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!
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| Susette Bowden, Elise Lambson, Amy Ellsworth, Brielle Bowden, Rose Bowden |
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| Sarah, Elise, Emily Beckie, Steve, Brad Jensen |
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| Karl Vidstrand, Jack Worth, Judy Saniger |
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| Juli, Jeremy, Kat & Jesse Davies |
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| 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.
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| Steven demonstrating the area where my sister lives. Pretty sparse... |
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| Julina, Judy, Juli |
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| 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.
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| staged selfies.... |
I would just like to point out that in the reunion photo with Brad Jensen, et al, it is Kirsti who is pictured, not Elise, as the caption indicates. I know Kirsti and I resemble each other, but we're not quite *that* identical! ;)
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