Cook Family Reunion

The Cook family all met up at Lake Chelan. It was fun to see those who could make it. We had Grandma and Grandpa Cook. Terry and Anita. Their 3 kids couldn't make it, but they are expecting their first grandchild in October. Brent couldn't make it either because he has 8 dogs. But Marci and Christy came along with Dominique and Terry. Terry is married to LaRissa and they have two girls. While Dominique is married to Nicole and they have two boys. They are still very close and live in the Tri-cities. John brough his three kids: Corey, Courtney (Out from NC), and Kadell. Helena and Ben were out with their 6 Kids. Darren, I think is the oldest and he is short like Rodney was; Cassie, who loved saying my name; Beth, another boy, Jason, . . . As you can see, I didn't quite pass the name test. It was kind of nice not having the youngest kid. And Mom with Lorna and I.
Karla loved seeing her cousins. Whenever we'd go somewhere in the car, she'd make sure her cousins were in a car near by. And when we went to go back home, she said she wanted to go back to her cousins house. We stayed in a cute bed and breakfast. We rented all but two of the rooms. And it kind of felt like a huge house. It had a seafaring theme. We stayed in the Commander room.
The fun part was listening to the stories as "the brothers and sisters" told stories. They talked about how young they started driving. I think Helena was the youngest at 8, but I may be getting my stories mixed up. They talked about looking through the steering wheel to see. Farm accidents and not on the farm accidents. One insurance dropped grandma and grandpa for having 29 accidents in 5 years. Mom shared her memories of bringing each baby home. The one I remember best is Terry. They had a long drive way at that house. And all the way down the driveway, mom told him "This is your new home. And you are my little brother." She was so excited to have a new brother. But did you know, she wasn't as excited to get Brent. She wanted a sister. But she named Brent. She wanted to name him David. And on the way into pick him up, she was reading the friend about a Brent. So they named him Brent David.
Todd came after work, after all of us, and got stopped by a fire in Quincy. A 3 hour drive became 6 hours. He drove in just after 1 am. He then stayed Wednesday night, but had to be back to work by Thursday morning. So he left at 3 am and kissed Mom and Helena goodbye.
We spent Wednesday at the Beach. Catching kids who jumped off the side or pierre. Sand castles, or more accurately large motes and lakes in the sand. The older kids got a Jet ski and did other fun, older activities--I couldn't tell you what exactly. But we had fun in the sand and kitty end of the lake. A lot of the adults sat and watched and talked. Todd got our cell phone wet, and we were grateful that mom had told us about the rice trick just that morning. And it worked!! We also had a lot of splashing and teasing.
It seemed like I spent most of the vacation in the bathroom or running to since Karla is still getting potty training down. We also fed the ducks once a day while there. And just before bedtime we went for a walk in the park across the street.
We had one night where we honored Grandma and Grandpa Cook. What an honor to be part of their posterity. Thank you.
We then went to Levinsworth, out of the way but on the way home, and we all went our own ways. It was fun to just focus on my kids. We liked the hat shop, wood toys, wind chimes and water fountains, mood rings, and polished rocks. We found out that Nef means Nephew. Grandma K and Karla looked at the nut crackers and really enjoyed the Christmas village. It's surprising because Karla's Grandma Mann loves the villages, but Karla hasn't see Grandma's village yet. It was a fun day