Another memorable summer for the Barkstrom clan

Published 1:30 am Saturday, July 26, 2025

For the past decade or so the entire Washington-state Barkstrom clan has been trying to get together every other year or so on a trip to some sunny out-of-the-country location. That’s in addition to the 4-day time we spend at Sun Lakes each summer.

Our first “out of country” vacation was back in 2015, when the oldest grandchild was 8 or 9 and the youngest was 2 or 3. It was a Caribbean cruise to Belize, Cozumel and one other place I can’t remember. I was not thrilled with cruising. I’m claustrophobic and want to feel like I’m in charge of my surroundings. So that was our one and only cruise.

As the grandkids get older — and more involved in school sports, scouting, drama/musical presentations, square dancing and lately parttime jobs — it’s become harder and harder to find a span of days when everyone’s schedule allows them to be away from school, jobs, etc.

But so far we’ve persevered and managed to visit all inclusive resorts in Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Cabo during spring breaks in April.

We always have a great time. The day starts with breakfast at the buffet. Some of us get there about 7 a.m. while others wander in about 9. Then we’re usually in one of the pools from about 1o in the morning to 4-5 in the afternoon. Some locations have water slides and lazy rivers, and there’s always volleyball, water aerobics, foam parties, hand-stand competitions, besides the servers who come by every 20-30 minutes to take your order of mixed drinks, beer, shots, smoothies, soda, juice, ice water, chicken wings, nachos, burgers, hot dogs, pizza etc. Then for the evening meal we decide which restaurant to visit. Most of the resorts have choices of Italian, French, Mexican, teppanyaki and sushi, Brazilian Steak House, seafood, sports bars and wraps.

This was supposed to be one of our non-traveling years until we were invited to a wedding in Cancun on July 1.

But wait … a little history first.

Some of you might remember that we lost our daughter-in-law to pancreatic cancer in 2020. Tyler and Andrea met at WSU and were married shortly after graduation. She was diagnosed on her 40th birthday. She fought hard — undergoing chemo, radiation and the Whipple procedure, and got the “all-clear” update from her doctor. But then the cancer came back with a vengeance and a couple of months later she was taken from us.

I don’t even have the words to describe the devastation we all felt.

But after a couple of years of continuing support from his Spokane friends and neighbors, and many, many therapy sessions, Tyler started looking at dating apps. There seemed to be some interesting folks he met online, some quite weird, a few who sounded down-right scary — and then he met Melanie “Mel.” After a few “dates” the relationship seemed to be moving along quite smoothly and on a trip over to Spokane we got to meet her.

They made a great couple. Mel had two children about the same ages as Tyler’s kids. She and Tyler seemed to have many of the same values and enjoyed the same activities.

I think it took Mel a little while to get used to the rest of our family. We tend to be an opinionated, sarcastic, sometimes loud group who loves to tell the same stories over and over again and will never let go talking about when one of us did something really stupid.

But eventually Mel realized that deep down we’re all pretty decent people who were excited about the relationship she and Tyler had. And it was very obvious she and Tyler were very much in love.

And so it was — we all flew to Cancun. I think there were about 40 of us there for the beautiful ceremony on the beach (with an unforgettable presentation of the rings), a lovely dinner-reception just off the beach with plenty of beverages and dancing, and then three days of pool-time, beach time, meal times and drinking, spent with Mel’s Dad, the new couple’s best friends and the Barkstrom clan.

Doesn’t get much better than that.