The First Leslie George and Lucy Lythgoe Fowler Shill Reunion - August 26

Several months ago, I saw Jim Shill at the Chicken Inn in Morgan.  Jim had lived most of his life in North Carolina and really wanted to have a Shill Reunion.  WE talked about it and then communicated further.  Without his push, I would still be thinking about this.  Jim, mom and I got together and put some ideas on paper and set a date - August 26, 2017.  These pictures help us remember who we were celebrating.

Leslie and Lucy

 Dearl

 Elvira                                                             Inez

Inez, Dearl and Elvira

 I loved Grandma Lucy, she was just so concerned about me and was so pleasant to be around.  I would stay at Grandma Inez and Grandma Lucy's house, which was Leslie George and Lucy's home for their family.  Dearl, their brother would just drop in for his coffee and cookies and just "shoot the breeze" with Grandma.  It seemed so open for Grandma Inez, Dearl and Elvira to be together as siblings and friends.  They were always concerned about each other.

As a way of preserving our family history, here's the lineage:
Parents: Leslie George Shill and Lucy Lythgoe Fowler
Children:  Inez Shill Eakins, Elvira Shill Harris, and Dearl Shill
Inez's Children:  Freida Eakins Sickinger, Albert Eakins, Deyon Eakins Spendlove
Elvira's Children:  Ira Harris and Carolyn Harris Johnston
Dearl's Children:  Jim Shill and Marty Shill

This family is not very big in population (size now is another thing for some of us) as most, everyone had small families.  In fact, my family is the largest with 8 children.

Anyway, back to the reunion.  This picture of Jim, mom and Carolyn is a one of a kind that needs to be preserved.  This is the oldest of the generation before handing the baton to us.  Marty and Albert were not at the reunion.

Craig Johnston, Dubby Johnston, Denzil Spendlove

We reserved the Henefer Bowery and had about 100 of us in attendance.  These are pictures of a few of us.  The family with the most there was Elvira's.

Barbara Harris and her son, Gerald

 Jim, Carolyn, Elizabeth Shill, MaryAnn Heiner Swenson and her husband.

Denzil, Rodney and Dawain Spendlove with our sister Linda Butcher.

Getting Caught Up With the Kids' Lives

It is such a joy for us to see how much the grandchildren are growing and the fun things our children are doing.  Now, we are getting older so it's important to write our our memories.  The time has come this month to write and remember:

The Paschals
Taylor and Adrian came to stay with us for a few days where he and grandpa went on the RZR, swam in the pool, and played pickleball.  Wow, he is getting so tall and is still so quiet.  Thanks for the visit Tay!

 How high can you get!

Now, note Cameron's growth at his 10th grade school picture.  What a great young man.  We wish you well in high school.  Where are the red shorts Adrian, he is big enough now to where them outright.

The Curt Schaefermeyer's

These kids are having fun this summer and learning so fast.  They just keep changing and changing.  Adorable little ones.

 This picture is so cute.  Way to go dad, teach them young and always keep your hand out to hold theirs.

Yellowstone 2017 - The annual McLean trip.

The Marc Schaefermeyer's

It's hard to keep up with this group.  They are so active, so busy and so fun.  Mason is now 9 years old.  Ali is in 1st grade and gets a little homesick with long school days.  Tyce is in pre-school and keeps everyone guessing what's going to happen next.  Kacy is tall, silent, and very smart.  She is trying everything.

When they came to Bryce, we drove over to visit.  This is a great place to camp and explore.

 

Everyone was going on a bike ride, Kacy just couldn't be left behind.

Family, that's where our heart is!  Thanks kids for giving us joy in our aging years.

Excitement in St. George - August 2017

When we returned from Lake Powell, we settled in again in St. George, except about two days in we were sitting in the trailer and the smell of smoke grew stronger and stronger.  Curiosity and well the need to leave the trailer because of the smoke drove us outside.  Following the trail of smoke, we stepped to the back of our trailer on lot #127 and watched as flames flew to the sky from the mobile home across the street.  A few minutes later, we heard the sirens of fire trucks but the fire could just be contained to that trailer and it just burned.  These tiny houses go very fast!


Excitement over and we go back to our mundane life, except the next day we come home from the FamilySearch Center training - oh, forgot to write that we are now serving a volunteer mission at the FamilySearch Center - just a little 18 month commitment, again.

Back to the story, we drove past the street behind us and Theron noticed a lot of odd things in the street.  We stopped and he picked up a purse, a backpack, and a plastic bottle.  He rummaged through to find an ID and found an Indian ID for a person who lived just down the street from us.  We drove over and were almost greeted by the police.  She had called the police because someone had stolen her purse from her car just a few minutes before.  We surmise that they drove through Cherokee Springs and tossed the stuff so they could continue to flee from the police.  The police took our statement and we left the 5 purses, backpack and various wallets, etc. with them.

So much for a mundane life.  We continue to be amazed and odd events in our lives.

Lake Powell 2017

We are starting a new tradition at Lake Powell - family time.  It was a fun trip this year with Curt, Melanee, Jesse, Brookelyn, Lauren, Adrian, Todd, Taylor, Cameron.  We also invited: Mel's parents Chrystal and Zoonie, Justin Wood, Cindy, Kai, Zaxton, Kasia, Zylee.  Scott and Marianne wanted to bring his boat as he said he might not get many more chances to drag that big thing around.  They brought Ryker, a grandson with them.  Okay, that's the group.

We (mostly me) were worried about keeping the kids alive and not having them drown.  That was not a problem.  They loved the water.  Mel and Curt made sure they had their little water arm floaties on at all time.

Now for the low and slow stuff:  We arrived on Friday and a storm came in that broke the tire break water protection, water was coming up on all the houseboats parked on the Bullfrog view side (which is ours now).  It especially came up on the houseboat next to us; so much so that it sunk!  Our engines were not working as the fuel pump needed to be replaced and we were waiting for Curt to bring the part to us.  Well, here is where we sat in the rain.

On Saturday, we finally got things going and traveled as far as Halls Bay where we had a nice lake site.  The rest of the week, the kids swam, paddled, dove off rocks and to the bottom, drove jet skis and played.  The babies cried and only wanted their parents.  Our saying this year was directed to LaLa, 'stop, drop and bawl.'  But, they are so cute - they loved swimming, boating and jumping on the air mattresses.  Grandpa Schaefermeyer finally found a way to get them to go to bed - he sent the parents downstairs and then he walked over to the three little heads peeking over the crib railing and said, 'It's time to go to bed now.'  The three little heads slowing disappeared and sleep ensued.

We leave you with Adrian and Todd enjoying a nice smooth ride and reflecting on the beauty of the lake.