New Mexico reunion

Friday morning, June 28, 2019, Steve and I, after two days in the mission office catching up after a week's absence, got into our car again and drove eastward this time.  A Lambson family reunion in New Mexico was our destination.

We took the scenic route through the Salt River Canyon, ate a picnic lunch in Showlow in the White Mountains, and visited Steve's great-grandfather's grave in St. Johns as we journeyed.  The reunion was in the outskirts of Ramah, New Mexico which can hardly be called a town except that it has a post office, a museum, and a ward meetinghouse.  Oh, it has a gas station, too.  So, we had to book a hotel in Gallup located about 40 miles north.  

Steve's sister and husband, Michelle and Mike, flew down from Utah to join us at the reunion.  We represented the lost branch in the family tree.  Steve's great-grandfather died young and so did his wife leaving four orphans - including Steve's grandfather - to be raised by maternal relatives up in Provo, Utah.  These children grew up and never connected with their St. John's relatives again... that we know of.  The branch of the Lambsons sponsoring the reunion purchased land about fifteen years ago in the forest lands east of Ramah to create a site for their annual gatherings.  Over the years they have dug a well, installed men's and women's flush-toilet bathrooms, built a huge ramada, brought in picnic tables and charcoal grills.  Each year, improvements are made.  Steve and went to the Friday evening activities and then all four of us went on Saturday.   

A zip line was installed this year....

These are the restrooms

We enjoyed meeting lots of great people. We took part in a family business meeting.  There was a fund-raising auction Saturday afternoon.  One family donated this little black goat to the auction.  And the grand finale was a delicious BBQ rib dinner.  

Sunday, we said farewell to Michelle and Mike and we started our drive back to Anthem.  We attended church meetings in Snowflake, Arizona and then had dinner with my niece, Shawnda Bowden Mills and her adorable children.  Her husband had to work so we didn't get to meet him.  

Grace, Shawnda, Camilla, and Otto (Eph and Boden were napping)

We drove through Payson, said "hi" to Ginger the dog and visited with my sister, Juli, for a bit before driving back down the mountain to Anthem. We were treated to an amazing sunset along the way.  Reunion travels were now over - and back to the mission office to serve for our last two and a half weeks.

California reunion trip - Part 2

SATURDAY had all of us at one point or another at the AirBnB in Palmdale enjoying a relaxed morning since the reunion didn't begin until 2:00.  

My niece (who is one year older than me!), Jill, took the reigns with decorating and a fun crafting activity.  We met in a very nice community room of a senior citizen housing complex in Lancaster.  After everyone arrived, we played a get-to-know-you BINGO game followed by a photo collage craft.  Jill had all sorts of cactus themed papers and stickers and she had made copies of some pages if the Ikes Slides book I created a few years ago so we had all sorts of family photos we could clip and add to the collage.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves with this project.  I had asked Brent Bowden to compose a song back last year for the Alma/Belinda Young reunion and he updated the words to fit the life of Ike and Florin for this reunion.   He did a terrific job.  Then, we ate.  Four of my sister Judy's family provided chili and the rest of us brought breads, salads, and desserts.  The reunion was a success!

Susette Bowden, Elise Lambson, Amy Ellsworth, Brielle Bowden, Rose Bowden

Sarah, Elise, Emily Beckie, Steve, Brad Jensen

Karl Vidstrand, Jack Worth, Judy Saniger

Juli, Jeremy, Kat & Jesse Davies

Brent Bowden singing his song

SUNDAY we had to get up early to get to my sister Judy's sacrament meeting by 9:00!  I will always remember the bag of free tree-ripened apricots someone in the ward brought to share.  Then, we drove out to Judy's place for lunch - we brought the food, we just needed a place to congregate to eat, change clothes, and prepare for the last leg of our California trip.

Steven demonstrating the area where my sister lives.  Pretty sparse...

Julina, Judy, Juli

Jeremy, Beckie, Sarah, Steve, Steven, Elise, Ryan at Judy's place.  Alice in front

After lunch, we bid farewell to Julina and Juli and Jeremy who stayed in Mojave so they could leave the next day.  The rest of us (Merrills, Steven, Beckie, Elise, Sarah, Steve, and me divided into three cars) drove the three and a half hours up to Sequoia / Kings Canyon National Park. We went through Bakersfield in California's Central Valley and I have never seen so many fruit and nut trees and grape vines in all my life.  At the national park, we stayed in a rustic cabin - it had electricity but one had to walk to the bathrooms/showers.  We had picnic tables but fires were not permitted.  The first night, we had cold rotisserie chicken for dinner.  The second night, we cooked hamburgers/brats at a picnic site with grills.  The trees were just magnificent.  And huge.  The drive down to the bottom of Kings Canyon, while windy and scary, was SO worth it just to see the amazing waterfalls and the river - swollen with winter snow melt.  It was so fun to share this with much of our family and I know Steve, who had "seeing the Sequoias" on his bucket list, was very pleased.  Sadly, we had to say farewell to each other early Tuesday morning so Steven and Sarah could drive up to Utah where both caught planes on Wednesday for Missouri....Steven to go home and Sarah to go to a wedding.  Kirsti, Ryan, and Alice drove back to Utah via an overnight stay in Las Vegas.  Steve and I drove back down into the Los Angeles maelstrom to drop Beckie and Elise at the Burbank airport to catch their back-to-Missouri flights and then we continued eastward, out of the smog, and into the Arizona heat to finish our mission.

staged selfies....