Johnson Reunion 2011

We gathered in the mountain town of McCall Idaho for another fantastic Johnson Family Reunion Highlights of an amazing family reunion!
COUSINS! Our little boy is on cloud nine when surrounded by cousins, and this week he was in heaven!! With more cousins than he knew what to do with, he spent most of his time either racing around with them or tackling them to the ground! Happily though, each of them welcomed our crazy little guy with open arms and gladly obliged his every moment with play!

The BOAT This year Grandpa and Grandma rented a pontoon boat to take out on the lake for a day. It was a hit! Despite a few clouds and a bit chilly afternoon, everyone took turns out on the inner tube, bouncing across the waves and "practicing" spectacular dismounts into the water. While on shore, we entertained ourselves with the sand and water buckets. I have to admit that the sand wasn't the most friendly surface to move around on with crutches, but being on the boat was great!



















ICE CREAM ALLEY This memory goes back a long way: walking the streets of McCall, checking out all the quaint little shops, then ending up in Ice Cream Alley for a tastey treat. Grandpa & Grandma treated us all to huge ice cream cones several times during the week and it was delicious as usual!! Huckleberry Ice Cream...you can't go wrong with that!!

TALENT SHOW We had our traditional talent show again this year and had lots of laughs and we got to enjoy seeing how much each of the grandkids have really grown up!

DINNER WITH THE ADULTS All us grown ups got to take a break from the kids and enjoy a delicious dinner together and filled up on conversation about the past three years and our plans for the next three years.

FAMILY CHALLENGES We put together a lot of fun quick games to play and had a blast watching the competitiveness come out in several family members!! The parachute was a hit again followed by a "nice & friendly" water balloon fight!

































CATCHING UP The best part about the Johnson Family Reunion of course is the opportunity to catch up and spend some time with our parents and sisters. I love re-connecting and learning all that is new in their lives but also realizing that all those connections are still there and we're all such good friends!

RMNP / Camp Dick

We've heard the stories of cliffs of snow along the roadside, but seeing is really believing! RMNP got so much snow that they only just now opened Trail Ridge Road and we got to drive along the walls of snow! Sweet!



We decided to camp this weekend on a whim. It was supposed to be in the 60s in Longmont, so we knew that it would be pretty cool in the mountains. We couldn't have been more wrong! We had mid 70s and beautiful weather, but Longmont never got above the 60s!!


We RZR'd all over the place including a pretty tough trail that ended in a plane crash that happened in the 1960s. I couldn't hike to the wreckage, but Kevin did and he said it was pretty eerie seeing recognizable plane parts strewn all over the place.


There is an absoultly picturesque church up in the mountains that we have admired from the road for years, and finally got to go inside. Beautiful.








































Along the Coney Flats trail near Camp Dick we faced our first uncrossable water crossing! Normally, when the runoff isn't so high, this can supposedly be done. We got our front end into it, but when we had six inches of water over the floor boards, we decided to back out. I couldn't really get myself stranded with a cast and crutches in possible 2 feet of water!!! Its a good thing we backed out though, Kevin hiked farther past it and the next water crossing looked even deeper. Ah well, next time!

We had a great time, raced a lot of trails, climbed a lot of rocks and generally, had a blast!

A Sunday Outing

Shawn, Stephanie and family joined us for a Sunday outing in the mountains today! It was so much fun to get the cousins together and give us all a chance to catch up. We built a campfire and roasted hot dogs and s'mores and let the kids play on the rocks. Then we hit the trail. Kevin and Shawn headed out alone first and it was quite awhile before they returned! Kev had Shawn drive on a trail we hadn't tried before due to snow and it was a pretty tricky one. He did great stomping on the gas hard enough to regain traction before slipping into a nice big hole! Way to be initiated Shawn!
The guys took the kids out next and boy did they squeal with delight! There were quite a few nice sized puddles and they "hit the gas!" And yes, they all got wet!






Chloe, Austin and Jadeyn tugging on something wrapped around the pine tree. What teamwork! And then they all came tumbling down!