Puffer Butte

What a great blessing it was to spend the weekend at a State Park in Washington with my family. All were there except Bubbs and Julie, and Nathan... you were missed! The first time the DeCoria family ventured to Puffer Butte Lodge was the winter of 1987-88. ( I don't remember the month). We drove up there for the day (in our big green van, love you Bobby!) to check it out as a possible location of the 1st ever Hansen Family reunion. We hosted the reunion there the following July and I celebrated my 9th birthday during the reunion. (Does time ever fly!) Absolutely fabulous memories!

Our family has been there a few times since and every visit has been wonderful. Here's the gang, except Marshall- he was snowshoeing.

I just have to note the little white spot on my pants. I bought those pants in 1999. I've been quite fond of them over the years and worn them a few times too many according to my dear husband. Well, while cooking over the very hot stove, I burned a hole in them. Truthfully, had I been wearing any other pant that didn't have 4 layers there, I would have burned myself fairly bad, so I'm lucky I was wearing those. I knew the moment I burned them Jon would be happy. Sure enough, just as I'd predicted, when I showed Jon the hole he happily announced to everyone present that I'd had those pants for like 12 years and I wear them everyday and he was so glad they were finally ruined! Little does he know they're still wearable :)

What a handsome husband I have. Wow, am I ever lucky! I love you Jon!

Easton, Lydia, Layken, Emma, Jessica, Anikah, and Savannah

Lydia and Easton

A most definite favorite past-time in the DeCoria family-- CARDS!! And there were a lot of them played over the course of the 4 days. Another fun activity that I don't have a picture of was ping pong. It was a lot of fun to get all the adults and Brian and play Ultimate ping pong. Good times for sure!

One of Hyrum's favorite activities was playing the Wii. Fortunately, he also spent a lot of time outside tubing/sledding with his cousins. Pictured above is Hyrum, Jackson, and Joshua.

Jason, Taunya, Dad, Mom and myself decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and go for a little snowshoe adventure. Taunya and Jason turned around after the picture was taken. about 20 minutes into our walk. My Mom and Dad and I figured we had another 40 minutes to go to finish the loop. No problem. Well, it'd been a few years since we'd actually completed the entire loop and we slightly underestimated the amount of time it would take. Two hours later and completely exhausted, we returned to the lodge!

Despite the hard work and wondering when we'd ever see the lodge, the scenery was beautiful and renewed the spirit.

My ever so cool parents!

Grandpa Fred shows off some of his favorite dance moves, while Grandma poses for the camera.

Lydia, Kira and Emma

Not far from the lodge is a huge tubing hill. I'll have to find some pictures to post of it. The first night we were there we went tubing on it. There were a few too many bumps that made it a little rough this year. I jarred my neck pretty bad, but for the most part every had a great time with it. Another fun activity was cross-country skiing, which only my Mom and I did. There's just something about being out in the snow with calm beautiful weather that brings peace and solace to my being. I love it! Thanks Mom, for planning this family get together; let's make it an annual event!

This is a picture Jon took while out on his hike to find the river and the elk. Both of which he was successful in.

Some of the girls

Hyrum carrying his tube back up the small tubing hill that was just outside the lodge.