Towards the end of August we went to the Pitcher family reunion. We met up with my parents, and brothers and their girl friends at Flathead Lake. My parents rented a cabin and boat which was so much fun. It was so neat to sit out on the deck and over look the lake as the sun set. The weather was great most of the days.
The first morning that we were there the boys got up early and went fishing off of our dock. It was kind of chilly (notice Conner shivering) and we didn't catch anything :(
We bought some life jackets a few years ago and have hardly used them. We brought them with us and I am glad we did - we made the boys put them on everytime they were down around the water. They came in handy - one time when Conner was throwing rocks off the dock he got a little over enthusiatic and he fell off the dock. He popped right back up and his uncle grabbed the back of his life jacket and lifted him back onto the dock.
Micah made us all laugh with his fishing technique: he would stick the tip of his rod in the water, swish it around and say "here fishy, fishy, fishy, here fishy"
Later that day we went to an interpretive center. We had fun trying to guess which pelt belonged to which animal. Here is Conner modeling one of the pelts:
Here is Micah trying to move a big antler:
After that we went for a short hike. Micah hiking with Brittney:
Then we stopped and had lunch and a rest:
On Sunday we went into Kalispell for church and that evening we took some pictures. I was so impressed with this picture, everyone is smiling and looking at the camera (except Brooklyn which is okay).
The big group shot. Drew and his girlfriend Brittney and Reed and his girlfriend Stephanie and their dog Ace plus our family and my parents.
My boys were very interested in Ace. Micah really liked to put the leash on him and walk around the deck.
We rented a boat from Monday thru Thursday. It was so much fun! We used to do a lot of boating in the summer when we were growing up and I have missed going since the old boat broke down. Everyone except Brooklyn tried something. Uncle Drew convinced Alan to go on the tube with him. Alan really wanted to go really slow though. He went for a short ride and then he wanted to get off because they were going too fast:
Drew and Brittney
This is the only picture I got of Reed on the boat. He had to go back home to go to work on Monday evening:
Micah helping Grandma make a salad:
One evening we went fishing:
Cute picture of Conner:
This was Brooklyn's first fishing expedition. She is about 6 weeks old:
Micah speared a hot dog on the end of his pole and then he swished his pole through the water. Surprisingly, we didn't catch any fish.
Carissa skiing
Mom working on her form:
Dad skiing. I wish I could have been in the boat. He is still a pro!
Drew wakeboarding. He made it look easy and he even started doing some tricks.
Carissa wakeboarding. I pulled up easily most of the time but staying up was kind of tricky. I did manage to go for some short rides before I crashed.
We did a campfire and roasted marshmallows one night. Grandma is in the background holding Brooklyn. Everyone was so kind, they all took turns watching my kids so that I could go out in the boat too.
Our cabin was on a protected little cove. You can kind of see the cove behind the boys. In the evenings the water got so calm.
Uncle Reed holding Brooklyn
Uncle Reed skiing and skimming the water with his hand:
Steph got up on the wakeboard! I'm not sure if her face is showing surprise, or excitement or maybe both. And Brittney got up on skis but I didn't get any pictures.
A bald eagle landed in a tree in our cove and let us admire it:
Towards the end of the trip we convinced the boys to go with me on the tube. Grandpa promised to go really slow and Uncle Drew promised to give the boys candy if they did it. So we all piled on the tube and set off at an extremely slow speed. The picture below was taken right before the people in the boat got tired of watching our slow float and decided to slowly speed up. Well, that might have worked except that with my weight on the front the nose of the tube submarined. All the kids slid off face first into the water. Micah and Conner started crying. We got all the kids back into the boat and worked on calming them down. Uncle Drew was holding Conner and Conner was still sobbing after a minute so Uncle Drew says "At least now you get to have some candy" and Conner stopped mid sob and said "what kind of candy?" It was pretty funny. They were fine after that although they had no interest in going on the tube again.
Reed and Steph brought their floating living room. One afternoon we took it out for a paddle. Alan abandoned ship after a while and swam back to shore:
We were looking for pirates to squirt with our squirt guns but we didn't find any. Micah was really eager to help me paddle and Conner stood guard with his squirt gun:
We celebrated my parent's anniversary while we were there. They took us out for Mexican food in Kalispell and then we went to an icecream shop. They had all kinds of different flavors. I tried lemon dill ice cream - it actually was pretty good. Here is Drew, Brittney and Reed enjoying some icecream:
My parents with their 3 children and 4 grandchildren:
On Friday we took the boat back and packed up and left. Conner held Brooklyn and helped her be happy while I packed up:
The boys playing the cat and mouse game with grandpa:
Alan entertaining Brooklyn while we packed up:
It was fun to get together and play games and spend time out in the fresh air!
