Hukle Reunion 2017

When I did my DNA testing on ancestry.com, I was reconnected to some of my paternal grandmother's family. I was invited to come to the Hukle family reunion this summer, in Oklahoma City.  I made plans and went.

I have lived in Arizona since I was 5 years old. Other than a few sporadic visits, we really didn't see a lot of extended family. And in recent years, my immediate family has left the state too. So I often feel a lot like the lone ranger. It was very different for me then, to be in a room with so many people to whom I am related! As one of my second cousins said, "But you come from a very big family!" 

The older couple, sitting down, is my great grandparents, Connie Lyle Hukle and Carrie Elizabeth DeWater Huckle. They had 11 children. Wallace died when he was 11 from septicemia. Lorman died fighting in WWII and is buried in Tunisia.

Connie and Carrie Hukle

 I am a descendent of Madeline Hukle, their oldest daughter. She married Thomas Barker. Here is the young family. My father is the oldest child, between the twins. I think my sisters and I all look like my Dad. My Uncle Ron brought some photo albums to the reunion and I was able to scan some photos that I didn't have.

My Dad as a teenager.

This is my grandmother, Madeline Hukle as a schoolteacher with her class. She and her sister, Arrahwanda, both taught school as teenagers.

Madeline and Arrahwanda are on the ground near the wing.

My great Uncle Guy Barker in his uniform from WWI.

My grandfather Tom Barker is in this pic, with glasses. I think this is a bank.

Reuben Lloyd Barker and Mattie May Cary Barker with their three oldest children. Before troubles that came in later years.

 Great Uncle Lorman died in WWII and is buried in Tunisia

This picture was addressed to my great uncle Horace, from Burden High School in Kansas. I don't think he was in the photo, but isn't it a fun pic?

One of my great aunts was a nurse as is her daughter and grand daughter, my mother and me.

Janice Parkey and Carol Crumb, some of my second cousins and really nice ladies.

Small photos are early pics of my great grandparents. The scanned photos of them didn't turn out, unfortunately.

Another second cousin, all were so welcoming and fun.

Uncle Ron and Aunt Rejeana, being photobombed by a Frisbee player. Because my father is deceased, Uncle Ron is now the oldest of the descendants, but only barely as he is a twin with Uncle Don.

Uncle Don and Aunt Doris is behind the flowers.

This gentleman is the only one at the reunion who still had the last name Hukle.

The twins, then and now.

My snaps of some of the group shots are blurry. Aunt Rejeana was official photographer. Hopefully, I will have some of those soon to post. We got a photo of myself and my first cousins. We have never even all been in the same room together before.

So glad I went!

Camping Crew, June 2017

Dericka said that She and Lynnora and I were the camping crew. Sometimes the camping crew gets visitors when we camp! We had different plans for our June camping trip, but ended up at Double Springs Campground near Mormon Lake. This ended up being a very good thing. It was much cooler than the Payson area, where we had originally planned on camping. It was pretty, we had the best campsites and mostly had the whole place to ourselves. The first night, Erica and Myrenda and their kids joined us for an evening around the campfire.

Erica's son was trying to start a fire with Lynnora's flint. None of them were successful. They finally used a match.

Made a German potato salad in the dutch oven to go with the hot dogs and fruit salad. Still getting the hand of using the dutch ovens.

Hanging around the campfire.

Cooking hot dogs.

Playing with sparklers.

The next day, we found out that we only had one more day to use firewood or charcoal due to increasing fire restrictions. My meal planning involved using the firepit and the dutch ovens, and so I had to do some recalculations. I had wanted to try a recipe that involved making a pie in the dutch oven, so decided to make it a day early, since it would keep.

Doesn't look perfect before it went it, but it turned out well!

We ate great as usual. Lynnora made a vegan lunch.

Stuffed French toast with strawberries for breakfast.

Since I couldn't make my foil dinners as I had planned, cooked all the veggies and meat in a skillet on the stove instead. Turned out pretty tasty.

We painted rocks for arts and crafts time.

They turned out really well too!

 We made some improvements this time. I put together a camp kitchen, that added to the convenience of finding what you needed when you needed it. We also improved our dish washing methods. We now have a really nice system that works a lot better for us. Here is Dericka demonstrating washing dishes!

It was a really hot week in Phoenix. We were lucky to be up in the woods so high. We saw elk twice. They were huge!

We enjoyed some great star gazing at night. I got these fun cards with constellations on them. We also had some great Uno games.

This was the first trial run of my new Yeti cooler. It worked pretty great! Especially using block ice.

I had another Coleman cooler that was supposed to be pretty good. It didn't seem to work any better than my old cooler. Even though I had made it a "toaster cover" of reflective insulation. We still had to add fresh ice to it every day. We weren't using block ice in this one though. It might have helped.

Dericka and I's tents at our site. Lynnora's tent was set up at the site next door. We have October dates selected for our next camping trip!

And finally, some random nice pics from Iceland