Miner Family Reunion

We returned this week from a 19 day drive to California and back. The reason for the trip was to attend the biannual Miner Family Reunion. This year the location was Lake Tahoe, California. We decided to drive out there so that we could also visit Danny's family during the same trip. We started our drive on July 9th, arrived in Utah on July 10th(making a stop in the middle of Nebraska somewhere), spent a day there in Utah, and arrived in Lake Tahoe on July 12th. On the first full day there, we spent some time at one of the beaches on the lake. Ashley loves this yellow floaty and spent at least an hour in the freezing cold water.

On the second day we all went on a hike. We were under the impression that it would be an easy hike and dressed accordingly. Here is Alyssa at the beginning of the hike.

Here she is again with the cousins who are closest in age to her -Tamma and Connor.
We apparently found the wrong trail head and ended up doing a hike that was much more difficult than we expected. Alyssa was a trooper and walked the whole way. Danny carried Ashley in the hiking backpack which wore him out by the end of the hike. The last quarter mile of the hike was all rocks that we had to climb up and down. Here is Alyssa at the end of the hike.

The hike ended at a waterfall, which Ashley wanted to jump into. Danny found a calm spot in the middle of the water for the three of them to sit.

One of the highlights of Miner Family Reunions for the grandkids is "Grandma's Bingo." Grandpa is the caller and the kids all get to play until they win. As they win, they get to go pick out a prize from Grandma's suitcase(which Grandma so diligently fills throughout the year of the reunion). Here is Alyssa playing next to her cousins Connor and Tamma.

On Tuesday night of the reunion, Grandma planned some fun things for the kids. They got to do Tug-o-war, 3 legged races, regular races, a water balloon toss, and a candy hunt. Here are the little ones racing.

This is the beginning of the 3 legged race.

We don't have any pictures from Wednesday nights activities because that was the day that most of the grandkids came down with a 12-24 hour stomach flu. It started with one kid early that morning and by bedtime that night at least 12 of the 19 grandkids there were feeling the effects of it. At least three more came down with it after the reunion. Strangely enough, only 1 of the adults caught it at the reunion. Fortunately, our family avoided it altogether. I don't know how we were so fortunate, but we were very grateful to be able to enjoy the rest of our vacation without dealing with throw up.

On the final evening of the reunion, we celebrated Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary. It isn't until next June, but we took advantage of everyone being together. The grandkids sang a song.

After the song, Grandma and Grandpa played a game where they had to guess who wrote down what memory. We had all written down memories with them. They did pretty well with most of them. We had a nice week with the Miner Family and we were sad that it wasn't a little bit longer (and without sickness). We will especially miss this:

On the second day of the reunion Ashley attached herself to cousin Bridgette. We couldn't tell who was following who, but they became good friends and we didn't have to keep such a close eye on Ashley after that. We only wish that we could have taken her home with us until she goes off to BYU in the fall. We are grateful to Mom/Grandma and Dad/Grandpa who plan reunions for us and find such fun places for us to get together. Lake Tahoe was beautiful and we especially miss that crisp mountain air now that we are back in Missouri and suffering in such heat and humidity.