Montana Reunion

Beware, this may be the longest post ever. I just have so many pictures that I wanted to include. So while the Marses had their Cousin Camp, we headed to Montana for the Raymond Reunion. We spent a few days at Grandma and Grandpa's house (those pictures will have to come later) and then went to a cabin in the mountains and spent a few days there.
The cabin had a big dining room/living room/pseudo-kitchen and a little sleeping area, so half of the party slept inside and the other half slept in tents. We got this lovely tent and for the first time in our many camping trips, we kept the rain fly off for a few nights (it seems like it always rains when we go camping).

There were several lakes by the cabin and we took a dip at least once a day in them. The water was cold.

I got Scott this awesome Chuck Norris T-shirt at a close-out store in Ohio.
Bruce's cousin, Kenzie, with Aunt Nancy.
The ladies took the raft out.

Bruce's cousin, Annie, took a breather at the side of the lake.
This is Scott's youngest brother, Mark. He's a total Montana Mountain Man: he loves skiing (Scott and Mark hiked up Mount Blackmore and Mark skied a bit a few days ago - yes, in August), hiking, biking, and all things manly.
This is the view from the cabin at night. It was so peaceful.
This is Bruce in the morning. He popped right out of bed and is ready to go.
Grandpa made scrambled eggs for breakfast on the fire.

Scott is striking a lovely pose here.
Here is the busy "dining hall." We packed a ton of food.
This hike was a bit disastrous at first. We hiked for an hour, lost the rest of the group, and then trampled through scratchy sage and briars to find a lake.
Bruce borrowed Grandpa's binoculars. He would hold them up and say, "I see you!"
Once we got to the lake, we sat down and had some snacks: peanut M&Ms.

On the way back to the cabin, we crossed a stream.
This made the hike worthwhile. Bruce found a wooly caterpillar all by himself and was simply thrilled.
Back at the cabin, we had more snacks with Kenzie.
Grandma took the kids out to the horse pasture. They swung on the gate and thought it was cooler than a roller coaster.
All the grandkids couldn't stop smiling.

Here is my one picture of me on the trip. I'm wearing my mom's "hippie hat" that survived the '60s and kept me from burning to a crisp (with the help of lots of sunblock too). Yes, Bruce is on my lap in the car. The cabin was at the top of a hill and the lake was about a third of a mile downhill, so we had to drive to get us and all the boats and lifejackets and gear down and up again. I let Bruce sit on my lap for that (no one else was on the road), but yesterday he asked to sit on my lap on the way home from the airport. Um, no.
Scott's sis, Lana, and her son, Jared, playing in the lake.
Here's Mark taking a jump off the rope swing.
Scott took his turn too. He's making a great face in these shots.

Nancy was a bit scared.
Nancy climbed on Scott's raft, which started deflating.
Nancy and Scott started to paddle to shore in their raft while Mark, Leslie, and I paddled the canoe back. Then in the middle of the lake, Leslie decided to ambush their already-deflating raft.
This crowd of kids watched as the raft war went on.
They ended up swimming most of the way back and towing the raft to shore.

I got Bruce a pair of Tevas for $1 at the same close-out store where I got the Chuck Norris shirt. Those came in handy.
In the evenings, the Raymond siblings would tease each other and tell stories while making s'mores.
Annie had a nicely roasted marshmallow. It became a competition to see who could roast the best marshmallow: gooey in the middle, lightly browned and crisp on the outside, and not a speck of black on it.
The three generations of Raymond men. Unfortunately Bruce the Younger was not very cooperative.
After a week of camping, my legs were pretty hairy. Just kidding. They were bad, but not this bad. These are Mark's legs. He slept on the cabin's porch every night next to a can of bear spray. On the last night, there was a big wind storm and our tent kept folding and flapping so we ended up moving in the middle of the night to the porch right next to him. We slept under the stars, which would have been romantic except that Bruce climbed in the sleeping bag with us and peed his pants.