Bridge Party!

View of the ridge about a quarter to 'Alpine Glow'

 Morning morning coffee around the campfire

It was pure bliss waking up at the ranch house and then sniffing about for that all important cup of java. NO, I am not addicted to caffeine, and how dare you even think such a thing! 

When I was showered & dressed I noticed several of my cousins were either still in bed, or were... where? I found a 'mess o' cousins' outside sipping their coffee at Dave & Tom's new (to me) fire ring. While we chatted cousin Eric sent up his drone to explore the surrounding hills. Great way to start one's day - the coffee, that is.

The fire ring is a new addition 

None of us went hungry for breakfast today

After coffee, Dave & Tom served up another tasty & hearty breakfast with loads of bacon and sausage. Then our gratious hosts offered to show us a recently built beaver damn, just a little ways up the road. . 

The beaver dam of sticks and mud & the pond it created

Wild Hops

The beaver dam was not the morning's only natural history lesson. There was a fruit laden, wild current bush and several of us ate a berry or three. And we noticed strange looking pale green 'thingies' growing rampant along the roadside. David told us the greenish bobbles were hops, of the sort used to flavor beer - how convenient!

Garden Tiger Moth

Another discovery was back at the house - a beautiful moth, wearing what appeared to be party clothes. 

The rest of the day was spent with Aunt Arna and the cousins playing cards at the dining room table. But the majority of the time was spent - by David & Tom - preparing for the big event of the day, the Bridge Party up at Tom's Aunt Judy's Ranch. 

At day's end we were all dressed in our Colorado Carter Family Reunion tee shirts. David and Tom had spent the greater part of the afternoon preparing dishes for tonight's 'Bridge Party'. A little background here... Tom's gracious Aunt Judy throws Bridge Parties for guests. She did so for us Carters in 2018 at which time my cousins thought we were going to a card game party, so they had beefed up on the instructions for playing Bridge and bought new card decks and such, only to find out they'd been invited to a Party, taking place on a Bridge. 

Here are we are at our 2022 Bridge Party, as photographed by Cousin Eric's airborne drone. 

Meeting of the Matriarchs
Tom's Aunt Judy & the Carter's  Aunt Arna

It was quite the Carter day, as we weren't the only Carters up for an occasion. Judy had invited family friends who we met at the last Bridge Party in 2018. The kids we met them are quite a bit older now (Duh, right?) and the youngest, ironically named Carter, is today's birthday boy! We serenaded him with a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time round of "Happy Birthday" over a lovely, candle spangled cake.

Happy birthday to the Carter of the day!

It gets cold when the sun sinks behind the eastern ridges. David & Tom offered anyone under prepared warm coats and jackets. For Aunt Arna, a beautiful mink coat came out of the hall closet. It used to belong to David's Mom. It kept Arna snug, warm and fashionable for the evening. 

Arna and Charlaine

It was a lovely evening for sitting, chatting and catching up. One of the family friends (and of course being a bear of little brain I can't remember her name - sorry what's yer name - shared genealogy stories from her family. We were surprised we had roughly similar stories either of which would make a great episode for either Who Do You Think You Are or The Maury Povitch Show. Both of us have a male relative from ages ago who had not one, but two wives, who didn't know their man had 2 separate families. Shocking! That made us think maybe such things are not as rare as one would think. For the record, the bigamist in my family is not a Carter, but a Miller... fascinating stuff. 

Our Bridge Party gathering went on well into the dark of the night, when slowly we all gathered our things, said our 'Irish Fairwells' and headed back to the ranch house. Tomorrow is another busy day.

Off to the Ranch

 

Colorado scenery along the way

All were up at leisure this morning, chatting and packing enough stuff to see us through the next few days. After another great David & Tom prepared  breakfast we were nearly ready to depart. For togetherness and ease, the fam rented a large van. Like a well organized mini-army the van was packed.and we took off late morning for the 4 hour drive up to the ranch house SW of Hayden, CO. 

Looking all sharp in our matching Bajan Tees

Our cool new Carter Family tee shirts were worn for the drive. We chatted & snacked along the byways towards Hayden. 

Tom and co-pilot

Colorado scenery is spectacular, and though we didn't get any pix, we spotted several herds of Pronghorn Antelope. 

Before we knew it, we were lolling about on the ranch house porch

David and Tom outdid themselves on dinner. Tom served up marinated & freshly BBQ'd chicken which was delish & very pleasing to the carnivores amongst us (that would be me), 

Gnocchi, not Enoki 

David made 'Gnocchi', which are potato dumplings that were fried in butter with veggies. 

Enoki not Gnocchi 

I dug in to the delicious little morsels, all the while wondering 'Where are the Enoki mushrooms?' I guess I haven't previously heard Gnocchi pronounced correctly, if at all. 

David set me right, and we all wolfed down the tasty gnocchi fried all crisp and tasty. Several of us decided we have to try fixing gnocchi on our own. And there was also a tasty side of delicate asparagus spears.

Much later, we ran out of steam, but not out of conversation, it was time for bed. Eric & I planned to  camp out on the front porch. However, David & Tom brought out the air mattresses, so between the 3 bedrooms with numerous beds, the couch and air mattresses, everyone ended their day all snug & comfy - and all of us inside. But honestly, I'd have happily snoozed out on the porch, dreaming of roaming Mountain Lions, the odd rattlesnake. 

2022 Colorado Pop-up Reunion

Time for a Pop-up Reunion, this time at Cousin David & Cousin-in-Law Tom's house. My family flew in from across the states. The family Matriarch, Aunt Arna, flew in from Phoenix, Arizona. Cousin Yvonne flew in from Michigan, her brother Eric flew up from Florida. The California contingency was Donna from Pasadena, Charlaine and Jonniann from San Diego. And I bopped over from Washington state.

Jonni greeting Arna
 at Denver Airport

The photos above is all of us in the gorgeous reunion tee-shirts David kindly produced for us. The tees beautifully display the Barbados flag with photos below of David's grandfather (our Great Uncle Cuthbert) and our grandmother (David's great-aunt Adele). Cuthbert and Adele were siblings, although they weren't raised together.

Cousin Donna (in white sweater below) brought us all a surprise - a box of family letters, post cards and photos other memorabilia that her mother, my Aunt Grace, had safely kept. Donna gave me the box, but knowing myself all too well, I asked David to take the box, because you don't hand family heirlooms to klutzes. Bonus, as Tom works in the genealogy dept of the a library, so he can properly scan the letters and then everyone can have their own digital copies of the hand written family treasures. 

Arna spend this first afternoon  reading through the letters and sharing her findings with us. 

As always, we were well fed under David & Tom's watch, as they are incredible cooks! I suspect they knew Julia Child in her hey day (um.. decades).  

Late afternoon, Tom ferried Aunt Arna, Cousin Yvonne and myself over to a nearby Pro Bass sporting goods store. Both Arna and I wanted to purchase a 'new to us' cannister of oxygen, called 'Boost'. The oxygen was in case Denver, the 'mile high' city made us feel any shortness of breath, in which case we would have our own little stash of O2. WOW was that store gigantic! 

The entryway featured a herd of bison and antlers galore

And this is just the entryway! The lady left of center in
the white tee shirt is Arna, racing for a shopping cart

Rainbow trout under a waterfall (mid-store!)

My favorite thing in the massive store was the huge tank (larger than my bedroom) where wild rainbow trout glided along.

We all did a little shopping, which included canisters of Boost. Not sure if we'd really need it, but it was relatively cheap at $8 a pop, and I do enjoy breathing. 

When we got back to the house, Arna enjoyed playing various card games with Charlaine, Jonnianne, Donna, Yvonne and Eric. I'm a pill, and don't play cards at all but it was fun hearing the shouts and laughs as my Aunt and cousins played Crazy Eights and Gin Rummy, Sounded like fun - butts were kicked! 

We are all excited as David & Tom rented a van for us all to drive up tomorrow  to their ranch house near Hayden, Colorado. 

Beautiful Denver Sky