Family Reunion at the Blue Mountain Lodge

Friday after Michael's graduation we took off for the Blue Mountain Lodge up by Tollgate, Oregon. It only took us 45 minutes to get there. The lodge was nice it had 6 bedrooms and about 14 or so beds, 3 1/2 bathrooms, a couple of large gathering areas and a kitchen. It was a really fun weekend. Here are some of the highlights.
Here's the lodge.

The dining table could fit our whole family. Here are some of us at the end of breakfast.

One of the first things we did was to go exploring by taking a walk. We found old old trucks, a pond and it looked like an old sawmill. Here is a picture of the walkers. Nathan and Sean are hiding behind someone and I took the picture.

The porch swing was fun to sit on. Did I tell you it was cold? If I didn't I'll tell you now. It was cold. :)

While we walking David got a scavenger hunt ready for the kids. They had fun taking turns reading and figuring out the clues and in the end Gabe was the one who found the treasure basket (maybe with a little help). :)
Thanks David!!!

Another one of the fun things we did was play shuffle board. We even had a tournament and Joshua became the Champion of the first "Johnson Shuffleboard tournament". It was alot of fun and everyone got in on the action except the babies.

This pair up here between April and Nathan was one of the close matches. Right April?
lol.

In this match up I'm not sure if either one scored any points. Gabe was having a lot of fun though.

Spectators were always close by rooting for their favorite. It was funny to watch the heads turn as the pucks were gliding back and forth on the table.

With this many people in our family we seem to always be celebrating someones birthday. We decided to combine several into one party and even threw in Father's day for Larry. It was Jill's actual birthday (Michael's girfriend), Sean's birthday, Nathan's birthday, Misty's birthday and father's day. My Birthday was also included.

I thought it would be fun to have a crossword puzzle competition. The family enjoyed it so much they want to do one every year. It was a crossword puzzle about individuals in the family. It was fun to hear them talk about what they thought the answer should be. I thought it would be really easy for them but it wasn't. Good thing Aria was on Papa J's team because he didn't know what April's first words were, she did.

The winning team consisted of David, Misty and Nathan. Good job guys!

The next day was a lot warmer than the previous and so the kids went out to play on the swing set.

Nathan got stuck up on the top and he wanted me to get him down. I told him I would go get someone big and strong. He asked me if I would get Uncle Joshua to get him down. That's who Nathan must think is the biggest and strongest in our family. lol

These are random pictures that I took up at the lodge. In the first one Mae and Jovie are having thier first little fight over the bottle. They both wanted it but they worked it out peacefully.

Walking along. I wonder what dad is telling everyone?

I love Mae's cute crinkle face smile. Don't you?

Rachel, Sean, Gabe and Mae on the walk.

Michael showing us how strong he is. Either that or showing off for Jill. LOL.

Larry and I love that the kids all like spending time together and want to do things like this. It's nice as parents to see that. We sure love our family!!! We missed Shannon though (Joshua's wife) she had a business trip. I have other fun pictures of our weekend but I had to stop somewhere. Misty, Rachel and April most likely will post about the weekend too so you can if you want check out their blogs and see more pictures and here more stories from their take on it.

Playing catch up

I realized that I forgot to blog about a couple of important things that happened. Clarissa was blessed on June 1st. All of the family except for April's husband was able to go to Spokane to be there for it. As always a babies blessing is a special time. When an baby is blessed a Melchizedik Priesthood holder (usually the dad) gives the baby his/her name that will also be known on the records of the church. They are then given a blessing for their health and well-being physically and spiritually.
Here are Larry and I holding Clara. A friend of Misty's crocheted her dress. I made the pink slip and knitted the booties and headband. Her friend did a beautiful job on the dress.

We also celebrated Rachel's birthday. As Aria would say any excuse to have a party let's do it!

I have taught Jessica how to knit while they've lived at our house and she finished her headband that weekend also. She did a great job.

My "baby" has graduated High school

It came. The day came that my youngest child graduated High School. For the last couple of months Michael has mentioned more than once that he was ready for school to be over. It's over. Believe it or not I did get teary eyed for a few moments when I realized that this chapter in my life is closed. No more of my children in the public school system. I'm not sad per say but maybe a bit nostalgic. When something like this has been a part of your life for 25 years it will be an adjustment for me. I went to bed Sunday night and I was going to turn on my alarm so I could get Michael up for school and I had to stop myself. I realized I did not have to wake up to an alarm this morning. I am no longer the mother of a student. Hey maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.

All of our family came home for the big event and it was miserable weather but the graduation was still held outside. Before graduation we wanted to have a family picture done since we grew in numbers in the last year. Larry didn't get home until almost 5:30 and Michael informed us right after that he had to be at the school at 6:00pm or else he couldn't walk. So Misty had literally 5 minutes to get the camera, umbrella's and set us up for Jill (Michael's girlfriend) to take snap the picture. It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

This is everyone in the family who braved the cold, rain and wind for two hours to watch Michael get his name said and handed an empty diploma cover. Pay back to Michael for him attending ALL the track meets, games and music events of his siblings. I'm glad they were there. His other two sisters couldn't take their babies out in the cold or else they would have been their too.

After graduation we got Misty and April's family and headed up to Tollgate for a weekend family reunion. More on that to come...