family reunion in early August

I started this entry a few weeks ago, during our family reunion, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. The deal was, my father and his three sisters, along with as many of their offspring as could make it, were together in the Flathead Valley for two weeks, for the sole purpose of going through all of the earthly belongings of Grandpa and Grandma and my Great Aunt Wilma. Grandma and Wilma actually aren't deceased yet, but they are at that stage of life where you're not sure what stage they're at. Mentally. So we touch and kiss them and hope that somehow they at least feel our love. Here's one of my favorite shots of Grandma in recent years, taken during the spring down in Arizona.



Grandma and Grandpa were world travelers. Sometime in their 60's, they decided to drive their pickup and camper from Alaska down to the very southern tip of South America, stopping off in little towns along the way to be of random help to various churches. At least once they stayed someplace for a few months to give a pastor and his wife a much-needed break to go to the States for medical treatment. Grandma and Grandpa had also lived through the Depression, so throwing anything away was seen as wasteful. They found the most bizarre ways to recycle. So, this sorting process was a huge, arduous undertaking, accented with finding treasures just about hourly, some sad and touching, and some deliriously funny. We picked momentos to take home, and set up and ran the big garage sale. The bee was our mascot; we must've had 50 stingings over the two weeks, and you can see the wildfire smoke in the pics I posted a couple weeks ago. We did also do a few little hikes and sight-seeing trips. Here's a shot from a day in Glacier Park...



Cousin Ralphie with one of the more interesting finds...



A couple phrases that caught my ear during the reunion:

• "Carolyn, have you seen Wilma's bottom teeth?"
• several times daily: "Oh look at this! Daddy and Mama brought this back from __________" (and the blank is filled in with words like India, Peru, Argentina, China, Alaska).

Then there was the incident of 10 people carrying a heavy, old pickup topper from the garage to the yard for sale. Only some people were on the outside edges of the topper where they could actually see, and others were completely underneath it. The garage was narrow, so the topper was bumping things off of shelves. People were tripping over roter tillers, dogs, each other, all the while talking each other through: "Relax, relax." "Drop it just a little." "Hop over that bucket.""Heather, run around and switch to up front." And when they got out into the yard, several people all at once said, "Hey, where are we going?" Typical of my family, believe you me. And I love them to pieces.

Grandpa (seated up front) with his three siblings, Carl, Wilma, and Harold.