Four Little Monkeys: Reunion (aka a copy of my letter to Jaclyn this week)

Dear Jaclyn,

Well that was a fun surprise from Grandpa to have you teach our FHE lesson at our Family Reunion!

(Grandpa sent Jaclyn a USB and asked her to make a video FHE lesson on missionary work.)

We had FHE on Saturday night because that was the best night for it this weekend. Grandpa hadn’t even watched it yet. (So he couldn’t answer SOME people’s questions of how long it was. Wink.) I really enjoyed watching you teach and seeing you as a missionary in action. As well as the lesson itself. So now I am thinking more about missionary work and really recognizing how much of the ‘non missionary’ stuff we discussed at church today is actually missionary stuff. We sang ‘Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd’ in RS today, and I found myself wondering why we don’t sing that hymn at missionary farewells.

Here’s our reunion synopsis:

Wednesday Carmen, Chloe, and I drove down to Montana in the morning, did a teensy bit of shopping, and then met up with Keith and Kelly’s family who were arriving Wednesday because that worked out better for flights for them from Arizona.

(Carmen doesn't like to shop. At all. She was wearing black shorts with a black t-shirt because she literally had nothing else to wear. She called it her ninja costume, and was demonstrating her moves in heals.)

We did Costco together, went up to Ptarmigan, and then went out for dinner in Whitefish. We chose a restaurant called Coopers, which we’ve never tried before. It had European selections on the menu, and Carmen and Avery shared Avery’s first escargot - but the escargot were different than Carmen had tried in Paris. They were already out of shell and smothered in melted cheese, which I imagine made them more palatable, I don’t know. We then did MORE grocery shopping at Safeway and Super 1, but still had time for swimming back at Ptarmigan.

Thursday our smaller pre-reunion group went for a trail ride in the morning.

(This monster is a descendant of one of the puppies from the movie Beethoven's Second.)

Chloe was a little nervous before we got started, which was probably the fault of the guides. In Waterton when we go on trail rides they throw you on a horse and away you go. These guides were really more professional and safety conscious and gave more instruction and practise before we went out, which made Chloe feel like it she needed to know more than she really did and that her horse might not obey her.

But it turned out she loved her horse, Cupcake, and we all had a good time.

We went back to Ptarmigan for lunch and then Mark and Ortensia arrived and a bunch of us went and did zip lines on Big Mountain. The summer development of the mountain has come a long ways since we last came to Whitefish in the summer, and zip lines are just one part of that.

Mark, Camille, Keith, Avery, Emerson, Carmen, Chloe and I were the zip liners. We did 7 lines, but the first 2 were just for practise and training. The last 5 were long and high and fast and the most fun.

I’ve sent you a picture of Carmen doing a face because it is the exact silly face Aunt Christy used to do for pictures, do you recognize it?

Later on Thursday Dad and Steven and Grandma and Grandpa arrived. We had planned to go to MacKenzie River Pizza originally, but Keith, Mark and I had changed the plan to take-out without telling Grandma and Grandpa or Dad. Turned out they both went straight to the restaurant when they got to town, which was right when we finished on the zip lines. Dad called to ask what exactly was going on from the restaurant and it worked out awesome that he was right there and ordered the pizza and brought it to us.

Friday was pouring rain. We were supposed to go to the lake that day, but obviously we didn’t. We went to Kalispell for lunch. Some people went to see Smurfs 2 (not me) and after the movie I took Carmen power shopping. She was in desperate need, and in 20 minutes we found 2 pairs of jeans and 4 shirts. It turns out she has to be desperate in order to accomplish anything when shopping. Dirk and Marie arrived in Kalispell in the afternoon, and then at 5pm Marie and her 3 oldest, the girls from our family, Kelly and her girls, Ortensia and Camille and Grandma went to Bigfork for dinner and Summerhouse Theatre. The timing on that all went like clockwork, surprisingly, and we enjoyed watching the Sound of Music. The lead was an actress from Calgary Storybook Theatre, and we recognized her immediately which was fun for us.

Saturday was overcast in the morning so we didn’t go to the water slides after all. Instead we went to that outdoor fun centre in Coram that has the maze and the bumper boats and the go carts.

(Carter)

(Chloe and Camille)

(Steven, Monte, and Harrison)

(Grandpa and Grandma)

It was a perfect day for that and we certainly had plenty of picnic food. Oh, Dad, Steven, Carmen, Avery, Brynlee, and Keith went to an indoor shooting range first. (When in the USA . . . )

Other than that, Keith and Kelly made dinner on Saturday, and we had FHE, which was just your lesson and fudge and popcorn - that was as much structure as anyone could tolerate.

("Favourite Uncle" - or so he campaigned to be all week.)

We went swimming at the pool again and I mostly swam with Monte. He just wanted to do laps from one end to the other, repeating, “That way!” and pointing his finger.

Today we will go feed the ducks and have homemade ice cream.

(On Sunday Avery entertained Gwennie with blowing bubbles. Gwen kept saying, "Wow!")

(Grandpa says the most important part of making ice cream is the spoon.)

Dad and Carmen are heading back home so that Carmen can check in at EFY tomorrow morning. I think we will head back to Big Mountain and do some alpine slides or something tomorrow before we go home.