One of the highlights of being in Utah for six weeks was that we got to go to Washington with my family for a reunion with my dad's mother's side of the family. It was for the decendents of my great-grandmother Ruth Louise Mullholland Hammett. We had such a great time! The reunion was held in Olympia, WA. The campground where the reunion was held was right on the Puget Sound, and we were camped literally yards from the beach! On rare occasions when it wasn't cloudy we even had a great view of Mt. Rainier!
Even better than the beauty that surrounded us was the opportunity to spend time with family. The greatest part was that five years ago we didn't even know some of these people were family. My grandma had grown up knowing five of her siblings, but she also knew that her mother had children from a previous marriage that had been given for adoption. She knew nothing of the whereabouts of these boys, except that two of them had died as babies. I took a class on family history when I was at BYU-Idaho, and as the final assignment I submitted my great-grandma Ruth's name to the temple ready program. Her name was then added to the LDS Church's files and the grandson of one of grandma's "lost" brothers found it while looking for some family history. He called my house and talked to my dad and told dad that he had been looking for his grandpa's family for quite a while. Anyway, long story short, grandma and her siblings have now found information on all of the boys that were adopted (and information on those that had passed away), except for one. They have been able to get together several times. I love seeing them together. It is amazing to see how they all look a like and have so many similar features. I love seeing how much they love being together and I am so grateful to have had a part in this!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip:
The kids LOVED going down to the beach. There were sand dollars everywhere and when we lifted the big rocks little tiny crabs would go running in every direction!
There were also lots of fun crafts and activities, and of course lots of new family to play with and talk to!
This was just a cute picture of Grace as she waited semi-patiently for Joshua to come back from his very first canoe ride, which he loved, of course!
This is my grandma (second from the left) and all of her living siblings, with the exception of Clarence who lives in Minnesota and is in too poor of health to travel. Two of the other brothers, Ray and Lyle, passed away this spring. Don't they just look happy to be together?!? I love it!
This is of the State capital building in Olympia, taken from the harbor. It was
so pretty!
Just a cool picture of my handsome little boy :)
We also took two trips to the Olympia
farmers market. They had a bakery that was seriously to die for and a berry stand that sold the sweetest raspberries and
marionberries that were literally as big as my thumb!! Yum Yum! The berries were the reason we had to go back the second day. We ate all of the berries we bought the first day and had to go back for more!
My dad bought the kids these
mondo sugar cookies which, as you can see, they thoroughly enjoyed!
We also played a lot of horse shoes and in spite of that
I am still not any good at horse shoes. :)
Before the reunion started, we also spent a day in Seattle. We took the ferry from Gig Harbor into Seattle which greatly entertained the kids and myself. I love ferry rides!
Once in Seattle we went to the Pikes Place Market where we went to the fish market and watched the fishermen throw the fish. It was not at all like I thought it would be, but still, very cool.
I could not get over how many beautiful fresh flower stands there were, and the flowers were so cheap! You could get the whole bouquet for 5-10 dollars, depending on the size. Too bad we were traveling home in a suburban crowded with eight people and a weeks worth of stuff for each of them!
Anyway, thanks to my mom and dad for having us stay for six weeks and especially for taking us on this trip. We made memories we won't ever forget!
