June 2010

This was the last time that my family was able to go to Whiskeytown! We missed this year because I was huge pregnant and contracting constantly and for some reason the summer Whiskeytown trip never happened! This trip I also had to fly solo. Peter's Grandpa had passed away a few days prior to the trip and Peter was helping with funeral arrangements and finishing work deadlines that he'd plan to put off until after Whiskeytown which was when the funeral was planned. Anyway! It was a crazy 13 hour drive by myself with 5 kids and we could only stay for 2 days so it was a whirlwind of fun for us! ... No seriously, it really was a lot of fun and I didn't regret it for a second!

Cute Logan not long after we arrived. We didn't waste any time jumping into the lake, one our our favorite camping activities!

Here's Nathan, Maddie and Lauren playing on the big blow up "island". The kids spent forever this trip pulling the island into the middle of the cove and doing tricks while jumping off of it.

Nathan and Emily just floating around the cove soaking up the sun!

Life jackets are required for all of the kids on the boat. No matter what! So here's little Nate-man just obeying the rules, even though he's drowning in his adult sized life jacket!

Here's me and Emily, getting all set for our "Midnight" ride or "Moonlight" ride or "Drive-around-silently-in-the-dark-until-the-little-ones-fall-asleep" ride! :)

Aaron and Chloe. (Looks like Chloe is too excited to be on the boat to be falling for any of this falling asleep business!)

Emily, Grandma DaNae and Britta relaxing in the hammock

Madeline and Lauren doing the same!

Tyler and Drew, climbing and being boys!

Emily, Nathan, Wes and Brynne hanging out around the campfire in the morning!

We found a snake slithering around the "kitchen" and spent awhile trying to decide if it was red on black stripes or red on white stripes that meant we had a poisonous snake on our hands. We finally decided that it was "Red on White - Take Flight" and "Red on Black - friend of Jack". So we let a few of the daring kids hold him before we let him go.

Tyler

Amber

Lauren, Nathan, Sequoia and Drew roasting Marshmallows

Emily with her s'more in one hand and her starburst (about to be roasted) in the other!

Madeline and her s'more

Tyler has no problem eating his s'more with filthy black hands. I guess as the saying goes, "God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt" (Grandma and Chloe on Grandpa's lap in the background)

Doin' What We Do!

So Memorial weekend was a bit chilly this year.  No reason to blow off our favorite lakeside beach!

We've dealt with rain plenty of times, this was nothing we couldn't handle, and it certainly didn't stop any of us from doing what we do, when we go where we go.

We just wore our coats and boots and hunkered down in our chairs.

 

Certainly there's nothing wrong with digging in the sand in uggs and a sweatshirt

The shovels still dig up scoop after scoop of the rocky Brandy Creek sand

And while a good game of football is always a draw with the boys

The desire to dig and create always seems to win in the end

So rain or shine, young or old, hot or downright cold, nothings gonna stop us from going where we go and doing what we do!

Just a few favorites

Oaky Family here is the challenge...We all have a gazillion pictures from whiskeytown...twice a year for the last 15-20 years and once for the other 20 plus...lets get them all uploaded along with any fun memories you have associated with any of the pictures...One post a week from everyone, pretty please?!

I didn't take many pics this year as I was more than a little out of it having had surgery the week before we left.  Tara got this one of Brynne at Brandy Creek one day.

I think I actually got this one of Garrett on one my few trips out of my tent that week.

 Same night, but I loved this typical moment of all the kids just hanging out having a good time together near the campfire.  This is exactly why these kids will have great memories of growing up together.

I think this one came from Debbie or Melissa's phones, but still a pretty rare shot of so many of the adults  out doing what do.

So, share away family... I know I can count on Tawna, but what about the rest of you? C'mon post away, I dare ya!

"The Greatest Place on Earth"

I figured while I was at it, I'd better post this. Remember the Whiskeytown Memories book that I made for Grandma & Grandpa years ago with stories and pictures compiled from all of you? (Those of you who'd give them to me, hehe.) Well here is the lil' intro essay/thought I wrote for them, summing up why this traditation is so important, and thanking Grandma and Grandpa for starting it. I think it sums it up pretty well. Let me know what you think...

"Why is it that a place set among some average hills and small mountains, among busy campers and loud, music-playing neighbors, can seem such a place of refuge and comfort? Why is it that some common pines and short Manzanitas repeatedly beat out the stately Redwoods and towering Sequoias of the Coast? How can a place that is really just a few dirt paths, some bear lockers, and a hose-washed bathroom feel like home? It doesn’t really seem to matter that Whiskeytown Lake may not seem to be the most beautiful place to everyone who sees it. It doesn’t matter that the woods are not flowering with rare foliage or that its trees do not attract international visitors. What seems to matter most to our family is that it is home. Whiskeytown is a tradition and place full of memories we’ve made together. Yet it is not just a place of memories for our immediate families, but of a large extended family; one that has become very close through all the time spent together. Our prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, reminds us that “we existed as children of God before we were born into this world, so also shall we continue to live after death; and the treasured and satisfying relationships of mortality, the most beautiful and meaningful of which are found in the family, may continue in the world to come.” We have made a tradition out of building the relationships within that family, and in making them beautiful. Whiskeytown, in all its glory, is a place that we’ve made become special to us, for all the many things that have become a part of it.
A tradition becomes that needed sense of a constant in our lives, something whose fundamental values do not change. It is something that can always be counted on to happen, and thus gives itself over as being a type of rock to hold onto. We have all changed over the years. Some of our ideals, the sizes of our families, the number of campsites, the equipment we use, our inflating ages and deflating air mattresses, our desires and interests, even some of the traditions within “Whiskeytown” itself have changed. What has stayed the same is the love within our family, and the enjoyment we get out of making memories together. We as a family have been going to Whiskeytown for the past 39 years! Our parents have gone since they were kids; we kids have gone since we were born, and now some of our children are making the trip only days old. It has been that constant-- for 39 years a constant. It has provided a place for our families to grow and to see each other’s grow. It is not just about the boating trips out on the lake to ski, it is not close to being just about a chance to lie around in a hammock without work for a week. If that were the case, it would have deteriorated into individual family trips whenever we had time and enough vacation days long ago. Rather, Whiskeytown is that great place that our friends and neighbors have all heard about for years and know of to be ‘the greatest place’, a place of real special value. I don’t believe it is just about the fun or the fishing or the jogging trail or the beach or the boat. Those things could be done anywhere, at anytime. What really makes Whiskeytown so great, is that we go as a family, an entire family, and that as a family we have built memories in that place. It has been a constant place to build memories on for all of us, together; a little chunk of the world that feels like home for our entire extended family. That is why it is special.
I feel like Grandma and Grandpa Huntington have helped give us this legacy of real love for each other. They are as much to thank as anyone for helping keep this family so close, and the ties so real. This Christmas gift is one to thank them for helping us create so many memories, so that we can be a family that will stick together. We can be an eternal family. Let these memories be a small legacy of what Grandma and Grandpa have given to us, and let all future generations know of our love for them. Whiskeytown is kind of like home, because to this family, Whiskeytown means family time. And as President Gordon B. Hinckley reminds us, “the family…is a divine institution, the most important both in mortality and in eternity.” May we never forget that, and do all in our part to create and keep our family as one. "
--Tawna, 200...5? Maybe? haha

A few 5/2011 fav's

Okay, so here are just a few favorite pictures that I took from this year's Whiskeytown trip. I figured it was only about time that I share them all with you, since of course you have been waiting. ;) I got a lot of beautiful artistic shots, but will save those for facebook. Have to look there. These are more fun family ones, because, well, we are a fun family, and we like looking at ourselves. ;) Much love, and enjoy this small sampling!

(Had to have one shot of the lake.)



Who can forget--warming ourselves and singing camp songs around the...lantern light?


Did you know that in May, there are blossoming trees on the pier of the groupsites? Gorgeous! I thought I'd walked into a vision.


Karen thought she'd walked into a trap. :)





The girls showing Britta the castle the Jess built for her. So sweet!



Yes, they carried Wes to the bear-locker while he was still sleeping. Amazing what teenage boys can sleep through. :)



"I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine!" Drew and I are so good, we can do it at the same time.




:) I love us. I love Whiskeytown. I love us more. But I love Whiskeytown a lot.

A-toot-ti-doo

We all know what this is. At some point, we've all begged Grandpa for one of these. The antsy anticipation. The burst of giggles. The exhilaration of making it through one without peeing yourself. Whether you are a two year saying "Again! Again!" or you are grown and experiencing one for the first time under pressure, you cannot make it through a Whiskeytown trip without getting initiated or being a veteran. Who will get one this year? ;)

Once Upon A Time

When Grandma and Grandpa Huntington brought their young family camping at Whiskeytown Lake 44 years ago they had no idea what they had started.  An annual camping trip that has become an institution.  An event not to be missed.  The same gorgeous lake with trees right up to the shoreline, the same trails to run and hike along, the same little caves to explore, the same little coves perfect for learning to ski,  the same sandy beaches, the same games of cards, almost the exact same menu, and best of all the same group of people.  My family.  I am  not the blond little one year old sitting on grandpas lap anymore, but you can bet that the spot is still occupied by a great grandchild of a similar age. Our numbers have grown, and the tents, boats and camping equipment have been updated, but for the most part the trip remains the same.  And thats just the way we like it!  Whiskeytown 2011 here we come!!