Because (technically) you cannot take outside fruits and vegetables across state boundaries into California we had to stop in Yreka, California and do some grocery shopping for the upcoming week. I think a whole state full of campers were doing the same thing, since it is the last major city before you hit the camping district.
TRINITY LAKE KOA: All of us "old" folk in the family - and several with very young children - opted to use the cabins of Trinity Lake KOA. Steve Deming had reserved several tent and pull-through trailer sites right next to the swimming pool for those not inclined to pay for a cabin. (Don't think KOA's cut you a deal, folks. They don't. A cabin is as expensive per night as a motel room!) Spent a couple of hours settling in and greeting others as they arrived.
David Deming - oldest son and recognized leader of the pack:
We think he secretly wants to be emporer - or at the very least a venerated statue!! (He stood up on the bench to get us all organized and "on the same page" as he likes to say - at the beginning as everyone was arriving). We all razz Dave a lot since he can always say in 56 flowery sentences what he could say in 10 simple declarative ones. Nevertheless, he is a thoughtful, compassionate, capable leader. He made sure no one was left out, that every one had turns at things, that good deeds and accomplishments were recognized and that no birthday (including mine) went unnoted!
Rachel Jensen & Jessica Deming are cousins who are joined at the hip!
You never see one without the other. I am sure the miles that separate their homes (Rachel in Idaho; Jana in Oregon) would be unbearable if it were't for electronic devices!
Here they are singing and entertaining their fascinated fans (MY cute grandkids (below L to R Amaya, Tara, Noelle Austin; Ethan & Audrey Graf)
What surprised me was how hot it was! Every day was close to 100 degrees. Hey! I could have stayed in Vegas and "enjoyed" that!! My family members were glad from time to time to come back to our cabin for breakfast or lunch and cool off a bit with the little wall cooler we were lucky enough to have. Here, after the heat of setting up tents, they are all anxious to get into the pool. (
There were 60+ people throughout the week counting all the Deming clan, the Bell clan (Marie and Wade Bell - Marie is Jim Deming's sister), and the Austins. Later in the week we also had other Austin relations when Victor and Elaine's sister Pat Farrar arrived with her daughter Linda Kovaltchouck and her Kovaltchouck grandchildren. We also got to have Mike Farrar, Pat's last-born son come for a few days.
That is one mighty group!! We Austins have not been with the Demings on their yearly camping/boating trips for several years...and in the meantime everyone has proliferated with a whole generation of cute little grandchildren!! The only disadvantage to the whole week is that we were all spread apart so much that there didn't get to be as much visiting time until dinner & campfire each night.
FEEDING THE MASSES: The campground let us use their Pavillion to feed the whole group each night and that worked out well. Assignments were given to different family members for each evening meal since feeding that many is very akin to preparing food for a ward dinner!!
Wade is "Mr. Dutch Oven". I looked forward to his handiwork. He did not disappoint! Two nights of cobbler and one with cinnamon pull-apart rolls!
Victor Austin, Marie Bell (sister of Elaine Austin Deming's husband Jim), Steve Deming (Elaine Austin Deming's son)
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Wade Bell (Elaine Austin Deming's brother-in-law) & his daughter-in-law, Amber Ostler Bell
Aria & Charles Graf (granddaughter & son-in-law of Victor Austin),
Jack Kovaltchouck, Linda Farrar Kovaltchouck, Pat Austin Farrar, & Isabelle Kovaltchouck.
Now you have to understand that there are TWO Kovaltchouck families! Linda Farrar and Annalee Farrar (sisters & daughters of Pat Austin Farrar) married brothers John & Andre Kovaltchouck. Annalee & Andre were not able to come camping, but their son, Nick, came at the end of the week. (Below is a recent photo of Andre, Annalee & Nick - not at a KOA campground, obviously!) Confusing???
Waiting for a food table opening
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Heather Deming (wife of Patrick Deming), Jordan and Kelley Deming (daughter and wife of David Deming) and Jim Deming (Father of the Deming clan & husband of Elaine Austin Deming)
A lot of really neat Dads were at this campout trying to help their wives and holding tired, frustrated little children who just wanted to eat rocks and dirt.
This one is Kevin Bell.
A lot of really neat Dads were at this campout trying to help their wives and holding tired, frustrated little children who just wanted to eat rocks and dirt.
This one is Kevin Bell.
L to R: Joanna Bell, Amber Ostler Bell, Wade Bell, twins Eric & Kevin Bell (grey & red shirts), Patrick Deming (holding baby Jet)
What else can you do while you wait for dinner to start?
Be a human swing. (My son Nathan doing what his father used to do to him!)
Or you can walk around with your shirt in your mouth to show your mom how hungry & hot you are!!!
CAMPFIRE GATHERINGS: We had nightly campfire time after dinner. These functioned in part to honor John Andrew (Jack) Austin whose 100th birthday is today- August 7th. Victor took a moment each night to tell a little something about his life. Among those stories was the one about him being drafted for military service but breaking his back in an auto accident and being in a full cast with a hole in the stomach cut out for breathing purposes. Thought we should post those photos!
Jack Austin (alias Abraham Lincoln or Steve Deming!!)
Happy Birthday, Grandpa Jack!!
The Jack & Mildred Rasmussen Austin Family (mid 1950's)
Pat, Elaine, Mildred, Victor, Jack
There were also nights to honor Bell, Dally, Rasmussen & Deming ancestors given by Wade & Marie Bell and Elaine Deming & Jim Deming. I was amazed at how well a lot of the children listened (even though they really were anxious for David to "turn on the fire."). I think it was a tribute to story-telling skills of the older generation. Some pretty cool people to be descended from!!!
Random shots:
Listening to the story tellers
(Can't live without our electronics, can we?? I was bumbed my ATT I-phone didn't work. If I sat right in front of the KOA store I could get a signal strong enough to work on a couple of bills & other things).
Patrick Deming checking in
As it got darker and close to bed time our Aria had fun checking on her little Gideon thru the screen of his tent! Wish I could have gotten a better photo. Way cute!
As it got darker and close to bed time our Aria had fun checking on her little Gideon thru the screen of his tent! Wish I could have gotten a better photo. Way cute!
But good intentions don't always turn out right.
She wasn't too happy when he hit her through the screen!
There were LOTS of little blond girls and boys who really were excited about the campfire.
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Each night people who had accomplished something for the first time got recognized with a piece of red licorice from Uncle David. There was also a talent rendering from someone and a night of recognition for families that haven't really spent time with the gatherings very often. By the time all that was accomplished it (sometimes) was cooled off enough to bear having a fire going!!
ACTIVITY NIGHT: One night instead of there being a campfire, Nathan and Colleen were in charge of the group activity where they played "Minute to Win It" and there was much hooping and hollering and laughter as we got through some pretty fun competitions! Nathan's booming EFY Counselor voice and skills were put to good use for this sort of activity! I wish I had better photos of some of the games.
Here the teams have to shoot miniature marshmallows through the PVC pipe "guns" to knock over a stack of plastic cups
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In this game you had to eat five soda crackers and then successfully whistle "Peanut Sittin' on the Railroad Track" . Victor, in the orange shirt, is choking down the last cracker here about to break out into song.
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This one was the most hilarious. You have to balance an oreo on your forhead and then just using the muscles of your face, eyes, nose & mouth (no hands permitted!) you have to wiggle it down and get the cookie into your mouth!
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On the following game the whole team was given an unopened liter bottle of root beer. The first team to get it all drunk wins the round. The bad part was that this game followed a baked potato dinner so everyone was really full!
I saw Charles start to turn green as he guzzled. Not too many minutes later he and Eric were both behind trees loosing the contents of their stomachs!
Audrey doesn't even like soda pop because it is to "hot" (fizzy)
Amaya doesn't look like she is doing so well either!
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The final game required you to eat a whole package of powdered sugar donuts with your hands tied to those of your fellow teammates. My group confided they were all done and ready to cry "winner!" when they looked over at little Tara who was still chocking on the powder & crumbs!! She was pretty happy to be part of the game though!
WATER TIME: Of course the main reason the Demings/Bells like Trinity Lake is because they are people who actually USE their boats! I don't just mean use - I mean LOVE using their boats. Always have been....
and jet skies and wake boards and doughnuts and anything you can pull behind a boat! They all love it - and they are generous in sharing their equipment with land-locked cousins. They like Trinity Lake because the skiing is good almost all day - not just in the wee morning hours like so many other places. So for three years in a row they have come back here.
Like Lake Mead here in Nevada it could sure do with some trees for shade! But some portable canopies helped a lot. Other "spotted" members of the family enjoyed even-ing out their frisbee golf tans while the kids sloshed through nicely shallow beach waters.
I am not a sun worshipper - and I am certainly not going to allow anyone to see me in a swimming suit, but I did enjoy the few hours I spendtone day at the beach. Had to really chuckle at this totally non-functioning group effort to use the oars of the inflatable raft! Everyone was paddling a different direction and banging into each other and getting no where. Good thing the water was shallow and a cousin could come be the motor to get them where they wanted to go!
Diane Deming Jensen & family brought jet skis for the first time. Didn't take them long to adapt and enjoy too. Here Diane takes our Noelle out for a run.
Colleen and Amaya get a turn
The biscuit was a big favorite.
Gideon is my kind of kid. You'd bring him out to the beach and he would wrap his legs tightly around whoever carried him and NEVER let his feet touch either the sand or the water!!!
NIGHT GAMES: Were almost unheard of. I found it remarkable that the next generation is "aging" enough that they are exhausted at night and not as willing to get up for the 5 a.m. boat run that was so characteristic of their lives 8 years ago! Most had little kids that were delirious from the tireds so there wasn't much that went on after the sun went down. A few times there were some card games played. Charles got a group to play "Scum" together and use our crazy hats that we hauled all the way from Las Vegas. Didn't even bother anyone's manhood!
Mostly they were played with in our cabin when the kids came over for breakfast or lunch.
Ethan Graf (Becky's son) in the King Tut hat. Seemed to be his favorite.
KID ACTIVITIES: Grandma Marie Bell had craft time open house at any time on her cabin balcony. What a trooper Wade has been all these years to let her haul half their house to the campground - in the early years it was the "play tent." (Set up with toys just for toddlers). Now she is a good friend of the "Oriental Traders" catalog and has BINS of fun things for kids to get to do!!
Aunt Becky also provided some fun activities. This reunion had to embrace our annual "Cousin Camp" so she also came prepared with great ways to keep extended Austin clan busy (along with any other child who wanted to join in)
Childsize "Candy Land"
YUK!! Homemade GOOOO! How fun!
Story time
Wow! They actually look like they know what they are doing! Go Audrey!!
Aunt Colleen helped with daily braids
THE PARTY'S OVER: Friday July 26. Our last group meal turned out to be quite an adventure. The next morning most of the crowd would be leaving Trinity for home. Thunder began to rumble and the skies darkened. People ran to their tents to make sure rain flaps were in place in case it rained. It did. At first a nice pleasant sprinkling that lowered the temperature by 10 degrees at least and was welcomed. (Picture Steve Deming with arms wide open to the droplets in the act of worshiping the rain gods!) Then it began to hail....! We bunched under the roofs of the pavilion for the last Jack Austin account. I was just a few feet away but the rain on the tin roof completely drowned Victor out! They sang happy birthday to me and we enjoyed a piece of cake and then the clouds burst and it was no longer something to smile about! It was serious wipe-out rain which soaked everyone. And it soaked one of the birthday cakes someone had thoughtfully made!!
Victor trying to talk over the hail on the tin roof, Pat by his side trying to avoid the rain spots coming through
This is the hail and the beginning of fleeing feet!
Becky and her family had left earlier that morning to start their trip back.
Nathan and family made it to our cabin and we quickly started plans to house us all there somehow to avoid wet tents. But the rain stopped as soon as we got to the cabin. Played a round of canasta then they decided they would be fine back at the tent site since Gideon was off the ground in a port-a-crib, their air mattress was one of the extra high ones and the girl's sleeping bags were on higher ground.
This was no small storm. But we were all grateful it was the last night and not earlier in the week!
The next morning we bid farewell to as many as we could encounter, already wishing we could have spent more time with each separate family.
Our leave-taking was sober. I had received an urgent message from my sister a day earlier and when I finally got through to her on Jim's phone she said, "I have bad news." My first thought was that it was my step-mother who had an episode that might have been a mini-stroke right after we had visited earlier that week. Instead, the news was a total shock! My sister's son, David Morgan, had died unexpectedly that morning from what might have been anaphylactic shock (An allergic reaction to a medication or some other thing such as insect stings which makes membranes swell and close up airways, resulting in death). The news came at a moment when I could barely contain my feelings, so close as it was on the heals of niece Julie's death just a couple of months ago!! We made the decision to go to Utah rather than go home to Las Vegas and then have to travel from there all the way back up to Utah for the services. Nathan and Colleen's family would be traveling the same route. Gratefully Pat gave us permission to spend the night in her home in Reno, even though she would not be back herself yet.
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