel room we stayed in. Our room was on the far right.




My Uncle Max said it best when he stated "My idea of roughing it is opening the window in the Hilton." I know what roughing it is and I was glad to have a motel room. Not for the cable, but for the daily hot shower. Yep. Much to his dismay, Bill married a city girl.



I included this because of the view of the lake in the background. But the kids did get filthy. Thank goodness for bathrooms with nice hot water.

The activities were varied and plentiful. Boating, hiking, cooking, eating, face painting, water balloon fights, fishing (it is Fish Lake), laying on the bed watching t.v. (a favorite of my dad and my children), reading (I brought Breaking Dawn) or sitting still staring at the beautiful lake.

Cooper said his whole life he has wanted to go out on a boat and catch a fish. He caught this whopper on his first try. Not bad to fulfill your life's ambition before your turn five. (Later on, he tried to return the fish to the lake. It was hard to get him to understand that the fish wouldn't be able to swim away anymore.)

We ate most meals together. Each of the four siblings took turns cooking the food. Everyone helped set up and clean up. Eating communally was very cheep and much more convenient than trying to find a place to feed 98 people three meals a day.

Three sisters on their trusty steeds. They did a lot of complicated equestrian stunts, then sang us a song about friendship.

We had a planned scavenger hunt, an outdoor movie (in the rain) and a talent show. I am related to a large number of talented people. Two of the dogs that came to the reunion preformed tricks. We even had an equestrian show. Several people sang. My dad recited one of the many cowboy poems he knows, we even had a sword-fighting demonstration.
It was a great vacation. We are looking forward to next year.

Another moment from the talent show. A nicely choreographed sword fight.