I've been blessed. I have this wonderful family that I am so grateful for. If I think back in my life, I can see how the trail had led me here. I know that Daryl and I were meant to be together. I feel it everytime I look at him. There were allot of stepping stones that I had to cover to get here and it took me a good part of my life, but I made it and I'm happy. Any other turn of events would have set off catastrophies. And despite this rough journey, Kristina found Judd and has three beautiful kids, Makenna found Jared and has handsome little Dylan. Now Craig has a harder course in life that he has chosen. But he gave us Aden. And he is a joy. Although I know little about Daryl's kids families and we rarely see the grandkids, either from the distance or from their lack of interest, but when we do get to see them, those kids are a delightful bunch. Sarah and Noel's boys are a wrestling -knock over -gonna have a good time breed. Little Cassy is so sweet. She has gorgous reddish blond hair and big blue eyes. And she follows after her brothers without a care. Wendy and James' baby Peighton has the cutest personality. She hangs to her mom like no one else in this world matters. Alicia comes to visit once and awhile. She is the first grandchild and we miss having her around. She's such a sweet little girl, shy and soft spoken. And we miss her. Joselyn takes a few minutes to warm up to us, but then is a chatterbox. She's a pretty little girl.

All the kids except for Dylan came to the reunion up at Happy Jack. It was June and hot up there but it was a good time despite the heat.

We arrived after the grandpa and grandma. They were sharing their cabin with Elaine and her kids. Darleen and Randy were there already too. We scrambled in with our camper and set it up before going off to say hello to everyone. It was hot. They all seemed to be just waking up from a nap. We visited for the evening. More family showed up the next day -Friday. We had dinner duty and we all went over to the meadow to visit and talk. Grandpa was able to tell some stories and asked a handful of us to speak as well. I was one of them. Like everyone else, I don't like to talk in public. Not even if its family public. I thought did but years ago as I took the stand at my brother Bryan's wedding I froze. I don't know how I made it through that speech and I can't remember what I said...if I spoke at all. But talking that evening was spontaneous. Instead of talking about how I was fortunate to meet my husband, I talked about the church and how it affected my life. I rambled on in a daze really. I much prefer Daryl to speak. And then grandpa talked about his life and mentioned the movie "the Bucket List" and that he wasn't going to wait until he passed away before giving his treasures to the kids. Daryl got his treasured shot gun. The one that grandma bought grandpa for a wedding gift. It was very sweet. I have it on video thank goodness although for some dumb reason I stopped short. Ronny helped with the meal. It was good that he was there to help. And then Ruth showed up. His new girlfriend. We like her. The kids started showing up. Most all our grandkids were there except Makenna and Dylan. We spent Saturday evening dancing in the meetinghouse at the Happy Jack lodge. That was the best part. All the kids were dancing and I got to dance with grandpa. It was a happy time with everyone, I think. Good memories for us. For sure.