Reunion Report

Our family reunion at Willow Flat was a lot of fun. We enjoyed existing together in the beautiful outdoors. Camping provides a way of bonding that we get in no other way. For one thing, we all smell the same...dirt and campfire is the prevalent aroma. Another thing that brings us together is the preparing of and partaking of food. We learn from each other how to dutch oven cook, good salad recipes, ideas for picnics, etc. We also get to enjoy activities together. We had a scavenger hunt for the young children and the young adults helped the children find the things on their lists. They found things such as grass, pine cones, flowers and leaves of different kinds. The purpose was to help the little ones discover nature and learn to trust and get to know the older cousins. The older cousins who helped had the opportunity to bond with the little ones. It worked and was great. After checking in and telling me everything that they found, the children got to choose a prize. They were happy. Later, throughout the day, I saw them seeking out the young adults who had helped them, just to spend time with them and share delights with them. I was very pleased! I must mention what good mentors our young adults were. I was proud of them.
Another fun activity was the photo scavenger hunt. Willow Flat has a beautiful hike, about a mile long, up to the spring...where the water comes right out of the mountain. We went in teams, each team with a camera and a list of things to photograph along the hike. The list contained a couple of things that no one could find: snow and clouds. One team was very creative...capturing the word snow from the list and drawing their own cloud on the back of the list and taking a picture of it. They even created a wild strawberry by placing a fruit snack in a leaf arrangement. They won first prize! Why not?

We spent two nights in that lovely camp. After supper was all cleared away, we all sat around the campfire and visited. The first night we sang Happy Birthday to Lisa, Jim and Bryan and gave them our gifts...mostly T-shirts with amusing logos. Then, both nights we cooked smores and just visited. One or two at a time people trickled off to their tents, leaving only the stalwart fire huggers to star gaze and philosophise until the fire went out.
Mom and Dad were good sports, even excited to come to the reunion. The original plan was that Jim would bring his new trailer with all the comforts of home for them to stay in. The Sunday before the reunion, Jim and Artus decided to go for a drive and check out the facility. They found that the extreme high run off had badly damaged the road to the campsite to the point that they did not dare bring the trailer if it was not repaired. Monday morning, I called the forest service to see if repairs were in the plan. They were so busy repairing damaged roads and washed out campsites that they could not promise anything. Jim then decided to bring tents instead. They even bought a new tent and air bed just for Mom and Dad to use. We equipped the tent with a necessary porta-potty and figured they would get along just fine. We didn't forsee how cold it was going to get at night...44 degrees inside the tents. Mom and Dad didn't have enough bedding to stay warm. But, that was not the only problem. Sleeping together on an air mattress, as we all know, causes the two people to roll together. When you are young, that's not a problem. For Mom and Dad, it created miserable challenges. Mom needed to get up to potty several times during the night but couldn't get out of the bed. Dad had to try to push her out but she fell back in..they just sat there and laughed. Dad couldn't get over to his side of the bed because there was nothing to hold onto to pull himself over. Neither one could get comfortable or warm. I got up at 7:00 am to find Mom sitting near the cold fire pit wrapped up in a blanket. She told me about their terrible night and that they had decided that after supper, they were going to go home. All they would be missing is breakfast and they could not spend another night like last night. She laughed as she explained their follies but the humor did not deter them. They left after the dutch oven dinner. They arrived home safely at about 9:00pm. They showered, watched the news, then went to bed. They both slept til 9:00 the next morning. They felt much better and were grateful to be home. They did enjoy watching everyone have a good time together while they were there. Next year we will have to do something less strenuous for their sakes.
The newest member of the Amundson family is Jana's dog, Dex.