Twenty-four People, Six Days, One Cabin

Scott recently came to Montana to perform best man duties for his friend. He suggested it would be a good time for a family reunion and he was right. We headed to the cabin on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, depending on work, school, and vacation schedules.

Back of the bathroom door in the Cowboy bedroom: "I've got to fix that bathroom door".

The kids slept in the loft, atop the "funny stairs", at least until their parents realized that cousins+too much fun+no sleep=bad news the next day.

The first child up in the morning was kind enough to wake all the rest.

Hailey was delighted to have little Brinlee to take care of. Brinlee was less delighted to have the undivided attention of a 6 year old.

The men helping with the morning bath for Ashley....

...and Megan. Personally I prefer a shower.

On the fourth we went to the Red Lodge parade, a fine family tradition for 35 years.

A bee found Hailey "Honey" Pelton and took a sample. A nice man next to us gave her spray-on sting reliever and a can of pop.

Kailyn chatting with Grandpas Jones and Bassett. The Bassetts came up and joined us for the parade.

Waiting for the fun to begin....

....while enjoying a snack.

We came prepared for the most important parade event: The Tossing of the Candy.

Waiting for the next candy-tossers.

Ava is willing to take a tootsie roll or two off anybody's hands.

Here's the great thing about Red Lodge parades: grab your work truck, stick a flag or two on it, and call it a float. Macy's parade it ain't. 

We had a quick lunch,

followed by a dip in the river.

Hang on to those kids, Uncle McKay!

Some pool sharks, Ava and Makayla

and some nap sharks, Amy and Makayla again.

July 4th celebration at the cabin always includes a fire in the woods

for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

Despite her nap, Makayla wasn't happy about being outside with the bugs. Kailyn is the kindest, sweetest cousin, always ready to lend a hand in cheering cousins up.

 

Megan and David, enjoying ashy, smokey, bug-infested food.

I wish I could say those were carrots on Ava's plate, but nope. They're Cheetos.

I had a bag left over from a church event I was dying to get rid of. Surprisingly, the kids were very accommodating. I'm sure they actually would have preferred carrots.

Makayla demonstrating the way she loves hot dogs: cold and bunless.

Yum! Yum! S'mores!

And after S'mores.

There's nothing that says "vacation" like mouthfuls of smoke with your food.

Where there is smoke, there is not fire.

I was very popular among the grandkids when I gave them each a little flashlight of their own. I was very unpopular among the parents when the kids found the button for the strobe light feature.

Sparklers were next.

 I swear, it was just last year we were passing sparklers out to our own little kids.

We also had a few fountains.

Some of us didn't care for the noise.

Blowing out the fountain. Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Sticking your face down where just a second ago there were sparks, crackles, and pops wouldn't become a problem, right?

On Friday, Ken discovered how to win friends--let the kids help him mow the grass.

Then we headed off to take a hike.

We went to Woodbine Falls.

It's a pretty easy hike, about 1.5 miles round trip.

 A few of us stayed up too late talking to cousins and were foaming at the mouth, thinking about that much walking.

Yep. Someone is still not happy, even after getting to the falls.

 Snuggle time.

Brinlee was happy to be out of that carrier.

Megan and her boyfriend.
Oh wait! David went back to Rexburg to take a test, then flew back to Red Lodge. Crazy, no? 

He missed this hike.

Mountain goat Chase.

Saturday we did a second hike to Mystic Lake, a harder hike that is 7 miles round trip. I didn't take any pictures of that because I didn't want to drag my heavy camera up the steeper, rockier trail. The kids actually did better on the second, longer, harder hike. They all made the entire hike with very little help.

I brought a little container of stuff to relieve mosquito bite itch. Dr. Bassett carried it around for me and did an excellent job administrating to victims.

Speaking of victims, Caden had so many bites his head was deformed,

Chase fell and impaled himself of his walking stick,

and Ava fell off the porch and scrapped her nose on the cement step. Those crazy Bassetts....

 Of course, after our hike we stopped for ice cream.

Here's a picture to warm a grandma's heart: a bunch of ice cream-loving descendents.

We played board games in the evenings after the kids were in bed.

We were playing "Quelf". Can you tell?

The kids played plenty of boardgames, too.

The favorite dining spot.

Jessica's mother-in-law made some treats and sent them up. What a nice mother-in-law!

Friday we visited Red Lodge zoo.

Even though Red Lodge is a tiny town, their zoo is 40 times bigger and 200 times funner than our zoo.

Kailyn taking an up close and personal bear picture.

Of course, after the hot zoo, we got some cold ice cream.

 We probably doubled the revenues for this ice cream stop for the month of July.

 Ashley and McKay were our game specialists. Among other things, they brought water balloon volleyball. There were a few random balloon lobs and lots of wet people.

Ava stayed out of the fray.

Others didn't.

Still others hit the river.

 Supper time!!

It's not easy to arrange schedules to get everyone together.

We are grateful everyone made the effort to be there, and thankful to Grandma and Grandpa for use of the cabin.

It was fun to have the cousins together.

We had a great time

and look forward to doing it again in a year or two.

Psst...don't tell anyone but I think Brinlee was happy to escape her greatest admirers.....