Reunions

My sister has a big reunion coming up, she’s probably not going to be happy with me for saying so, but it’s a 20 year high school reunion, I’m sitting at about 13 so I’m no spring chicken either but the age or time frame really has nothing to do with this post, it was just the catalyst that got it moving forward.

So we were busy talking school and family reunions and got to talking about how we’ve generally always missed them because they are almost always held in the summer when we are really busy (being busy in the summer is a good thing for us), but as we were discussing this, one group of people who have been coming to our campground for years was on their way home while another one that we’ve pretty much grown up with (at least one visit per summer) was coming in.

We decided that we run a pretty cool business, a business where every weekend and heck, a lot of the normal days, can become like reunions.

Last weekend our friend Trevor Kriss was down with a couple of his buddies that have been coming for the last five years or so, Trevor himself has been coming since the very first year we opened, 1985! Over the last 30 years he has become like an uncle to us. Once his kids got a bit older, I think Kevin was like 7 and Kaitlyn 9 or so, he started coming down and spending a few days with us and them during the week as well. They even brought their cousin Devin and the three kids have become like little cousins to us. Every year we look forward to seeing them and Trevor, it’s one of the important reunions that we have every year.

One thing I’ll never forget about Trevor, along with a few other of our friends we’ve met through Voyageur’s was their presence at my mom’s funeral. It was at this point that I really began to see that these weren’t just people that would come tubing every now and then, and that Voyageur’s was so much more than just a typical business.

Another one of our great Canadian friends was also down last weekend, Kyla Taplin, with her family. Kyla is one of the sweetest people I know, a very caring individual who always puts a smile on our face every time she comes (it doesn’t hurt that she always brings us a case of Kokanee!). Kyla use to always come to Voyageur’s with her husband, it was there place together, but unfortunately a few years ago her husband died unexpectedly. It was a loss felt not only by her but by us as well, another example of how these “customers” become so much more to us. Luckily, Kyla has continued to come and visit us each year, like Trevor she has now begun to bring her kids with as well, sharing in the place that has so many good memories of her and her husband with the next generation.

There are hundreds of individuals I could go on and on about that have really become like family to us over the years, but the last one I’m going to talk about in this blog are the “Stony Mountain” crew.

For those of you that don’t know, Stony Mountain is the site of a pretty hard core prison in Canada. Many, many moons ago a group of the prison guards started to take a trip to Voyageur’s every summer, I believe this started in 1989. The looks on people’s faces when we tell them we have a group coming from Stony Mountain are always priceless!

This group happened to have a couple of girls in it who are Ryan’s and my age and when we were younger our “go to” pick-up tactic was always to get campers to play volleyball with us, so this was how we got to meet Jen and Brenda…even though our moves didn’t work, we’ve become very good friends over the past…probably 20 years, wow, that’s crazy to think that we’ve been friends for that long!

As we got older and got into college we started to go and visit the girls up at their place in Falcon Lake and got to know even more of their friends. So it would go that they would come down with the Stony crew and then during the weeks they would occasionally come down with the Falcon Lake/Westhawk Lake crew and we got to be pretty darn good friends with all of these guys.

As time has gone by and life has gone on we don’t get to see nearly as many of these guys as we use to, I personally really would love to get together with the whole crew again one of these days because we always had a great time together and they really became like family to us. We spent a few weekends with our buddy Matt at his Caddy Lake place and in Winnipeg and could always crash at the Kelly’s if needed too.

So although, every weekend becomes like a reunion to us in the summer, there are certainly some people that I would like to make a better effort to get back in contact with. The individuals I’ve met through Voyageur’s have certainly become a big part of my life but my classmates, cousins, aunts and uncles are very high on people I miss seeing list.

I’m quite a bit younger than most of my cousins (you guys are so old!) but I tend to be able to get along with all of them very well. My closest cousins are Scott, Mike, and Katie and I don’t get to see them enough. They’re always there for me if I need anything, though, and truly exemplify what family is supposed to be. I hope to make a trip to see Scott and Mike sometime this year, and I need to definitely make a better effort to get to Fargo to see Katie, Corey and the kids in the fall. It sometimes means trouble when all of us Brumwell’s get together but it sure can be a lot of fun!

We often find ourselves getting so busy in life that we forget to make time for ourselves and the people we truly care about. We get caught up in our occupations and moving forward with these things that certainly play a major role in our lives but sometimes forget about the people that have helped to shape us along the way, good or bad. It’s always good to leave the bad ones in the past, but don’t forget the lessons they taught you. Getting together with the people who have had a positive impact on your life can sometimes even help you to gain some perspective on the bad ones as well…good friends are always worth the effort to keep them in your life and sometimes it takes a reunion to help you remember just how good and important they are.

I started this blog before this past weekend’s reunions, but I just wanted to mention that I did in fact have a great time with my friends from Stony Mountain and we even got to catch up with some of my sister’s classmates as well, all great people who we’re very lucky to call friends.

As our business goes, we also got to meet several other new people and who knows what kind of new relationships can flourish from these encounters? I also found out that some of my great friends from Cromwell will be coming up to reunite with us in a week or so and had one of my best friends write a post on here for the first time, we got another great post from Mike, and Kelly added a great Bio which not only talks about himself but gives some insight into the direction this blog has been headed. I don’t always get to see the awesome friends that write with me for this blog, but every time I read one of their posts, it’s like a mini-reunion. It lets me, and you, get caught up with these awesome individuals and even shows a side that I never knew existed. Reunions always bring forth so much nostalgia, and what I think about most is just how lucky I am to have such amazing friends and family in my life. I hope you get to have some reunions before long in your life too, and I hope you take the opportunity to take full advantage of these when you can.

In case you have been keeping up with my #BDandLLHappyDays and have noticed that I haven’t posted the last couple of days…I’ll post another blog explaining that later! It may have something to do with too much whiskey and women…