The tomatoes once again have failed us in our garden this year but the squash, cucumbers, carrots, and peppers have been great.
We went to my familiy reunion in the gorgeous White Mountains of Arizona. We camped at 9300 just a few minutes from my home town and it was breathtaking! Cool wet weather, 5 days of no cell phone, no noise but the noise of children, no TV, no electronics, just visits with my wonderful family. This is the first time in 14 years since I have been to my family reunion in Arizona. It was a long time coming and it is probably the best camping I have done in 14 years! Lani and I won the couples horseshoe contest. We beat the ultra elite team of Coby and Heather (my cousin) who are the "Goliaths of horseshoe". I smack talked Coby and then really psychologically threw him out of his game by pitching in my dutch oven hotpad mitts. I think it just messed him up psychologically and I think I got in his head.....
Coby and Heather were good sports to let us win and we had a blast with my family.
There was a huge meadow with endless forests which the kids just ran and played in all day. My Uncle Bill set up a great "cowboy golf" course that was a hoot. My Uncles and cousins are some of the funnest people on the planet. It was good for my kids to get to know this vast side of my family. Thanks Uncle Bill and Aunt Sandy for such a great job on the reunion. The highlight of our year!
The forests are filled with massive Ponderosa Pine trees, aspens, and other coniferous trees. A very nice contrast. The forests are open and not so dense so it makes it possible to really penetrate and enjoy the trees all around you.
We cooked every meal out of our dutch ovens and frying pans over 5 days. Lani did a great job of preparing food and our dutch oven skills jumped by leaps and bounds. It was a lot of work but well worth the effort. The above biscuits and gravy were a product of our successful dutch oven biscuit attempt. The above picture is for my cousin Andy. Our favorite breakfast in the world!
Look at those beauties, right out of the dutch oven!
We also had my little brother's famous dutch oven pizza which was a smash hit. My mom's parents were the focus of this year's reunion. We marched in our little town's fourth of July parade. It was neat. The banner read: Vurrell and Iris Finch Family 63 years in the Round Valley of Arizona. 9 kids, 52 grandkids, 113 great grandkids, 1 great great grand child. My grandparents are my hero and have left a legacy of family, the Gospel, hardwork, and family togetherness. They are one of the treasures of my life. I can't begin to describe their impact on my life in so many different ways.Next year, I've got to figure out a new gimick to throw off Coby so I can beat him in Horseshoes again!
11 comments:
Hey! We had a family reunion in the White Mtns of AZ near your hometown, too. We went to Big Lake. Where were you?
We were close to Mexican Hay Lake! Just about 10 miles away!
Sounds like tons of fun, you guys definately deserve it after 14 years of not going, wish I could have went and seen you all.
That was so much fun seeing all of you guys. What a great weekend! wow, 14 years? That is way too long. Hopefully we will see all of the kids sooner than that! Good job at the horseshoeing tournament. I wish I would have had more forethought though, preggos shouldn't attempt horseshoes. I fully blame Bill. But even Tom didn't think it was a bad idea? It took me all afternoon to recover and I don't think I ever threw it hard enough to even reach to the other side!
The B&G looks great, Sherdon. Thanks for the picture. Porter said he had some and now he wants me to make it just the same way for his birthday.
Thanks for feeding my chitlins while we were otherwise disposed.
Looks like a great time-something Bill would LOVE, me not so much. :) Your family is so cute.
Sherdon,
We also have been dutch oven cooking. Looks like I will have to get your biscuits and gravy recipe though. We recently canned 47 jars of strawberry jam, mmmm. Looking forward to doing lots of tomato sauce for spaghetti if my plants produce. Have a fun summer.
Mike
Sherdon, do you expect me to comment back on my own profile, like you are actually going to go back there and check? I'm just curious because I never go to a blog posting twice.
And to answer your question, I'm sure that they taste fine, as far as endangered species go. People on the project have already told me that I'm not allowed to eat them. But they are super bony, so I wouldn't want to, anyway.
P.S. Those were some delicious biscuits and gravy, your wife is a wonder-woman. Sorry I didn't comment before, I had EIGHTY EIGHT new blog posts to read from when I was in the Big Ditch. No joke. It was really great seeing you, though.
Home looks beautiful!! My mom said she saw you guys and talked to ya. Wish I could have seen ya!! Glad you got to go, I just got back last week. We camped at Green's Peak!! It was a blast!! Cute pic's! Love ya
PS, promise to call you soon!
Oh boy do we miss you guys! For one I didn't realize you were into horseshoes otherwise we would have set up a friendly tournament match out in the cornfields...
Lani would seriously be the best pioneer, she can handle anything! The food must've been amazing!
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