G'DAY

I was not able to book a group camping site, so.... we will be holding the reunion at Bow Valley Provincial Park - Willow Rock side. Take #1 west to the 1X turnoff, go north and it is on the right hand side. I will have FLEMING signs out or maybe even cheerleaders to get your attention. There is flush toilets, showers, electricity and shelters there. We are also looking at getting a large tent just in case. There are campsites available, but on a first come first serve basis. We have designated the Kehler ladies and man (Gregg) as well as Christine to camp Friday night and to then in turn get up at the crack of dawn to claim one of the shelters. I am sooooo excited. Don't need a second cup of coffee today for sure!

I have decided the cookbooks that I am doing up, will be for sale with the proceeds going to a charity. Also if anyone of you crafty people out there would like to put some of your jewelery, sewing, quilting, woodworking, soapstone carving etc. up for sale we will set up an area for you. If you would like to put some of your proceeds (10% maybe) towards charity that would be great - if not that will be fine also. With that being decided, I would like to know what type of charity you would like the proceeds to go to. The options are: something medical i.e. Heart and Stroke, a hospital charity, autism; something social i.e. a food bank, homeless shelter; or something such as sponsoring a child to go to camp. I am open to other suggestions. Please let me know. Thank you to all that have sent over recipes. For those of you who haven't, I would like them by the end of May. Please send two or three if possible - family favourites, healthy choice, of course being Flemings we all do well at desserts. I will take any and all.

DETAILS
We have a place, we have a sale, we have people - let the fun begin. Now it is time to get buried in the details.

CRAFTS
I am looking for someone to come up with a craft for the kids. The crafty age kids will be 2 to about 12. Breakdown is roughly Babies - 4, One to Twos - 1, Three & Fours - 4, Five & Six - 2, Seven & Eight - 2, 9 & up - 3. We also will probably have 1 extra 6 year old as Cobi's brother has told us in no uncertain terms we will not be leaving him home this year!

RACES
1. Relay race - three legged, sack, flipper run, wheelbarrow.

2. Water balloon toss - Icy Cold Bow River or Icy Cold Kananaskis River - your choice.

3. For the smalls - Telephone (aka pass the secret).

4. Capture the Flag - again the Tryons cannot be on one team!

5. Scavenger Hunt

6. Interview where we will secretly interview each other and at the end of the day we will guess who the person is by the questions asked.

7. Minute to Win It - no explanation needed

7. Crib Tourney

We won't probably play all these games, just ideas to put out there. Any other ideas? Not sure we can play baseball exactly where we are, but can set it up on the other side of the highway. Sonny is on my team hahahaha!

PICTURES
Pamela Retzer is a fantastic photographer and I am hoping to persuade her to do a bit of behind the scenes pictures. John also enjoys photography and am hoping he will bring his camera also. On the fun side, we did this at a wedding a couple of years back and I am going to get a few disposable cameras and let the kids go at it. You will be surprised what comes out of the mouths (pictures) of babes.

There will be a couple of photo games as well. One is the baby-now picture match up as well I would like people to bring pictures of family, places (where you may have lived) or other significant pictures where people can look at the picture and guess where it is and who it belongs to.

FOOD
I have most of the food organized already. There will be a small "hit list" of people who I will get to pick up things on their way out. However, the majority of it is already either boxed up or in my nice freezer awaiting the day. Menu is a surprise, but having said that we do have ALLERGIES in the family, so if you choose to bring some additional treats please do not include: Peanuts and oranges. If there are others who have food allergies, please let me know as for some people it is a life and death event and I want to send everyone home healthy and happy.

I will be either facebook, calling or emailing those who I am asking for a bit of help, so stay tuned. If you have questions, let me know.


Jean

HELLOOOO

I haven't still heard only from two people as to where to have the reunion. If I don't get some action soon, I will call it off for lack of interest.

Jean

DATE CHANGE

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, please note that the Reunion date has been changed back to the 13th of July. Sorry if you all ran out today and booked the time off. I really hope this weekend works better and that you will all still attend.I will not send out a newsletter about this change, so please let everyone in your family know about the change

Thanks

Jean

YOUR HOT LITTLE HANDS........

should have the newsletter in them as I write. I have had two responses, both for the Calgary area, but no concrete ideas. I need concrete ideas please. I have not lived in Alberta for 34 years. Please don't count on me to know all the good "Hot Spots". Reminder the date is July 20th. If you really need it moved back to the 13th. Please let me know. There seems to be more objection to the 20th than the 13th.

Let's get the ideas flowing!

You all enjoy the weather this week.


Jean

IF YOU ARE LUCKY!

You will receive a newsletter in the mail this week. My computer won't do a "save" or a "save as" and I got it onto a flash drive, but hey I work on 2010 at home and my computer at work is only on 2003. And it looked so nice. I will see if I can get it printed today and into the mail tomorrow. There is always a way to get around computer problems - thank goodness for that.

The date for the reunion has been changed till July 20th. I know that the 13th was a no-go for some and it became a no-go for me also. Book your time off and mark it on your calendar.

Congratulations to David and Heather Maloney. After much hard work, they will become US citizens on April 5th. If you have some time off - you are welcome to head to Abingdon Virginia and pack the court room where they will pledge their allegiance to everything American.

That is all I have for now - if you have anything you want to share publicly, please let me know and I will include it either in the blog or in the next newsletter.


On to the Pics.

 Visiting with Veronica on one of her many trips to Alberta

 Not sure what this occasion was but looks like we were having fun!

 Big I Dos for Cheryl and Ludwik

More I Dos for David and Heather.

If you have a chance to visit David's page on Face Book, he has a cute story on there about he and Heather having to "Get Married Again" in the US. He is a good comic writer. 

Enjoy the upcoming week and don't work too hard.

Jean

AVOIDANCE.......

Is a bad thing and that is what I have been doing to both blogs. Sometimes life gets in the way. In my case, I have a new puppy, so time slips away.

I will be sending out a newsletter this week regarding the upcoming reunion. I still have not figured out a place as yet, but the date is July 13th. Some have expressed concern over the date. The reason for the date is that it hits the end of the Stampede and has given the kids a couple of weeks of being out of school. By then they are bored and in need a bit of excitement. As for August, well, most of the family go away during August. So July it is. On our end Nicole is the only one I need to contact regarding the date if we change it. She is really booked solid for weddings this year. She does though have the weekend following the 13th off. If it is a must for the majority to change the date, I will see about moving the date forward.I want all date submissions in, no later that March 17th.

Places - I have been looking on line for places. I have an idea that it should be in or near one of the places our parents lived. Since I am the tail end, well I only got Ozada and Calgary, but the rest of my siblings had wonderful opportunities to live in some really nice areas of Alberta. I am sure I don't know every place, if I have forgotten any please let me know. As of now the options are: Mundare, Cornation, Drumheller, Nordegg, or the Seebe area. I also know mom and some of the kids lived in Edmonton for a bit and Calgary. So as you can see we have a wide area to choose from. As I see it, the majority of the family is in the Calgary area, so somewhere close to Calgary will probably get many votes. But how about Nordegg? I have only been there once and only to drive by as they were using the area as a jail at the time. I don't know if there are any free parks up there, but there is a kind of dude ranchy thing that will give us a day use area. They could also give us a map of hikes in the area, and can also set up a tour of the mine. That could be interesting. Drumheller has lots of things to do and many areas where we could have the day, but if it is a typical Drumheller day, well as mentioned before, it can be rather hot. But it is still an option. When I went to see Tookie, I took a stop in Mundare. A pretty little town, but am not sure what all is around there. Sonny and Aryele may want to take a looky see into that, but I am certain there may be a bit of opposition as it is a fair distance to go. Cornation - ditto the distance and we have had a few of the larger Fleming reunions at the campground by Brownfield. There are no services at the campground at all. While I am mentioning that fact, that dude ranchy thing in Nordegg doesn't have services either. So outhouses all the way my friends. As for The Ozada area, there is the park up at the mine, there is Bow Valley Provincial Park, Rick Guinn has said we could use his place and would be willing to throw in a trail ride. There are so many parks out that way, there is a lot of choices. So now, please weigh in on what you and your family want. Doug and Marilyn Tryon graciously offered to bring their larger trailer back for the weekend. We will bring the little pop-up with us and I think Christopher and Maren would be willing to bring their pop-up also, so lots of places for snoozes and time-outs. Anyway, that is just a sampling of what is being planned.

On to some more pictures. The first one I believe is from uncle Chunk's (Doug) funeral. The next two are from Doo's 65th birthday.

Sisters

Brother and Sisters

Birthdays

Have a wonderful week all.

Jean

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

At this most blessed time of the year, please take time to reflect on your past, your present and where you would like to be in the future. Take time for gratitude, for joy, for love, for prayer, and take time to include fun. Spend time with those you love, spend time doing something special for others, think of those who are less fortunate, and take time for relaxing.

May you all be blessed during this season and may you all be blessed during this coming year. Most of us have faced some really hard challenges this year. y challenge to you all this coming year is to take a look at ourselves and really determine to change something. It may be the way we see, the way we think, the way we act or react, it may be making a move, going back to school, getting in touch with someone we once knew.

My prayer for you all is that this next year will be a much calmer and peaceful year. May God's Blessing be on you and your household.


Love Jean