Crane Reunion

Ah, the Crane Reunion.  One of my favorite summer festivities.  We rented a trailer this year in hopes that we could survive the 3 days/2 nights in Bennington, Idaho without barging in on the relatives or using a motel.  We mostly succeeded.  Since our family of eight doesn't quite fit in a pick-up, my parents had to take two of our children with them.  Rachel and Kaden rode with them on the way up and Haley and Tye on the way home.  I think they will have some fun memories of traveling with grandma and grandpa.  It doesn't happen very often.  We set up "camp" at Camp Baretoes (my uncle's property) and the kids explored a little, but the next day we had to almost force them to explore.  They didn't want to play in the creek.... or is it crick?? ;)  They were just higher maintenance this time for some reason.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, though.  Everyone should be able to have the experience of getting out of the city and be able to soak in the country life... not that we really experienced the everyday life of my aunts, uncles and cousins (we didn't have to move pipes, heard cattle, shear sheep or bale hay), but we at least get to breathe the air they breathe.  I have a great heritage and to return to this place year after year is almost therapeutic to me.  I know I say this every year, but it is just a little piece of heaven to me.  I miss my grandparents and other relatives who have passed on and this is the place where I feel connected to them.

Now when I say we "mostly succeeded" in staying out of our relatives hair, I mean in order to have an actual warm shower I had to use my grandparents old home that was filled with guests, which was what I was trying to avoid.  My dear husband didn't feel like taking the time to get everything up and running was worth it.  I on the other hand did feel it was worth it, but had to bite my tongue and roll with the punches.  In the end some got cold showers others got warm ones and it was fine.  We all ended up clean in the end.  Sometimes I need to just roll with the punches instead of being the one creating them.  It's good for me.

We took a few hours out of our day Saturday to spend some time at Bear Lake with my sister Debbie and her family.  I forgot to take pictures, but we had fun.  The kids made fun shapes with glow in the dark sticks at night.  Kaden stepped in "quick mud" as the kids called it and his white sneaks ended up black and soggy!  He had to survive on flip flops the rest of the time, but the flip flops didn't survive him.  I'm sure Old Navy didn't make them to hike up mountain sides.  Tye was the only one who ended up covered in burs after a hike somehow.  No ticks were detected.... Yay!  There were crafts, games, pinatas, soda (very key to my children and this reunion), sunshine, good food and good company.  We returned home to smoke filled skies from the many wildfires in Utah and I wished we could just turn around and go back!