Katie's Mariner Madness: Young Peoples Reunion

On Saturday, August 4th, Mom and I journeyed down to Mossyrock Park (south of Olympia) for a Young Peoples Reunion. For those of you who don’t know,Young Peoples was what our high school youth group at church was called for many years. We had all grown up together in the church, although we didn’t attend the same schools. We were all in Young Peoples during the 1990s, but I won’t say when each of us were. :-) Since family is important to each of us, our parents, spouses, and kids were also invited to our reunion.

Seven of us kids were there (Dave, Aaron, Sarah, Kim, Lisa, Michael, and me). I was the only one without spouse and kids there. My Mom was there along with Jack and Sue (Aaron, Sarah, and Rebecca), John and Mary (Kim, Lisa, and Michael), John’s parents (Lawrence and Gwen), and Bob and Jane (Rob and Julie, who couldn’t attend). Those from Young Peoples who we missed were: Ron and Jo (our Youth Leaders and the parents of Dave, Sam, and Andre), Elliot (my brother), Raymond, Alieda, Renee, Rob and Julie, Marc and Kara, Anna, Sam and Andre, Ian and Matt, Anneke, Rebecca, and Heidi and Chris. I’m sure I missed some, so if you’re reading this and you were in our group and aren’t mentioned here, I’m sorry.

We had a great time reconnecting with each other, eating, swimming, canoeing, boating, relaxing, and playing volleyball. Mom and I didn’t camp, but the rest were out there all weekend. Many thanks to Sue for setting this event up. Hopefully we’ll be able to do another one in the near future and get more to come. For those who were there and are reading this, if you have pictures that you want me to post here for others to see, please e-mail them to me.

Here are some of my favorite pictures. Hope you enjoy them.

We started the afternoon by gathering together for prayer and then ate. From left to right are Jane, me, Mary, and Bob:

Here’s Mike (Sarah’s husband) cooking on the grill and I’m in the background:

Michael and Keri getting ready to eat their juicy burgers:

Enjoying lunch and a great conversation are from right to left: Jack, Dave and Nikole (Dave and Juanita’s daughter).

Keeping cool in the shade are Jeremy, Sarah, Sue, and Aaron (holding Dylan):

Here’s Caden (Aaron and Jen’s middle child) taking a ride around camp:

Here’s a cute one of Caleb (Lisa and Brian’s son). I personally love his hat. Already showing his Mariner spirit:

Although they moved here after all of us were out of high school, John’s parents (Kim, Lisa, and Michael’s grandparents), Lawrence and Gwen, joined us for a few hours:

Nikole is hanging out in the shade with her mom, Juanita:

Relaxing in the shade are from left to right: my Mom (Karyl), Sarah, Jane, and Kim; with Nikole and Juanita in the background.

Caden loved playing with the water:

After eating and hanging out at the camp, we went down to the lake and relaxed some more. Here’s Bob and Jane floating in the lake:

Taking a dip are Aaron and his oldest son, Jorren:

Tired and cold, Jorren and his cousin, Annika (Sarah and Mike’s daughter), hang out on an air mattress:

Not wanting to play in the water, Caden and Nikole relaxed on the beach:

Wanting to show off their power to Michael and Kim, Jakob (Dave and Juanita’s son) and Gabriel (Kim and Jeremy’s son) row the last few feet to the shore:

Lisa and Brian are trying to coax their son Caleb into the water. He did go in for a minute or two, but then wanted out:

Aaron and Jen take their oldest two, Jorren and Caden, out for a ride:

After hanging out at the beach, we went back to camp, changed, and started a volleyball game. Here’s some pictures from our very competitive game:

Dave, Kim, me, Keri, and Aaron