Family Fun Tymes at Echo Lake

A.K.A. Why My Family Reunion Was Better Than Yours

(Note: I actually began this entry back in August, a day or so after returning from Echo Lake.  I wanted to add in the pictures I knew were coming, so I didn't publish it right away.  Then I forgot.)

This year my family (mum's side) held a kind of reunion at Echo Lake, outside Kalispell, Montana.  I call it a kind of reunion because not everyone from my mum's side of the family could make it so it doesn't classify as a full-on reunion (in my mind).  I'm sure someone in my family will take issue with my classification but family reunions on my dad's side have really skewed my reunion perspective.  Anyway.

The last time we did a family reunion with Mum's side was four years ago at Lake of the Woods, Ontario.  Before that, family vacations to Winnipeg with camping trips to Rushing River were the norm.  Are we sensing a theme?  Anyway, this year we scored a sweet cabin on Echo Lake courtesy of old high school friends of Mum (thanks, Northcott family!).  For a week we had a prime spot on the lake with a private dock, a couple of boats, and a cabin with space for everyone (shocker, that).  About Wednesday night, Becca made a comment in relation to our activity (bonfire and singing) that gave me the idea for this entry, to wit: "And that is why our family reunions are better than yours."  I'm sure some things on this list will cause people to sputter and say, "Well, that's just your opinion."  That's what people say when confronted by truths they just can't handle.  It's okay, I understand.  We can still be friends, though, right?

1.  We have the best food.  I have already written about how my Uncle Walt and Aunt Lilas are cooking ninjas.  They were our dinner chefs for the week.  I missed out on Monday and Tuesday (I didn't get there til after dinner Tuesday) but from all accounts it was excellent.  I'd told my siblings they had to eat everything Walt and Li put in front of them, even if they didn't like the various ingredients, because it would all be delicious.  I was right.  I wrote this haiku in praise of dinner (I wanted to write a sonnet but I was too busy stuffing my face):

Cooking ninjas make
Food so good I want to cry.
Oops!  I ate too much.

I've decided to become a reverse-polygamist, because I'm already married to Walt's biscuits, but I made room in my heart (and my stomach) for his chicken curry salad.  Hot dogs and hamburgers just ain't gonna cut it no more.

2. Our kids are cuter.  Of course Cameron was there, and I am partial to the little guy, but my cousins Andy and Jamie sent their girls Tamsen (7) and Rowan (4) with Walt and Lilas (the g-parents).  There were a couple of times I cursed myself for not having a camera with me at all times because there were some shots that, had I gotten them, could have been used to sell kids' swimsuits, or life vests, or little plastic fishing poles that don't actually catch fish because they have no hooks so the fish just follow them futilely attempting to bite the lures and getting nothing.  Anyway, my point is, we had the cutest kids, and since there were only three of them, their cuteness did not greatly diminish in proportion to the amount of noise they made.  (Added:  Thankfully, Auntie Darci had HER camera and caught some of the cuteness in stills.)

Rowan is in the back, cousin Joe in the middle, and Tamsen up front.  Wearing my awesome lifejacket from the 80s.

 

Cameron stoically contemplates the meaning of life while gazing at the water.  Or not.

 

3. My Uncle Wally has the BEST beard.  I bet you didn't have a beard like this at your family reunion. 

Nice and long and, as JD poetically put it, "Tickled oh-so-gently on my chin as I gave him a hug." 

Now, even if you're reading this and thinking, "Sure, sure, you had good food, and everyone thinks the kids in their family are the cutest, and my great-uncle Lorenzo's beard was way better" I KNOW your family reunion can't beat this next one.  Really, the main reason my family reunion was better than yours hinges on this guy:

This is my cousin Joe.  Joe and his brother Dave are professional musicians (sadly, Dave couldn't make to the reunion it because he was on tour).  My Uncle Wally learned his boys to play music, so when we have a campfire and sing songs, we have a campfire and have professional musicians playing rock songs on their guitars and we all sing along.  The following conversations were had many times that night:

"Okay, so what next?"

"Can you play ------------?"

"Sure"

or

"Nope, do you have the tabs?"

(All of us had our phones or iPods, which were hooked in to the cabin wireless - hey there 21st century campfires!)

"Yeah, here."

"Okay..." (plinking around for a minute) "Okay, ready?"

And then we'd sing.  I bet you didn't have professional musicians for your campfire sing-a-longs.  Which is why our family reunions are better than yours.