Summer Fun for the Sommers

On June 30 Krissy and I left for Idaho. We flew into Salt Lake and drove to Rigby, Idaho, to stay with my brother and sister-in-law (Darin and Timalee). We had so much fun with the little girls Macee and Malia. We were able to go on lots of walks, play games together, and go for treats. Krissy left us for a day to go with her Sommer cousins on a trail ride through Idaho and Montana to the continental divide. Lorin's cousin Dirk is a teacher that works during the summer doing trail rides. Thank you so much Dirk. She had a great time.

When Lorin arrived, we were guests at my sister Julie's "cabin" in Island Park (if you know where Bill's Island is you understand by quotes around cabin) and enjoyed the great scenary in and outside the cabin.

Later in the week Darin, my sister Gretta, Timalee's brother Ty, Lorin and myself went four wheeling. A little frightening at times, but fun. We all laughed at Gretta when she packed raincoats for all of us--

it was soooooo hot. We laughed that is until is was SNOWING on us and we apologized and asked to use one of her rain coats. Such a wise adult my baby sister has become.

We also were able to go Bear World (lots of bears!), Yellowstone Park, and the Playmill in West Yellowstone. The best part of all this is that we were all together for many days doing different activities. You don't realize how much you miss your family until you spend so many enjoyable days with them. The only thing that could have made it better was if Kevin could have joined us.

On Friday we left the Geisler side and joined the Guidinger (Lorin's Mom's family) family reunion in Rexburg. I met several of Lorin's cousins (Bills and Tates) that I had never met. We so enjoyed our time together. Carla, also a teacher, made me feel so much better about our

summer when she told me that they return to school on August 10 in Colorado. Ouch! Of course they also are out in May. I like our calendar much better. After our great weekend together, we only wish Colorado and Arizona would move closer to Michigan. They are great friends we look forward to spending time with them again in the future. On Saturday the day finally arrived for Bert and Marilyn's 50th wedding anniversary. It went off beautifully. All the grandchildren read letters from Bert and Marilyn's friends. Then, we had them cut their 50th wedding cake. They didn't think they did this when they were married, so we figured they needed to do it this time.

We returned on Monday, July 13. We had originally planned to leave for Tennessee on Tuesday, to attend the BMW Rally, but I found I needed more time to grocery shop, make arrangements for Krissy, water my garden, etc. Wednesday, instead of riding the motorbike to Tennessee, we loaded it in the truck and drove to Tennessee to meet Phil and Rebecca and their many wonderful friends. It was a really good thing we didn't try to ride all the way to Tennessee. Our first full day of riding it was very clear to me that my large seat did not fit on the small passenger seat available on the bike. On that very long day, we did drive through the Dragon (it starts in North Carolina and ends in Tennessee - 11 miles with over 300 turns). It was like a roller coaster on

a motorbike. It was fun. Before the trip was over, we had met many wonderful people and had visited states we had never been in before this trip. In total, we traveled through Michigan (of course), Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. What a fun trip.

Monday reality returns. I have my first teacher meeting at 10 a.m. Can summer really be coming to a close? We must try and squeeze a little for fun into this summer.