Lots of the cousins paddle boarding❤️

Jana, Caleb, Logan, Chris, Andy, Zac, and Chloe.  The girls enjoyed paddling around.  The boys devolved into feats of strength of course! Hahaha. The “adults” (old people) and Chloe the Bassett watched from the shore.

Chris asked me to save some of the cool factor for him… 😂

Going for a ride with Larry and Susan

Zoe livin’ her best dog life!

She enjoys all the love and rest she gets at the annual reunion for sure.

Reunion camping fun…

Andy and Sophie do a Lady and the Tramp look alike, but with a steak!  They also made breakfast with an axe and a pizza box!  Which one do we trust more with the axe?! 😂

Johnny cooks hotdogs, and also gets a good rain vibe going.  The weather was really nice except for an hour or two on Saturday, but we enjoyed music, games, and chatting right through it❣️ 

Fun with puzzles on a breezy day

It was great to have Sophie as well as Ian and Caroline join us❣️

Andy makes awesome fire ring breakfast at the reunion

Lots of peeps wanna see inside my camper

So here you go. Fan, lights, charging station, coffee station, fan, sleeping bag, dog kennel, clothes, supplies, clothesline, and a pillow.  Everything I need and everything in its place.  I have Velcro and magnetic blackout covers on the windows and door.  They keep it cooler and let me sleep past sunrise sometimes. 

Zoe was a popular lap item at the reunion❤️

Of course I had to grab some Jeep sunset pics

A fun addition this year…

Larry’s brother Scott (and his wife Anita) joined us at the reunion this year.  Scott brought this little e-bike!  We all took a turn terrorizing the campground with it… That was until the ranger pointed out to Scott that it didn’t have any pedals, so wasn’t an e-bike.  Instead it’s classed as an e-motorcycle and isn’t allowed. 😭

Sibling and cousin throw-downs

We enjoyed a few rounds of cornhole too. Andy pretty much wiped the floor with all of us.  Larry was a close second.  Andy later told us he even won the tournament at their church! $50 Chick-fil-A gift card. He was a ringer! Hahahaha.

Enjoying the great outdoors.

Between my work around the house, exercise, play, and volunteering, I average 90 mins or so outside per day.  In this case, a boardwalk with Chloe (upper left), a hike with Laura (lower half), and sitting around the camp with family (upper right)❣️

Thursday to Sunday, no hookups…

I successfully kept my battery running by supplementing with some solar energy the whole weekend.  It powers my fan, charges my devices and makes coffee.  Average in for the day was 100 watts and max out is 40 or so.  Maybe 45 if it was really cold (winter) and I was running Zoe’s heating blanket.

I can normally run it without charging for a couple days, but the reunion was scheduled for four 🤪

Ceremonial burning of the log❣️

When I picked up the log for the family reunion this year, it split in half (upper left)… It’s finally rotted and full of ants enough that it’s falling apart.  With most of the cousins in attendance, we decided this was the year to lay it to rest in the fire ring… But not before Andy gave it a proper eulogy.  He related why he’d started saving it (to whittle a stool), how we’d always made our marks on it each year, where it lives (holding down my generator cover) while waiting for each reunion, and even the church-a-monk log throwing competitions.  I think he actually brought tears to a couple eyes (upper right).  He’s a sentimental guy though, and saved a little bit for his shelf of precious memories (lower right).  

We’re not done yet though… We noticed a log that refused to burn, TWICE!  We named it Shadrach when Andy pulled it out of the fire (with his bare hands) the second time…! Log number two begins…