Alpine - This is the Place

Alpine, oh Alpine! It's hard to explain how much this place means to me and how much joy it brings me that my kids now adore it as well. This year had a record 160 family members in attendance! 

Our cabin peeking through the trees

 

After setting up our cabin and distributing some Alpine bucks to our very motivated children, we had dinner then headed to the bonfire, which was our assignment this year. Mom had assigned groups to lead songs from the songbook. Most did it with no prep, but there were some real overachievers. Jerry's family had us sing "It's a Small World After All" with verses in English, Swedish, and German- with the last verse having us sing all the languages at once. Josh Williams added some verses to "Down by the Bay." My favorites were "Did you ever see Joel scratching his mole?" and "Did you ever see Glen milking a hen?" 

Naturally there was a live band complete with Banjo, accordion, fiddle, flute, and a few guitars. 

Blake built the fire and was the MC. I bee bopped around telling people when they were up next. A good time was had by all, and many marshmallows were consumed. 

Look at the little ground squirrels that live under the bell! The golf putter was put out in memory of Robbie's son Trey, who loved golf and passed away last year. 

Isaac spent most of his time in the clearing under the big tree. Apparently he foraged for chocolate at some point- my cousin sent me this picture of him covered in it. Elliot was down there quite a bit also. Annie hit it off with some 2nd cousins around her age and was off doing handstands and watching the hoola hoop contest (the winner, Jonah Jensen, went for 1 hr and 2 minutes which is INSANE). Annie was also big into hustling to earn Alpine bucks- she had some major shopping dreams!

They had some activities by age group for all the 2nd and 3rd cousins, which I thought was a great idea. I like the efforts to get more mingling between the different branches of the family. 

The theme this year was "This is the Place." We were at Alpine over pioneer day and took the opportunity to highlight our ancestors that crossed the plains. We are very familiar with the Swedish branch of the family, but not many of us knew that we have 8 ancestors that crossed the plains on Grandma Lucille Keppner Johnson's side of the family. Aunt Cecelia's family did a lot of research and made life sketches of each of them. There were posters with abbreviated versions around the lodge, and full audio productions of longer versions told in the first person and narrated by various descendants. These are SO COOL. I volunteered to upload them to FamilySearch after the reunion. 

The pioneer parade! The kazoo playing along with the brass band caused many a heart to swell. 

I adore this picture. These two are great buds!

Here's the women's retreat! We had yummy snacks, ice cold drinks, and chatted about the theme of leaving things behind to simplify our lives like our pioneer ancestors did. I found this very humorous as several of the aunts are known for doing everything to the max, and you could tell that they struggled to think of a single anecdote about simplifying anything ever. 

The cousin dance started with a bit of line dancing. Annie and Mimi were some cute partners. 

I had room in the car to bring my viola to be part of the strings band for the line dancing! Megan and I fiddled along with Jordan's banjo and a few guitars. 

This girl is so fun to dance with. She was torn between wanting to dance and the allure of the "whipped cream in your face" game that someone brought. 

I snapped this picture to remind me to record my late night chats with Valden -he's the one with the glasses closest to me. Valden is a mortician and has the WILDEST stories that he tells in his trademark deadpan voice. He told us the following real life riddle: 
"A man knocked on the door of of the mortuary and handed me a trash bag saying, 'you forgot this.' I  looked inside and saw a human head. How did this come to be? You can ask me yes/no questions." Eventually we figured out that it was from a cadaver lab. 

I adore the extended Johnson family and am always so recharged by being around them. I feel deeply rooted knowing that I come from a people who are funny, hard working, loving, and resilient. It's always fun catching up with everyone, playing a few rounds of volleyball on the asphalt with everyone blinded by the sun, and staying up too late in the lodge. Big shout out to Aaron for being willing to go to bed early with the kids so that I could hang out. 

Elliot spent most of his time hanging out outside but also had some good crafting time and took on a chess game or two. This kid is so independent and good at entertaining himself. 

He's also good at fighting bears.

Like, really good at fighting bears.

We put the picture of him with the sword into ChatGPT and asked it to make him buff. I think Elliot could pull off the buff warrior kid look 😆

We aren't sure who carved these bears out of the stump by the parking lot, but it sure is a great addition to the camp! They are gorgeous! And I was pretty impressed with Annie and Isaac's impersonations.

Here we are, about to depart with our van packed with Alpine store loot.