Sister's Reunion in Washington

 We planned a little get together for us sisters, Janet, Marilynne and me up at Janet's cabin in Washington.  Of course we had our husbands come too!  Paul and I got there Friday late afternoon and left Monday  morning.  Lynn and Marilynne got there a bit earlier on Friday and left Sunday afternoon. Janet and Tony left when we did on Monday.  We had a leisurely time visiting, eating, going to church and playing a few games.  Mostly we visited.  Tony brought up some Walleye fish and pheasant that a friend gave him and cooked it up for us one evening.  I thought it was very good!  Marilynne and I brought the rest of the food so Janet would not be stressed about it.  She's in early stages of Alzheimer's and says sometimes she can't remember how to cook things.  And besides, they provided the wonderful accommodations  at their cabin! I think attending church was very interesting.  They have such a small ward there.  I think there were 50 people their in total including us.  They kept saying they wished all of us could find a way to move there!  There used to be some very big food processing plants in the area and when they closed them down the town (and that ward) lost so many people who just had to move away to find new jobs.  But, they were a nice friendly ward and I enjoyed the maybe 10 people Relief Society group and the great lesson that was given.  Sunday afternoon we picked lots of apples to bring home for Janet and Tony to can and just for us to eat.  There are so many different kinds of red and yellow apple trees growing all over their property.  Some are wild and not as good they say.  I liked all of the ones I tried.  We made an apple pie with some of the Granny Smiths and it was very good.  It was a very relaxing time.  It's hard to see Janet struggling sometimes to remember things, but sometimes she amazed us with remembering things and names of people from long ago better than we could.  It was a long drive of about 1800 miles.  It took 2 days to get there and two days to come home.  We weren't up for making it in one very long drive each time.  I am having some really bad back problems (found out I have a herniated disc) so Paul did all of the driving, so we wanted to break it up.  We stayed in Jerome, Idaho, in the same hotel going and coming.  I'm glad we could get together while everyone can still make the trip. None of us are getting any younger.  There were beautiful, big, cloud filled skies all the way there and back.  We got a bit of rain a few times.  We listened to some good books along the way.  OH, while we were out picking apples, I looked down the path ahead where Janet and I were going to pick some other apples and there was a black bear down there eating black berries we think.  I was so excited I yelled to Paul and Tony that there was a bear...and scared it away.  We only saw the rear end of it, but it was pretty cool!  They have seen a mother bear and two cubs on their game cameras around the place, so it was not that surprising.  They said they've seen a bigger male bear.  I was glad not to see him I think.  I didn't feel afraid, just excited and sad that the men didn't get to see it.