Plowman Family Dinner/June 2023

Summer is here (yay for sunburns and mosquitoes!), which means that family dinner moved to outside this month. Ben and Adi hosted us in their backyard in Centerville for a menu featuring hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, fresh fruit, and other goodies.

Katy and Woody (pictured here) were among the many who showed up and took part:

Weekend at Bear Lake 2023

Last week, the Plowbuckles joined our family's annual summer trip up to beautiful Bear Lake. We (collectively) shook things up this year by doing a couple of things differently: (1) traveling in June rather than August and (2) renting an Airbnb on the north/Fish Haven, Idaho, side of the lake. These choices paid off tremendously because we had beautiful, spring-like weather throughout, and also the "Pirate Ship Chalet" was a good fit for our large group of hooligans.

What is a Pirate Ship Chalet? you ask? I didn't know, either, but I do now. It looks a lot like this, an actual pirate ship playground attached to the side of the building:

This was a fun little playground for kids of all ages. While many of those in our fun house went out on the water or over to the pickleball courts to play, Aunt JB and I were fuddy-duddy homebodies and hung around the house most of the time. But fortunately that meant we also got to spend a great deal of time with the littlest niblings, because after all we are the Fun Aunt and Uncle.

Tanner and Sadie picked The Empire Strikes Back to watch with JB when offered their choice of movie! The Force remains strong in our family.

Other enjoyable activities at the Pirate Ship Chalet included playing Jackbox games like Tee K.O. together, foosball, pool (billiards), watching movies, and streaming the final game of the NBA Finals after a lightning storm knocked out the satellite dish. (The Denver Nuggets won their first-ever championship!)

Of course, a visit to Bear Lake can't be complete without at lest one visit to either LaBeau's or Zipz in downtown Garden City (on the Utah side of the lake) for Dole whips and/or raspberry shakes.

All told, 10 out of 10 stars, we would definitely recommend the place where we stayed and our overall vacation experience. 

On our way home, we remained in Idaho and took the long route through St. Charles and Paris and then into lovely Preston, setting for the cult hit movie Napoleon Dynamite. Heading south, we then passed through Franklin, just a stone's throw across the Utah/Idaho border, to visit the graves of JB's great grandparents. So that was an added bonus.

Chalk Art Festival 2023

The annual Bountiful Main Street Chalk Art Festival returned during the first week of June. Sadly, JB and I were unable to arrange our schedule to go and actually walk among the art before a few different thunderstorms washed away most of the drawings. But also fortunately, my siblings caught a few pics before those pieces of art were swept away.

Ben, Christian, and Graham collaborated on this rendition of the Little Mermaid:

Our 20-year-old niece McKenna created this beautiful piece:

... and won third place in the adult division!

Biz and her kids added the third family creation to the chalk art festival, but I didn't get a very good shot of it when I (finally) walked by the other day while running an errand at the post office:

Regardless of that fact, we are amazed with the results. The breadth and depth of artistic talent runs deep in our family!

Mom's 80th Birthday Party

On Monday, June 5, my beloved mother hit a milestone, turning 80 years old. (I think that fact makes both her and me as her second-oldest child feel old, but such is the passage of time. We're all trying to enjoy every day and roll with the many different things that each new day brings us.)

As a family, we gathered at one of our favorite restaurants—and site of no fewer than four family wedding dinners—Joy Luck. It was a surprise party for Mom, who was expecting dinner with only Steve and Summer and their kids. (No one let the cat out of the bag accidentally, so mission accomplished!)

The delicious Chinese food was plentiful, and it included Peking spare ribs, sweet and sour chicken, chicken lo mein, egg rolls, ham fried and white rice, and the like. We ate family style, because we are a family after all (29 people altogether, missing only one person who was home sick).

Mom's only wish for her birthday this year was to spend time with her kids and grandkids, so that is what we gave her. In return, she has given us so much more over the course of her 80+ decades of life.

June 5 is also our niece McKenna Kathleen's birthday, who's now 20 years old and finished with the terrible teens. So, we had a double birthday party all told.

Our Day Out with Katy 2023

Our niece Katy (formerly known also as Kate) recently turned eight years old. That was back at the end of March. We're still catching up on birthday activities, and that led to our birthday outing with her this past Thursday evening.

First, we went to the store so that she could pick out a LEGO set that she wanted. This is the before picture, with everything still in the box:

This is what it looked like when we were done:

We also stopped by the new Centerville Fiiz to get treats, because that is exactly the kind of VIP treatment you get with Fun Aunt and Uncle. Katy is a pretty great kid, and we love spending time with her.

Memorial Day Weekend 2023

Over Memorial Day weekend, we trekked up to Cache Valley to join with the family in some of the usual holiday shenanigans. First and foremost was a visit to the Smithfield City Cemetery and Dad's headstone and grave, along with the final resting places of my grandparents, great-grandparents, and numerous other ancestors.

In addition, we visited Gossner's dairy (always a must when in Logan) and grabbed lunch at Center Street Grill, which we ate across the street in the shade at the city park downtown.

Following that, JB and I stayed in Logan overnight this time. It was sort of a makeup of the anniversary trip we meant to take in April before one of us got sick. Among the additional activities we included in our itinerary were a visit to the Pepperidge Farm factory in Richmond for factory seconds (on future visits, this will have to be included), stopping in west Smithfield to see the progress of the Church's new Smithfield temple:

... and of course Aggie Ice Cream on the Utah State University campus:

JB and I would rate it a solid w00t!

And so ends another glimpse into the nonstop party life we lead on a 24/7 basis. If you're in the Cache Valley, you should definitely visit some of these same places.