Friday, June 24, 2011

Family Reunions = Lots of Fun

My mother’s family just had a reunion at Estes Park, Colorado at the YMCA of the Rockies.  One of my sisters and I drove my mother to the reunion of her 2 sisters, 2 brothers and all the nieces and nephews that could make it.  My mother is the oldest living sibling now as her older sister died a few years ago and several of the spouses have passed away too.  There were only 42 of us in attendance this year but we had such a great time catching up on our lives and enjoying the lodge, YMCA and Rocky Mountain National Park.
IMG_3003
We had the use of one of the large lodges at the YMCA and it was just beautiful.  The kitchen was huge – we fixed big breakfasts and served our other meals from this well appointed kitchen.  It had 4 dishwashers and lots of help to serve and clean up so no one person had to do much.  The lodge had a big dining room and lounge to accommodate a group and they were divided by a two sided fireplace which we did run a few times.  It got down to the upper 40s at night so was cool in the morning.  The lodge had hotel type rooms we all stayed in.
IMG_2913
My ankle felt good enough I did the walk around Bear Lake….well I only went half way then back to the start as there was snow on the last half of the trail and I sure didn’t need to be falling.  I am not known for my grace so that was probably the best decision.  Actually there is still a lot of snow in the mountains yet.

The YMCA of the Rockies is right beside the Rocky Mountain National Park so we got the chance to drive, hike and appreciate the beauty of the mountains in the park too.  We took my mother on a driving excursion and she had a wonderful time even though at Rainbow Curve it was windy and chilly.  I don’t remember for sure but think the temperature was in the 50s and it was misty up there too.  IMG_2969
We were among the many tourists taking photos of the many elk.  Majestic animals but we were playing it safe and didn’t get too close but some people were within a few feet of them snapping photos.  Don’t these people know that they are wild animals and could really hurt them if they took offense at the closeness or photo taking of the tourists.
IMG_2992IMG_2998 
The wild flowers were beautiful too.  I do not know what kind these were but we saw them all over.IMG_2948
OK, that is it for the trip photos…could bore you with lots of photos of people you don’t know but I won’t.  I will end by saying it was a beautiful place to have a reunion and so enjoyed myself and was glad my mother could go and see her family members that are scattered all over the USA.

Until Later,
Lynn

1 comment:

Mary L. said...

We have had several reunions at the YMCA camp. My mother-in-law is one of 9 siblings, 7 of whom are still living and every 3-4 years everyone gets together, 3 or 4 generations of each sibling. We used to have well over 100 but the numbers are dwindling instead of growing. The first time we met at a church camp in Bailey, the next time in Colorado Springs. Once we tried the YMCA camp it became the "permanent" meeting place. Uunfortunately Tom and I missed the last one.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...