Kline Family Reunion: Day 1

I forgot to add this picture... the boys being fed. And creepy cousin, Aidan, in the background. Again...I got very few pictures while they were away.

Our family reunion was in Westcliffe, Colorado. I was so anxious to get my boys back, the trip seemed to take forever. Here is a view from our drive. It's Mt. Elbert, Colorado's highest peak. I didn't get the picture in time, but you can kind of see it in this picture...we were at a perfect angle and the clouds outlined the peak perfectly. It was pretty amazing... here you see more of a side view and can at least tell where the peak in the clouds was.

In Salida, about 30 minutes away from our destination, we came across a crazy hail storm. One thing I love about the western slope is we avoid most crazy weather like this...thankfully, the hail was small enough to not do any damage, but it looked like a blanket of snow on the ground. Yikes!

Finally I was reunited with my boys... Reece didn't seem to care much, he was having too much fun with his cousins and kind of wished his Kansas vacation would have lasted longer. Riley was sadly under the weather... fever and head junk. This was the most excitement I could get out of him.

My family rented out the Hermit Basin Conference Center in Westcliffe. It had enough rooms for the 70+ family members that attended and had several large rooms for us to gather in. The food was amazing! Yummy home cooked meals... they fed us breakfast, lunch and dinner. We got to sit down and be served. Way better than a buffet, in my opinion. Check in time was 4pm, so our first night was mostly greeting each other, dinner, Reece chose to swim afterwards, while Riley rested under the covers. 

A few days before the reunion, my family got the call that my Grandmother Kline had taken a turn for the worse. She is the last living reason the Kline family tree exists. She hasn't been able to travel in years, and was not planning on making the Colorado reunion, but it was unsettling to many family members that they would all be away if her final days were near. It gave the family more of a purpose to share stories and memories of Elizabeth Kline. She took her final breath on Monday, July 14th. She lived 98 years, 5 months, and 1 day. Thankfully the reunion was over and family was by her side on the day my Grandmother prayed would come for years. 

What I remember most about my Grandmother is her love for games. Mostly card games. I calculated she was 66 years older than me, but as a child, her speed (both mentally and physically) were amazing. We played SkipBo and Nertz the most often, and she was tough to beat. She always had time and energy for a game. She was great at crossword puzzles too. Probably why she was able to keep her mind so sharp for so long. 

I plan on heading back to Kansas on Wednesday to help celebrate her life. As hard as it will be, she was ready and lived a long, good life with lots of loved ones to show for it.