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.