A Sunday Afternoon with Lake Front Property...

We are now enjoying RAIN and thunderstorms! The weather has been in the 70’s in the mornings and 80’s in the afternoons! I went walking with Megan and the dogs on Friday morning, and it was so nice we went quite a bit farther! Saturday was the same! It has been a nice break in the crazy heat! It is very humid though… I was covered in sweat on my run yesterday! I have loved all this RAIN!!!!  It POURED last night and we woke up to a lake next door!  The girls decided to take advantage and have a photo shoot!  Here's a picture I got of them!  The first picture I took on my iPhone and the rest Katelyn took on her nice camera...

 

Freeman Family Reunion Day 3-- Hole in the Rock Visitor's Center and Mesa Verde

Today was a slower morning! I got up and went running this time with Chris (Amber’s husband) and Jenell. Chris chose a really hard run—going steadily and straight up a hill! Jenell had to stop pretty early in the game. I ran it for about a mile and then I had to stop mostly because of the altitude—I just couldn’t fill my lungs! My body was fine but I just couldn’t breathe. Jenell caught up with me and we walked to the 2 mile turnaround and then we ran back. Chris passed us going down—ugh! I enjoyed it though, because it gave Jenell and I a chance to really visit and catch up with our lives! It was fun! We got back and got cleaned up and had breakfast and headed to Bluff to see the Hole in the Rock Pioneers Visitor’s Center. It was super interesting! We’ve been listening to the book The Undaunted on this trip, so we were familiar with the amazing story of these faithful pioneers who settled the area. We watched a video that told the story and then walked around all the cabins that have been rebuilt and/or restored from the originals. We enjoyed the gift shop and all the indoor exhibits because they had A/C!! We bought some homemade treats from the bakery—Katelyn got a sucker with a scorpion in it! Yuck!! I got a lemon zucchini cookie and it was really good! I shared it with everyone who wanted a bite. We got some group pictures after and everyone kind of peeled off from there doing their own thing. Jed is in the home MTC right now, so it’s been fun having him along! Bill and I decided to head back to camp, but Brooke and Katelyn went with Beckie, Greg and Kylie to the Mesa Verde Indian ruins which are really close to where we are. They had a really fun afternoon poking around there! 

It was enjoyable to just visit with everyone back at camp! We fixed our lunch in the kitchen and Brooke and Katelyn got something with the Rasmussen’s. I held Amber’s cute little 3 month old Jackson. He’s so cute! Later, we ate dinner to the most crazy rainstorm I have ever seen or heard! Hail and rain were coming down in sheets—you couldn’t even hear the person talking right next to you! It rained like that for almost an hour and then heavy rain off and on (mostly on) for the rest of the night!!! Dinner was yummy—lasagna, green salad, honeydew and watermelon and garlic bread! The warm meal tasted so good because it was freezing cold with the rain and hail! We were going to hike up to a cute little outdoor chapel to have Marilyn and Jim talk to us, but because of the storm, we just stayed under the pavilion. It was hard to hear at times! Marilyn and Jim bore their testimonies and then invited the DeGraffenried’s (Jed first) to bear their testimonies. They all did and it was neat! I kept it together until Mary’s testimony for some reason—hers got me emotional! Then ALL the Freeman siblings in attendance each bore their testimony as well. It was such a spiritual evening and such a neat spirit that permeated the group! I enjoyed that! After, everyone hung out to visit because it was still pouring down rain and soooo COLD! (Again… I had shorts on and a hoodie that were not warm enough!) All the teenagers played night games and volleyball with our spotlight IN THE RAIN until late! (Katelyn accidentally left her phone out in the rain on the volleyball sand court. It’s acting very glitchy—I hope it eventually works right. We put it in rice as soon as we got home the next day.)  It was a fun night. It rained hard almost the entire night and we slept to the pitter patter of rain on our metal cabin roof. (We found out that the Monticello Stake had fasted for rain due to the extreme drought. Well, I think the Lord answered their prayers this week!!!)  It has been such a fun family reunion!  I'm so glad we made the effort to come!  I wish all of Bill's siblings would make the effort to come to these things.  I enjoyed really getting to know everyone even better this time around!  Now, back to the sweltering heat of Phoenix tomorrow!

Freeman Family Reunion Day 2-- Hovenweep and Recapture Reservoir

We slept pretty well in our cute little cabin! I went running with Deana and Amber this morning. It was a challenging run with all the hills. We just went out the main road 2 miles and then came back. We all decided to just walk up the last hill and run it back in! Hahaha! The elevation is definitely an issue for me. It was a good run though and so fun to visit with Deana and Amber while we were running! We had to hurry when we got back to leave by 8am for the Hovenweep National Monument we were visiting today. It’s a large group to get moving that early and we had to eat breakfast, pack a lunch and make sure we had everything we needed for the afternoon at the lake. Hovenweep was super interesting! It dates back to the 1200’s and so many of the structures are still standing and intact! It was fun to hike around and see everything. I decided to go back to the Visitor’s Center because I didn’t have very good shoes, but Bill and the girls went and got to see a lot more of the ruins. They got some great pictures! We stayed there until about 11:30 and then headed to Jamie Lyman’s outpost. Jamie is the Caten’s daughter who lives in Blanding. They bought an old home and are fixing it up to move into to run an outpost or store there for all the visitors that come through this area. They want to eventually have camping and RV space and other things for people to do on their land. It was quite interesting! She and her husband have 10 kids and they are moving into a relatively small home that needs a lot of fixing up, and she said they are moving in about a week! It was quite hot, but her property was like a little oasis with green grass and lots of mature trees that provide a lot of shade. After we went there, we headed to Recapture Reservoir to cool off! It was a very hot day! Bill brought our huge float for the little kids to play on and many people brought kayaks and paddle boards, which we played on for the rest of the afternoon. There was a huge jumping rock out past the shore and all the teenagers enjoyed jumping off of it and doing flips. Katelyn did back flips off of it and they were trying to teach her to do a Gaynor, but she couldn’t quite get it. Jorgen Lowry is really good at all types of flips. I sat and watched them on a paddle board for a while. When we first got there I made friends with Catherine—Amber’s daughter. She is so cute! I asked her to go out with me because she had already been in and I needed someone to “help” me—hahaha! That’s all it took. We were best buddies for the rest of the day at the lake AND the rest of the reunion! Haha! Amber has cute kids! We played at the lake until about 4pm and then we headed back to camp. Bill and I, Rasmussen’s and Lowry’s were in charge of dinner. We had pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw and yummy sweet watermelon. I was in charge of that and I brought 3 huge ones that Megan and I had picked out and they were all so sweet! It took a while to cut them all up, but every last piece got eaten! It was a yummy dinner and tasted so good after a long, hot day! It rained hard that evening! The pavilion has a metal roof, so it was really loud! I got caught under it and couldn’t go get warmer clothing on because I didn’t want to get drenched even though our cabin was the closest one to the pavilion! I hunkered down under the pavilion with someone’s blanket until it stopped and then I went and got warmer clothes. People were roasting marshmallows with a little portable fire pit and others were watching movies. It was fun to visit with everyone under the pavilion each night!  Another FUN day!!!