Family Reunion

The Dunbar family has had a week full of adventures extending from Provo, to Rexburg, to Boise, to the beach, and back to Chico. It's been a lot of fun.

The first stop was Provo, Utah to tour BYU. We went all over campus, and even got to see the new indoor football practice facility. Dad taught me a lot about the school, and I can't wait to hopefully go there someday!

The next stop was Rexburg to see Ben graduate from BYU-Idaho. We got to see family and help Ben and Andrea move out of their apartment. Also, Ben, Andrea, and Chris got to sing in the choir for graduation. They sounded really beautiful.

We then took Chris with us and headed to Boise to stop at Joanie's house for a few days before heading back to California. The Demers came with us, and we decided to visit the Point Reyes beach before going to Chico. It was kind of cold, but that didn't keep Nate, Joanie, and Chris from getting in the water in an attempt to surf. There wasn't much success, but we had fun playing in the water and flying kites.

Landon and Julia

Nate and Julia (and Cameron in Nate's jacket)

Next we finally made it to Chico. Grandma Ruth loves having her grandbabies around. We played at the house some of the time, but on Saturday the boys took a trip to the lake while the girls (and Landon) stayed home. Landon loved swimming at Grandma Louise's house.

Ryan

Chris

Nate

Sick of Smoke!

This post is the request of Mom. I think she's probably the most disgusted out of everyone about all the horrible smoke. It's really bad. She just wanted her children to be able to see what their beautiful Northern California now looks like. These were taken around 3:00 in the afternoon.

Ash on the car

South on Cussick

Looking west on Henshaw

I got 6 at the sun stare!!

Sailing at Lake Shasta

We decided to take a sailing trip for the 4th of July weekend. We left Wednesday morning to drive to the lake....a lake. The lake we drove to on Wednesday was not the lake we spent our weekend on. The original plan was to go sailing on Lake Almanor, and that's where we drove. When we got there, it was extremely smoky. Some of us were pretty disgusted about that, and they wouldn't allow us to leave our car there overnight. That was kind of a problem since we'd be staying three nights. So Dad decided we'd try Lake Shasta instead, and that worked out great. We got everything all set up, and Ben and Andrea came and met up with us Thursday night. We had some great sailing on Friday and just had fun swimming in the Lake. It was a blast!

Probably what was the most entertaining part of the trip was the big tanker airplane that was fighting the fires near the lake. It was a huge airplane! It held two acre feet of water. We would watch it make trips back and forth all day. It was so fascinating that just about every time it came by someone would get out the camera. Consequently we have way too many pictures of that airplane, but it was really cool.

It only took about three seconds for it to dump all of the water.

Encampment in Humbug Valley

In spite of everything being on fire in California, Ryan and Dad went on a scout trip this last week in Humbug Valley. The encampment was to be held Monday through Saturday, but Thursday afternoon they were evacuated from the camp due to all of the forest fires. They say they had a good time though, even with all of the smoke. Ryan said, "My favorite part of the encampment was the obstacle course they held at the end of the week." I heard something about army crawling through a few inches of dust on the ground. Yikes! I think they got pretty dirty.

Part of Troop 58 before they left on Monday

Morning flag ceremony

Since Ryan is not quite 14 yet, he was sort of the "senior deacon" if you will and led the deacon hike. I don't think they got to do their original hike because they were again restricted by the fires, but it all turned out okay.

Now Mom is extremely proud of this piece of work right here. This is no ordinary welcome home sign. She decided we should cover the whole sign in a cloud of smoke. She even broke out the water colors. Ben, you think it's funny right? You and Mom usually have the same kind of humor. :)

I asked Ryan for a quote about the encampment and he said, "It was a really good experience, and I learned a lot." I don't know how sincere he was, but I know he and Dad had a lot of fun!

Boat House Progress

Eighth Grade Graduation

Ryan graduated from eighth grade this morning. He's officially a freshman! The lei was given to him by a friend whose sister graduated from high school last night. Isn't he hot?!

Ryan receiving his certificate from the principal
Ryan and Brett
Julia, Ryan, Mom, and Dad

Mom's 50th Birthday Party!

Last night Mom celebrated her first half a century on earth with her two babies. We had the traditional Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Renee came, and we ate dinner in the backyard.

Photos by Dad