The Lodge

We were in charge of breakfast this morning along with Matt and Sam's family. Sharen had bought all of the food, which was amazing. Maysen and Preston helped. They had egg wars when they made breakfast. They took two eggs and hit them together to see which one would crack. They had to crack 120 eggs. They looked like they were having a great time doing it. We had pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, orange juice and hot chocolate. It was delicious. After breakfast we went on a hike. Maysen was asleep when we left. Preston was annoyed that I caught him before he made it back to the duck cabin. Haha! It was a simple hike and was really nice.

Preston over looking the area where Grandma Parry grew up

 Paisley and Rennie ~ born on the same day

I went on a walk with a lot of my family to the feeding gate. Lots of irrigation pipes sent to different directions. It was a nice walk and I'm glad I didn't have any babies with me. Don't want to fall in the water there! Anyway, when I came back Maysen and Preston were in the paddleboat. Maysen had her laptop and Preston had his clipboard. He was drawing the lake. They were so cute! They were out there forever! Anne and Irie kept trying to get them to come to them. Maysen and Preston kept paddling away. Yikes! It was only later that Maysen told me that anytime they came near Anne and Irie they would try to hit them with sticks and throw mud at them. So....now I get it.

Maysen & Preston

I played a game of Canadian Salad with John, Renee, Jackie, Mark and Paul. I was winning the entire game until the last hand. I came in second to last. Luckily Mark had more points than me. Later, I was playing croquet with Matt, Paul and Devin when Mike and Jorja arrived. I heard Mike singsonging 'Stephanie!' I turned around, jumped and yelled, "Mike's here!" Renee laughed and said, "Now that is a nice reaction." It was nice to have them both up with us. Mike was pretty upset when he told me about finding Nala, the neighbor's dog, in our duck pen again. She was sitting right where Quackletta sat on her nest. He said, "Maybe it's a tender mercy Quackletta died like she did. I would have been furious if the dog killed her."

After dinner we had a program/talent show. Steve had people tell stories of Grandma/Grandpa, Sue, my mom or Kris. It was nice to hear about them. Steve told about my mom making my dad lunch every day when they were first married. She would always ask my dad what kind of sandwich he wanted. He would always say he didn't care. She got annoyed with that. So, one day my dad was at lunch. The other teacher didn't like his sandwich and asked if my dad would switch him. He did. Turns out my mom made my dad a popcorn sandwich that day. Haha. My mom is awesome. I miss her. Jorja got up for the talent show. She did her fake sneeze, her elephant noise and then had Maysen and I come up and sing the ABCs backwards with her. My grandma would always say the ABCs backwards and then end with "And what's so hard about that?" Really nothing, my kids all do it without even thinking about it. Except Preston. Looks like I failed to teach him. Whoops.

Uncle Steve

Stephanie, Jorja, Maysen ~ ABCs backwards

The three remaining kids ~ John, Jackie, Steve

Mike and the kids went back to the duck cabin. I stayed and talked with my family. It was me, Courtney, Steve & Sharon, John & Renee, Kendra & Derek, Heather & Josh, Paul & Amanda. After awhile I said, "So, Josh..." and everyone laughed. Josh is Heather's boyfriend. I asked them lots of questions. Courtney whispered that I needed to ask Amanda questions. Paul and Amanda have been dating for five years or so. Paul is my brother Matt's age. I knew they were really serious. Paul had asked her twin daughters if he could marry her, so I knew that. Anyway, Amanda is really shy, so there was no way I was going to interrogate her. After I couldn't think of any more questions to ask Josh I turned my head and said, "So, Paul..." I started asking him questions. Then I said something like, "So...is there a day that I need to clear my schedule for?" He said he didn't know. I said, "Well, I live in Utah. Is there a day I should make sure I can make it up here." He said, "I don't know... you could always come up July 13th." I asked if there was any reason I should come up that date. He said if I wanted to come up that seemed like as good of a date to do it. Finally I said, "Okay, so what I want to know is, are you getting married that day?" Paul said yes and my Aunt Renee about died. Her jaw just dropped. I raised my hands in victory, then gave Courtney a high five. It was awesome.