We had a good turnout to the reunion, despite a few extra precautions. We are an outdoorsy group anyway and had a large deck to hang out on so thankfully weren’t too concerned by the end of the reunion (though did check in with each other at the end of two weeks to make sure no one got sick. One of my cousins did end up with pneumonia and on a ventilator for a few days not long after… and is still having a rough time, but it wasn’t COVID, didn’t spread, and she’s on a slow but steady recovery. Phew!). Part luck, mostly calculated risk.

The cousins had a fantastic time with each other, especially with such limited playdates the last several months. None of them had been out of the house, basically, so we didn’t have to worry about masks (thank goodness for the youngins). It was no nice to see everyone and have something that felt normal. The only odd part was we basically didn’t interact with any of the locals, to protect them from travelers and ourselves (since they were having an outbreak in Eastern Washington).

There was a truly great fireworks display over Lake Chelan the evening of Independence Day. There was no music, as I’m used to in Seattle, and it wasn’t amateur, as I’m used to from Big Lake (Alaska), so they really seemed to focus on the art of the actual fireworks more and I really enjoyed it.

The fireplace was great for snuggling up for bedtime stories with grandma (my mom) who we hadn’t seen since February until that week. I don’t know who was more excited; grandparents, grandkids, or the parents (bringing to mind a meme I re-posted on FB a couple times along the lines of “I’m tired of babysitting your grandkids”).

Love my family. As much as I can get focused on my work or hobbies there is nothing that beats family time and there’s nothing like a pandemic to remind us of that.