Petersen Reunion in American Fork

I am going to start my rambling blog about our trip to Utah and will add pictures when I arrive back home or get near a computer that I can download some pictures. But some of the cool ones are on Dave's camera so that will have to wait.

Dave and I left Wenatchee on Friday, August 18th to head to Utah. We stopped at Scott Foster's house in Nampa Idaho for the night. What an interesting adventure - he and his wife and kids just moved into a beautiful new home and we really enjoyed their hospitality and I loved their huge shower (almost as big as most people's bedrooms). Scott is into computer websites and products that have proven to be financially successful. It was fascinating to both Dave and I to see how all that works. He does a cool site hooking up writers with people who are looking for articles to be written for newsletters, etc. Who knows Dave and I may just become famous writers on his website someday.

We arrived at Altamont Campground up American Fork Canyon for the Petersen Reunion (my mom's side of the family) on Saturday afternoon. What a beautiful site!! The campground is all wooded with pines and white legged aspens - my favorite. But the most spectacular sight was the awesome view of the backside of Mount Timpanogos. After we set up our tent and visited with everyone for a while we headed back down to Springville to visit Dave's brother and sister-in-law Jim and Debbie. We enjoyed their nice home and all went out to dinner at Art City Trolley - an interesting little restaurant with great food. We spent the night there and headed back up the canyon in the morning.

The true campers at the reunion consisted of our camp hosts/planners for the year Blaine (mom's youngest brother) and wife Charlotte. Two of their children, Natalie and Heidi and spouses John and Chris were there with their children - KC and Cheyenne with Heidi and Chris and Katie, Jordan and Sam with Natalie and John. The other campers were Pat and Paul (mom's brother) from Cedar City, Ray (mom's oldest brother) and Carol from Salt Lake, their son and wife Kevin and Debbie. Kevin is my "twin" cousin as we were born on the same day in Utah. Ray and Carol already had a boy and mom and dad already had a girl, so Blaine suggested they just trade - but I guess they decided not to. Mom and dad were accompanied by myself and Dave (no dogs, kids or grand kids - since we don't have any) and Sherrie. who had just flown in from a 2 week Head Start Management Training at UCLA.

This group of campers had only 3 dogs, which is a very small number of dogs in relationship to people at a Peterson reunion. But never fear - as Sunday arrived and the big potluck and auction activity was about to take place - more people rolled into camp with their dogs and kids. I couldn't even begin to name all the kids or dogs - but I can name my cousins. From Ray & Carol's family, Scott and Claudia and kids came. Also Larry and Kathy with their kids, spouses, grand kids and dogs arrived. Also Kevin and Debbie's kids, spouses, grand kids and dogs. Pat and Paul's kids Brett and Linda and kids along with Connie and Steve and grand kids arrived. I think by the time everyone pulled into camp we had more dogs than people - a true Petersen Reunion tradition. Dutch oven chicken cooked by Blaine's family was delicious, as were all the potluck yummies. Dad was the auctioneer, and as usual there were fantastic handmade arts and crafts displayed and bought.

The campground had a huge pavilion with enough picnic tables for all of us to eat, play games and do crafts together. It also had a fire pit in the center where we enjoyed visiting around the fire every evening - even those who hated the smoke joined us. And of course there were smores - made with marshmellows and Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies instead of graham crackers. I'm not a real smores lover so someone else would have to add their opinion on that one!

The little kids (and some BIG kids also) were involved all week in butterfly and dragonfly catching. At one point they had caught 14 butterflies and had a "grand finale" where they released all the butterlies at the same time. Later when they had a bunch of dragonflies and one didn't make it through the night, Jordan decided since it was dead she would jut use it for a pin on her shirt or a barrett in her hair, so wore it for awhile around camp. Everyone also enjoyed walking down to the Creek daily to play in the water and enjoy the beauty.

Dave and I went on a gorgeous hike on the ridge trail with Kevin and Debbie. The wildflowers were above head high - okay, maybe just above my head high, but close to 6 feet tall. The view was undescribably beautiful! Dave and I have decided we need to get into shape, as Kevin and Debbie were just strolling along as we were huffin' and puffin' our way up the inclines. Of course I just like to blame it on the altitude - as we were at 6,000 feet (I think) and only use to 600 in Wenatchee. Sounds like a good excuse to me. On our way back driving back down the canyon to camp we saw a moose grazing by the side of the road. We all got out and looked down over the hill, which must of "bugged" him so he started up toward the road, as did we. When he got onto the road he turned and looked us straight in the eye, then I guess decided we weren't that interesting so continued on his way up the hill. That is the closest I have ever been to a moose so I thought it was pretty cool.

My "old" friend - meaning friends for a long time - not old as in age, Laural, her daughter Katie and son Austin came to visit me from Wyoming. We had fun laughing about old times together when we were both single, out dancing and having fun. It was great to catch up on old times. Also, Dave's brother Jim and wife Debbie came up and camped with us one night. They live in Mapleton, Utah so we were also able to go there and see their new home and of course have a fun game night with Debbie's son and family.

We broke camp on Saturday and headed down the canyon - the end of another great Petersen Reunion!

Wooden Boat Fest

Dave and I went to Sandpoint Idaho for the wooden boat fest last week-end. It was great weather and really fun. Dave has been researching wooden boats for a while now and would love to someday build his own. We talked with a guy named Mark from Sandpoint who had built his own boat. It took him about 5 months, full time. As we were visiting with him he asked us if we wanted to ride with him in the "parade". I of course had to have him twist my arm. Instead of standing on the bridge waving to the boats as they go by, we were in the boat waving to the people on the bridges. After we did the parade around the bay, some of the boats went out into the main part of the lake and really opened it up! Dave and I got soaked sitting in the back seat, but it was a hot day and it felt great!!

Our camp spot was pretty cool too. We stayed at Garfield Bay, about 14 miles outside of Sandpoint. It was a wooded area and campfires were allowed. So we built a nice fire and sat out and enjoyed the quiet of the woods and the beauty of the stars. They look so different when you get away from the big city. It was just great to have a week-end to relax and enjoy life.