Crosby Family Reunion- part 1 Roosevelt Lake

We spent the first part of our family reunion at Roosevelt Lake. Mark, Holly and kids were the first to arrive on Wed. June 29th. They had been in Mesa for a few days visiting with everyone there and staying with Lisa & Barry. Soon after they unloaded, we all headed to the lake.
The kids loved riding on this big tube, even little Zallen!
The higher he bounced, the more he laughed!
Cute little Milea wearing the same life jacket that Tami used to wear--my how time flies!
Zallen is small, but mighty! He loved the water!
Mark & Holly's family!
LaVerl, the boat driver! He always has fun pulling the kids on the tube and giving them a thrill!
Bolden was a little angel baby the whole time!
The whole family tubed for hours, except Bolden of course.

We stayed out on the lake until the sun went down.
On Thursday, Barry and Reed arrived. Reed had driven from Utah on Tues and spent a couple of days visiting with Nanna & Pomp and everyone there. Barry was putting together a new sound system for his boat. We were hoping for everyone to arrive, put we soon learned that Kari & Kirk had missed their flight. (bummer!) So instead of arriving in Phoenix at 9:15am they got there at 11:30pm. Lisa stayed to go pick them up and they didn't come until Friday morning. Tami and Ryne arrived after 8:oopm and decided that the guys all needed to go night fishing!
Mark is so buff! The anchor was really stuck and when he finally got it up, a tree came with it!
I think they had more fun than they had luck catching fish!

Tami and Blake-- "Hi Gma!"
The kids were lucky they could cool off in the little pool, it was HOT!
Zallen, so cute! "Where did all my cousins go?"
As soon as Lisa, Kari & Kirk arrived Friday morning, we headed out to the lake! It was like glass, it was amazing. The night before it was really rough, with lots of white caps, so this was a wonderful surprise!
Here's Kari, I'm not sure where cute little Rivers is!
Zallen finding a few chips to eat. We didn't bring lunch with us, so Tami & I decided to go get it instead of taking the time to get off the lake. She had planned sub sandwiches and had bought all the stuff, so Bret ran us in on the wave runner, we loaded up fast and came back with lunch. Some of the others wanted the really good ribs at the LakeHouse Grill.
Bret relaxing and getting a little sun. I was surprised no one got really sun burned!
While we had all the little kids with us on the deck boat, Barry had those that wanted to ski, wake board and surf on his really nice boat.
Mark relaxing!
Barry 'surfing' after having major knee surgery last week! His whole leg was black & blue and swollen!
Reed having a great time!
Even Lisa is pretty good at 'surfing'!
The 'surfer dudes'! Reed, Mark, Barry & Kirk!

Celebrating Father's Day & Zallens birthday!

(We actually did this after the the blessing (next post), they are out of order!)
We were able to spend Father's Day in Mesa with my Dad. I feel so blessed to still have my parents and that they are still enjoying life and doing well. Dad just turned 84 in June! Mark & Holly are in Arizona for a few weeks, so we also celebrated little Zallen's 2 year old birthday! He is such an adorable little boy! Kaemon decided that he should have a "Monster Truck" cake, so Auntie Lisa really out did herself!

Kaemon and Kingston loved playing with some of Zallen's toys, they are having fun getting to know each other again!

Milea has to wait for London to get a little bigger to play with! I didn't get a picture of London, she's always moving to fast!

This cake was not only awesome, it was delicious too! Good job Lisa! It was a fun Father's Day and Birthday party. My folks are always so good to feed us all and let us have loud, rowdy get- togethers at their house. We all love them so much, they are so good to us!

Blessing Baby Bolden

On June 19th, which also happened to be Father's Day, we attended the baby blessing of our 8th grandbaby, Bolden Leo Crosby. Mark & Holly came all the way from New Orleans!

This is Great Grandpa, Leo Rae Huish, holding Bolden Leo!

Mommy & Baby!

Its hard to believe that they now have 4 little kids! What a beautiful little family! Bolden came as quite a surprize. Back on April 19th, we got a phone call telling us that we have a new grandson! No other previous announcement was ever made! However, there were a few of us that suspected something when we were all together over Thanksgiving, but felt it would be rude to ask!!! That won't ever happen again!!

Look at all those good-looking guys!

Bolden was so happy to have his great-grandparents there- Rae & Norma Huish and Don & Lillian Dawes. Of course both sets of his grand parents too- Jon & Jill Huish and LaVerl & Shelley Crosby. We were so glad they waited to bless Bolden until they came to Arizona!

Bolden had quite a crowd of people there to show their love and support! It was a happy day!

Lots of pictures of the Walllow Fire's destruction...

This is how it looks heading up Water Canyon. We still have a few trees, but lots of blackened ones.

These pictures are all taken right from the road going up to Milligan Valley.

You can see that the fire was right at the entrance into our property.

The fire went right around the old outhouse and didn't burn it, but it definately took our family cabin.....

All that's left is the foundation, the tin from the roof, the fireplace, the burnt hot water heater, the stove and the old fridge. Its hard to believe that something that took so long to build and to fix up could all be gone in a matter of minutes. LaVerl and his Dad, Melvin spent many hours together working on the cabin. I guess we still have the memories.

LaVerl did find the fireplace screen that he made for his Dad for Father's day one year. I remember the day clearly. Melvin needed something in our garage and the screen was in there where LaVerl had been working on it, so I didn't want to let him in. He got a little upset with me and I finally had to tell him why. He sure was proud of that fireplace screen with the rench-R brand on it. Just one of the many memories of that old cabin, along with Gpa's hats!

The fire came in from the back of the cabin where we had lots of wood stacked. It burned this big tree and the cabin, but basically left everything else.

It burned right around this little old cabin, probably because of the concrete foundation. Maybe we will just have to fix this one up now. I remember the day my dad moved this cabin from a far corner of Milligan Valley because the forest service had re-surveyed and it was now not on our property. My Dad was in the mobile home moving business and had a 'low-boy' and he knew how to do the job! It was quite a feat!! Another memory!

And now this is all that's left, its just heart breaking for us all! One of the things we are saddest about losing was the brand board that Gpa made. He had branded onto a big board all the brands that were registered at the time Arizona was made a state. He included that names of the owners of those brands. It really was a piece of Arizona's history.

Oh, how Grandpa loved to go in on a cold day and build a fire in this big old fireplace. He love a good hot, pretty fire to warm him up after he'd been out in the cold for so long.

The fire didn't even touch this little fort the kids built while their Dad and Gpa worked on the cabin.

Gma & Gpa Crosby loved this big covered porch! They loved to swing in the swing that J'net got them and look out on the beauty of Milligan Valley.

The fire came right in across the property fence line, but luckily, didn't burn very far!

It burned in front of the pond that is dry because of the drought and no snowfall this winter.

This is where it burned on the backside of the barn.

As you can see in this picture, it burned right up to the barn, but it never caught on fire! We are so lucky and feel so blessed that the big old barn, where we have had so many fun activities, didn't burn. We have had dances, Halloween spook alleys, Show Choir retreats, Ward parties, family get togethers, Cookouts, and reunions held inside this barn. Many wonderful memories!

One last picture of the terrible scene of what this fire has done to our beautiful forest. It will take a hundred years to be what it once was. We blame mis-management and the spotted owl! Our forest could have been used as resource and kept many jobs for those who lived here. Now its all gone, all burned and all wasted.