Happy Together: June

Thursday, August 16, 2012

June

June at the Hansen family is very busy. In some ways it does not seem that summer begins until the end of the month. I remember when I was involved in the Challenge Grant over 10 years ago that I slept in my own bed about five whole days. The month began with me going on the the California Trip with 79 eigth graders this year. We went from June 2nd to the 8th. The same week Brandon and Jeffrey had Snake River Band camp. They also had their jobs to do so they stayed put here by themselves. My sister Karen took Camille, Alexa, Drew, and Mary during that time.

The next week was the Porter Reunion which I was responsible for this year. We held it at Darcee and Tom's place. We hung out on Friday evening at their home and watched a movie before heading to our places of lodging (most stayed at Days Inn in Orem). Saturday we met in Salt Lake at Temple Square and went through the two visitor centers. We then checked out City Creek and then headed to Liberty Park for lunch. After letting the children run for a little while, we headed to American Fork Canyon to see Cascade Springs. We hiked along the trails and then headed back to Waddoups for the evening festivities. We had dinner and then saw a slide show of Porter gatherings over the years. Grandpa Porter closed the evening with a challenge to teach our children about the temple. Sunday morning was Cache's address (farewell). He entered the MTC the 27th of June, heading to the New Jersey Morristown Mission. We stayed for all of church and then had lunch at Waddoups after church. We all headed to our respective locations in the afternoon. On our way home we went to the American Fork Cemetery and saw my grandparent's graves, George Heber Hansen and Maud Lowe Hansen Dixon. It had been a few years since we were there. I wish I had more pictures of the reunion but since I was the host my mind was on other things.

Beginning of Cascade Springs

Cascade Springs

Days Inn

Drew, Alexa, Jeffrey, Camille, Mary, and Brandon by graves.

Next week Camille had her first Girl's Camp. She had a blast but thought she was going to freeze to death the first couple of nights. I was able to go spend Wednesday and part of Thursday with our ward.

The final week we had the Hansen reunion in Camp Taylor up Mink Creek near Pocatello with Karen and Kirk hosting. Just prior to our reunion there was a fire (Charlotte) that started near Mink Creek and ended up burning 66 homes and over 100 structures. The fire closed the main road. Friday evening we met in Inkom at the park to have dinner and allow everyone a chance to gather so we could discuss our options. We decided to take a long (70 mile) detour around Arbon Valley to get back to the Scout Mountain area. We only found one road block but were allow to get to the camp. We arrived about 9:30 Friday evening. We got the trailers set up and tents pitched. Plans were to go into Pocatello the next day, but we stayed put and enjoyed the time together. We had plans to go to the Mink Creek Ward on Sunday, but each family was left to go to what ever ward they chose to as they left. While all the plans did not work out the way it had been planned we were grateful to be together. A little more driving is nothing in comparison to those who lost their homes.