Busy Summer-- Kids Visit, Bayer Family Reunion

It's been a busy summer, so I've been neglecting this blog-- but so many good pictures to post-! I'll try and keep the comments brief so I can get these important photos out to the public (ha ha).

One fun happening was a visit from an old highschool friend and her family. I hadn't seen Shannon Nichols (now Coleman) since 1988, when her and her family moved to Alabama.

Shannon has been married to Mike for about 20 years now. They have three children-- Morgan, Hannah, and Steven. As you can see, all have beautiful red hair. Mike is a fire fighter and emergency responder, as well as a real nice guy.

It was fun having Shannon's kids meet my kids. Shannon's kids are a bit older, but Leila warmed up to them pretty fast. She was very impressed with the big girls' jewelry and purses.

We missed yesterday's Hurlburt family reunion, but in June made it to the Ellis family reunion (that's Grandma Jane's side of the family). Here's Jane and her sister Dorothy looking over auction items with Emma. We donated the basket of canned goods and fresh produce that Emma's looking through here.

This is Marshall Ruegger, who is married to another of Jane's sisters (Pat). It's a small world... a few years ago we figured out that Marshall used to work with my mother before she was married, when she still worked at the DNR. She left her job after meeting and marrying Dad, but Marshall (and Dad) ended up retiring from the DNR after many years of service.

Another big event in June was David coming over for a two-week visit. I didn't realize it until he got here, but this was David's first time meeting Jack!

The kids had a great time playing with David. We made a couple of trips to Cornell to visit family, went to the beach and the mall, and celebrated 4th of July together.

Once, while in Cornell, we had a chance to walk through nephew Luke Meyer's house. Luke is Jon's sister Sally's son. A year or so ago he bought this landmark house just a few blocks from Grandma Jane's.


I have always been curious about this house. It's enormous, for one thing, with at least a 3 acre yard, and was mysteriously unoccupied during the year we lived in Cornell. I had been told that "back in the day" it was elaborately furnished, with a $40,000 kitchen re-model, a room with leopard-spotted walls, and many other exotic decorating twists.


The house is definitely unusual. Lots of built-in cupboards. A room with what looked like egg cartons on the ceiling (for acoustics?). And then this carpeted room... walls, ceilings, and railing banisters-- all carpeted. Here's David climbing a carpeted "fire pole" with metal hooks on it for climbing. Not many homes have one of those...

We had a heat wave and some really sticky days. Just before the hottest day a package arrived in the mail for the kids, from Aunt Ann... a slip-n'slide. Perfect-! We wasted no time setting it up. Our neighbor girl, Makayla, got to try it out too.

One day we met Jonathan, Jack, and Grandma Jane for a picnic at Brunet Island Park. Emma and Leila went swimming while the rest of us sat in the shade and talked.

Jack and Jonathan hanging out... I think Lindsay was studying for a test that day.

Here's Jack getting his feet wet... he was okay with the water but didn't care much for the sun. Jonathan was a good dad, though, and quickly took him back to the shade.

Emma started the 4th of July by making these holiday pancakes. Nice, huh?

We watched the fireworks from the backyard of Phil and Jill's cottage on Lake Holcombe. It was a relaxing good time-- sitting in lawn chairs, facing the water, enjoying their shady beach and cool drinks.

Many of the young adults hung out on a pontoon as well as a large raft tied off-shore. Little kids swam by the dock. At one point, just before dark, Adam took his young cousins out for a boat ride. They came back starry-eyed, talking about the lighted lanterns they had seen floating above them in the air (a nearby restaurant releases them on the 4th).

Our hosts, Phil and Jill, are at left (Phil in the yellow t-shirt, Jill with yellow viser. Their son Jacob is behind them).

Jonathan and Lindsay came over with Jack for awhile. Here they're feeding him supper.








Jon missed out on this event because he was called to do storm damage in Minnesota. Not long after returning home from that, he was called out again to do storm damage in Chicago. He's back now on a 6-day vacation, though.

Right: Michael at a football camp in Menomonie.

Susan and Jay came over Wednesday morning and left just today (Sunday). Thursday we went with them to a food tasting at Fanny Hill-- they plan to have a wedding reception there next June, and had to make their menu selections. Everything was delicious... their guests are in for a treat :).


Leila had a blast playing with Susan and Jay's pets... puppy Olive and 7 year-old dog Hazel. This kitten is from our "outside cat's" last litter (mama cat's fixed now, so no more babies). Leila called the kitten, who is named Iggy, her "best friend" and played with him every chance she got.

Yesterday Susan and Jay came with us to Tomahawk, for the Bayer family reunion. The Bayers are my mom's family, and my cousin Mitch and his wife hosted a first-ever get together at their home.

Here's Mom and Dad at the reunion, with their six grandchildren... my kids Michael, Emma, and Leila, and my brother Don's kids Kenny, Beth, and Stephen.


Right: Leila and Steven in the play house in Mitch and Mary's backyard.




Left: Uncle Don and Uncle Dave, my mom's two brothers.

Right: my brothers Don and Bob.








Volleyball at the reunion. Susan and Jay are there somewhere; can you spot them?

Beth and Leila throwing rocks in the pond.
Hopefully the fish were able to duck.








Cousin Christi's son blowing bubbles; Leila with cousin Jerod's youngest; Steven at center; cousin Jenny's little boy Jude in the forefront.

I feel like I'm rushing through these photos; sorry for that. The Bayer family reunion was a really good time... very cool to see cousins we hadn't seen in years, and to hear people talk about the old days. Uncle Don's been doing geneology, and it was interesting seeing the family tree he'd worked out.

Despite the distance, we didn't stay overnight. Susan and Jay had to leave the following day, and we wanted to be home to celebrate Jon's birthday.

Today was Jon's birthday (49-!). We spent it with Susan, Jay, Jonathan, Lindsay, and Jack. We missed David, but Jon was happy to have most of his kids around him.





I'm pretty sure Susan had a good time during her visit. We saw Harry Potter with her and I know she liked that. And for some reason she seems pretty taken with that little guy Jack.

Whew, what a blog! Done for now. Happy summer, everyone!