A week of Heaven and stuff

Finally, after 2 years of waiting our Lake Forest Friends Reunion had arrived. At the last reunion in Lake Tahoe, we the Slichtas got voted to be the presidents of the following reunion. Since we live in Seattle and everyone wanted to visit the reunion was here. It originally started out as a Thursday to Sunday thing, but individually all the families decided to come early to do some site-seeing... so we turned the whole week into a tourists delight for everyone! Our first outing on Monday morning was a trip to Forks, WA. Here we are on the ferry... Daniel Stringham, Kaden, Adyson, Katie Stringham and Audrey Debenham.

Trevor and Emmy were just ok friends 2 years ago, but the minute they got together and found out they were both 6 and loved to read they were best friends the whole week and rode everywhere together in the car, did some kissing on cheeks and holding of hands. The Stringhams and us secretly betrothed the 2 of them together. Because of the Stringhams we also presented our girls with a deal... whoever graduates from high school without kissing a boy gets $1,000. Love that idea! That's a huge amount of money but it's worth it to me as the mom, so it should be worth it to the girls too. Dontcha think?
We rode out to the Ho National Rain forest, about 40 minutes from Forks. It was just beautiful. In this clearing we saw a large group of Elk.

Maryn borrowed Jackie Stringhams professional camera and took some pictures. Jackie is SO brave.

We all took an hour hike around the Rain forest... the only rain forest in North America. We thought we could see Bella and Edward "running" through the thick trees.

We were amazed how all the kids picked up right where they left off 2 years ago. We hadn't even been together for 2 hours and they were already arm in arm. The kids just kind of knew they were supposed to be best friends.

Since we were on the coast we had to go to the beach... it was very foggy and chilly and windy but so pretty. Eric Smith, as a newly sustained bishop doing some ward business on the rocks.

The Kaden and his dad having a rock throwing contest.Ok all you Twilight fans... here's a bit of Forks. A year ago Forks wasn't this much fun but since the Twilight movie came out and there's so many Twilight FREAKS who come to visit the town has played the story up and made it a fun place to visit.... Bella and Edward stuff ALL over the place. Here's but a few pictures of the crazy signs you see everywhere. Our meeting spot was the Outfitters store where Bella worked.

A sign in a watch/ jewelry store.

A sign outside a coffee shop.

Outside a pharmacy.

This sign was on a corner as we left the Indian Reservation of La Push where Jacob and the other wolves lived.

This was the back side of the above sign as you went into the La Push area.

I didn't even get pictures of the crazy things found in the "Twilight" store. Or the sign at the hospital parking spot that said " Dr.Carslile is not in today. He is out hunting." I'd have to say that the residence of little old dinky Forks have sure made the most of all the tourism that has now come to their town over some non-fiction books.

Monday night we slept in Port Angeles and saw the Italian restaurant where Bella ate before Edward picked her up.

The next day some went to Victoria and some did site seeing and some went back to our house. Tuesday evening we had a fun BBQ/swim party at New Castle Beach. Wednesday we did the Seattle tourist thing playing at the International Fountain, walking around the Seattle Center and doing the Duck Tours! As part of the tour we saw the very house that was in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle." Can you picture Tom Hanks standing out on the porch of that house?

Here is the most of the whole gang standing in front of our Duck. It was such a crazy time, a bit expensive but I would have to say totally worth the money... 90 minutes of a silly driver, fun music and lots of interesting facts about Seattle that even the residence didn't know about.

The 10 adults wanted a minute to ourselves away from the 23 children so we went to Anthony's and ate on the water downtown Kirkland. It was so nice to be all together. (just so ya know there were 16 children eating pizza at our house and 7 children at the Debenhams. A bit uneven yes, but those kids had a great time and with Abri, Courtney, Maryn and Rebecca in charge we had no worries.)

We made it Thursday afternoon to Ensign Ranch an hour away from our home. Our accommodations were quite rustic to say the least, but our hearts were happy and we just loved being together. Doesn't it sound so mushy? yes, but true! These are the kind of people that when you are with them you have a desire to be a better person. It's such a unique special gift that the chemistry of all these families put together equals such pure celestial fun and causes us to live on a higher plane. I am a better parent and person after being with these great people and the amazing thing is that we all feel this way.

All the older kids loved being together too.

Here they are... the Ensign Ranch Summer Cabins. They have electricity and sleep anywhere from 8-12 people and that's about it. The Smith's slept in their motor home behind our cabins and we used the far right one for our food and eating together and lots of games. The walls are thin enough in each cabin that each and every night we could hear people throwing up outside. The Smith boys went to boy scout camp where a 12 hour flu was going around. The Smith family brought it with them and little by little, day by day every person (except for a handful of lucky ones) got caught with the nightly barfing attack. Each morning we woke up asking who threw up that night. Jeff said that no where else could you hear barfing in surround sound all night long. Another favorite about the accomodations was the Honey Bucket. The cute thing was that even the small kids refered to the potty as "going to the Honey Bucket."

Because the bees liked our food too we all squished into the food cabin and ate. Here's the top bunk with some kids enjoying one of the many scrumptious meals we ate.

Here is Daniel Stringham and Kaden from 2 years ago... dirty camping buddies.

Here is Daniel and Kaden this year... the same dirty camping buddies. I love seeing how they are growing up and still cute as ever.

Of course the all time favorite for the 3 days was the Slip n' Slide. Here are Katie Stringham and Adyson. They were best buddies as babies.

The older girls canoeing together.

The Smiths on a trail ride.

The cabins were next to this amphitheater so we took advantage of it and had a talent show.

Jackie Stringham's talents are endless but we had no idea she could gurgle the "National Anthem." Absolute talent and so hilarious!!!

Jeff wrote a song that the 2 jobless men sang about their unemployment.

Rebecca Debenham, Maryn, Courtney Smith and Abri Steadman... all such good girls and all so tall. Maryn is such a shrimp next to the 3 of them. It's a good thing she has a big personality and self-esteem. The girls shared some girl's camp songs.

fun on the lake... the kids floated on their tubes out to the dock.

All the younger girls... Audrey Debenham, Katie Stringham, Bethany and Rachel Stringham, Adyson and Emmy all stuck together and had a blast.

Jeff helping to guide Emmy on her tube. The wind sort of carried them away this afternoon. I'm not showing the picture where Jeff got on a tube to float as relaxing-like as the other kids. The minute he lay back to relax he back flipped clear over submerging himself and tube and shocking himself but giving the onlookings a few giggles.

Alicia Smith had the best form by a long shot on the rope swing. Brian Stringham had the trickiest move on the rope swing as his foot got stuck in the loop and he jumped anyway. Our stomachs hurt for hours after from laughing so hard watching Brian get out of that fix.

All the good looking Mom's... Jackie, Jenny, me, Fe' and Alicia... my heroes and great friends and mentors. We had fun making our own slip n' slide train.

The kids got so good at making huge long trains on the slip n' slide that soon we had the whole slip n slide, strangers and friends, joining the train.

We had a couple of devotionals during the few days together. In addition, Bishop Eric Smith gave a wonderful talk comparing his son's rattle snake bite experience and receiving anti-venom to using the power of the anti-venom in our own lives... scriptures, prayers, the Atonement. After this and some singing of hymns and a musical number sung by Jeff we had a testimony meeting. It was wonderfully spiritual and uplifting not only for the adults but the children too. Here is everyone!!!

Our last night all together. Jenny, Alicia, Jackie, me and Fe'.

Brian, Jeff, Eric, Brett and Jim.

Whoever said that parting is such sweet sorrow was full of bologna. There's nothing sweet about it. Well, except for the fact that there were 3 adults and a few children who thought they would leave without getting sick... but didn't. They (myself included) hated to see the week end but just wanted a warm cumfy bed to lay in and a private place to barf. It was sad to say good-bye to everyone, but we have reunion 2011 to look forward to.

Spontaneous Utah

One day I decided that if I was going to make it out to Utah this summer I had better leave in 3 days. So, the kids and I went. (why did Jeff stay home since he doesn't have a job?) If you remember that I have an overprotective dad... well he flew to the Boise airport where I picked him up after 8 hours and he drove the last 6 hours of the trip. We were getting closer to Brigham City and dad jokingly suggested we could stop at Maddox the new favorite restaurant of the family. (they also saw President Monson there, so it must be a favorite of his too.) Getting hungry, I told Dad that was a great idea and "why not?" So, we called members of the family and they drove the 2 hours to meet us at Maddox. Yum! My mouth is watering thinking about it again. It started off our week in Utah on the FUN foot.

The kids got invited to go to Laura Halliday's birthday party... a pirate/princess theme. No problem dressing up with Grandma around. Kaden loved being fixed up pirate style for the party.

Here are the girls with Laura and Caitlyn Holliday... their Utah best friends.
Tubbies with Spencer!

My 2 cousins, Heather and Rachel had babies within 3 weeks of each other... Camryn and McKenna. They were so darn cute.

The girls had to hold them the whole entire time we were together. Ever since we've been with them my girls have been begging to have another baby. Har!

Going to see The Fantastiks at the outdoor Sundance Theater was on my "funtimes" list. I invited everyone to join me and it turned out to be a fun evening.

Grandma and Grandpa were the babysitters but Maryn and Ady were the lucky ones to come with us. They liked the show too.

Kaden thinks that Uncle Marc is the greatest ever. They have always been best buddies doing everything together...mowing the lawn together was no exception.

It had been a long time since I went to the "This is the Place" monument which is now called "Pioneer Village." We made that a special outing with Grandma and Grandpa and the Shumans. It was quite the village with original cabins of pioneers, train rides, crafts, animal, horse riding, Native American stuff an much more that we didn't even touch. It was a HOT day.

Since we were "in the area" I had it on my list to go the Great Salt Lake and do some floating. We drove out to Saltair and were soon grossed out with the stench of the place. As we walked on the sand, which was so thick and pasty that it broke my flip flops, we were super grossed out with all the little nat flies all along the beach. There were swarms and gajillions of them flying around and there were a bajillion dead carcasses on the water line. It was weird and super disgusting. It was hard to hang around the water with all of that nastiness, but Marc was determined to be a floater since were were there. We saw 2 older gentlemen climb over some rocks and get in the water avoiding the flies... so Marc followed along. Soon, he was floating in the Great Salt Lake. Emmy joined him and felt the floating feeling. It was fun. Part of me wanted to do it too but I couldn't get past the flies and the smell. I thought I was tough, but I guess not.

After Marc washed everyone in the hose, he saw the 2 gentlemen walk past him heading for their car. Marc walked over and said, "the hose is over there to wash off' just in case they hadn't seen it. Come to find out, those 2 guys float every day after work in that water because it's good for the skin. Apparently you're not supposed to wash off or you'll rinse all the healing properties off. Hmmmm, that might be true, but do you want to stink too???

The trip was filled with tons of swimming too. Our new favorite pool is the Spanish Fork community pool. It has a big slide that lets little kids go down it too. They all had a blast going down it. Spencer couldn't get enough of the slide. We also went to the Pioneer Park pool in Provo and the Scera Pool. Lots of water and slides and fun!!! Thanks for a fun trip again everyone. We're always guaranteed a good time when we go there and it's always hard to go home and leave my family behind.