Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! And Happy New Year! I hope all is well with you and your families after the recent government shutdown and any domino effects from that . . . May God bless you wherever you are, whatever your personal highs and lows might be. As part of the Rawles Family, we come from strong and hardy stock, and we have many blessings to count every single day. We had a lovely Rawles Reunion in August, with roughly 26 attendees (about half what we had last year). We were happy to receive any and all who could come, and we sure hope for more next year! We met at the Rawles Ranch (of Tom and Kathy Rawles), where we enjoyed abundant shade, good food (of our own bringing), and wonderful company. *Funny note about the group photo: My brother Ryan Snider set up his phone to take the photo, which included setting up a 10 second timer so he would have time to run over and join us before the shutter clicked. He was sure he had set up the timer, but in fact, the camera clicked b...
Happy New Year and Happy Spring! Sorry it's taken me so long to catch up on this Rawles Family Blog . . . however, I'm looking forward to sharing some great stories with you. First, though, I want to announce that our next Rawles Picnic/Reunion will be on August 2, 2025 at the same location where we met last summer (more info to come). Please save the date and we hope to see you there!! Last August, we met at the former Darrel Rawles Ranch just north of Ukiah, CA, now owned by his grandson, Tom Rawles and wife, Kathy Rawles. Tom and Kathy were wonderful hosts and a good time was had by all. We had what I would call "a record number" of Rawles attendees, some attending for the first time in decades. If I counted correctly, we had 44 who came that day!! (A big thank you to Ryan Snider, who brought his camera and tripod to capture a fabulous group photo.) Everyone gathered under a grove of trees, where the shade was much appreciated during the hot afternoon. Below: T...