Nichols Re-union

Cheryl has been busy this year planning a family reunion for her Mother's side of the family. The Nichols have not gathered except for those unplanned events i.e. funerals or marriages. This was the first organized reunion of it's kinda. So we spent our 24th of July weekend in Midway "getting to know the family". Friday morning, 51 of us ventured into the great outdoors and hiked the trail to Timp Cave. A mile and half trail straight up the mountain well nearly straight up. The scenery of the canyon was spectacular and the cloud coverage made it bearable to endure the hike.


Cheryl and I had our cheerleaders. Adyson and Lexi,our granddaughters,one or two switch backs ahead would shout encouragement:



"Great Job Grammy..you're almost there" or "Go Papa, you can do it."

Finally, nearly 2 hours later we arrived at the entrance of the cave and enjoyed a great tour of the cave.



Adyson made great friends with our Forest Service Tour Guide.

It felt like we climbed from 0 to 6730 feet above sea level. Okay, it was only 5000 feet to 6730 feet.

The Nichols Family Cave Dwellers
Coming down the trail I was able to teach Adyson my granddaughter about fractions and if we split a pie into fourths we are able to eat four pieces. Interesting enough the trail was marked out in fourths also so as we hiked past each marker we would say "Okay we have eaten one piece, two pieces, three pieces and finally at the trail head we had eaten the whole pie. Hm, it was much easier eating the pie going down the hill then up.

Of course, Lexi was the smart one in the group as she persuaded her daddy to carry her down the trail in the backpack and she rested all the way down the trial. Man Philip where were you when I needed you.

The rest of the reunion we played a little golf and sat and relaxed and visited with each other. I think I heard someone even say that maybe we should do this every 5 years or so. Hm, maybe my legs will have recovered from the hike in 5 years. I'm game.