Family Reunion Update #2

Good food, good times, good rides, good games, good friends.  Thanks to everyone for making Family Reunion a success.  Here is a sampling of pictures I took.  I didn't get everyone on my camera.  In fact, I hardly got any pictures!!!  Sorry about that.  I guess I was a little too busy.  We are looking forward to another such get together in a few years hosted by.....  Drum roll please.....  Not it!  Volunteers, anyone???

Carole and I at Jenny Lake

Norah's first canoe trip

Three darlings

Helen picking wildflowers on Sawtelle Peak Road

Someone has to ride behind the last ATV!

It moost be a moose!

Check out these pictures of our resident cow and calf.  This is the closest we have ever seen moose to our cabin.  I got up on Tuesday at about 6:30 a.m. after everyone had left our cabin on Monday, and started to walk toward the computer to post a blog, when I saw her back just outside the window. She was grazing on the flowers under the window.  As you can see, she was looking in the window by the time I grabbed my camera.  Too bad my hand was shaking soo badly from excitement!  We think this is the pair we saw earlier in the week from the canoes during family reunion.  Sorry for the quality.  That's my white bathrobe reflecting in the window....  Oh, and they really do drool. 

Family Reunion Weekend Update #1

Here's the first post covering the events of the family reunion this weekend.  We have had a great time thus far.  Jake, our girls, and myself (Aimee) got in yesterday evening.  We had a dinner that was interrupted by a rainstorm.  Then we spent the evening talking and went to bed late.

We woke up to a yummy breakfast cooked by Brian (sorry no pic) and his sidekick Gordon.  Or is the other way around?

I caught Uncle Jeff, Uncle Keifer, and Uncle Keith looking like this.  They were watching Jake fly his helicopter.

Most every went off on an ATV ride.  (They have not returned as of yet).  Then Linda, Brady, Chelle, Jake, the girls, and myself hopped in the canoes and paddled down to Macks Inn bridge.

On the way Linda became a woman on a mission, so was Jake who was paddling our canoe. To see this:

And she was there with this:

It was great to see and so close.

Then we went to have ice cream before heading back to the cabin for a rest.

Fun day and we are not through with this day yet!!

Door Prizes for Family Reunion

So here is my new mantle with some door prizes on display.  We have several guessing jars, a teddy bear, some OFF mosquito spray, a book or two, a tie-dyed cloth grocery bag, and a few other local goodies and oddities.  We will be awarding them on Saturday night after dinner.  Good luck to all!

Bring Bug Spray!!!

Tonight Brian and I walked along the river at dusk.  We saw a cow moose and her calf across the river sitting in the tall grass.  The calf's ears were sticking out of the grass, occasionally disappearing as s/he ate some grass.  A short way further there was another cow moose on our side of the river munching quite loudly on grass and flowers.  None of them were too worried about us. 

We also spotted a family of ducklings swimming and running on the top of the water, and we disturbed a pair of herons who were feeding on the river.  The mosquitos were obnoxious!  The bats were skimming the water, but that didn't help us any.  We left without bug spray.  Big mistake, so don't forget your bug spray!

Home Town Tie Dye

Today Sarah and I went to Buffalo Run campground for the annual craft fair.  We found our favorite booth, Home Town Tie Dye.  Here is what we bought.  A jumper for Sarah and dresses for Norah and Helen.  They were currently out of my size, so I left my order for a brown and blue jumper to be delivered to my home in 10 days to 2 weeks.  We have purchased clothing from them for 3 years in a row now, and not once has anything run or discolored other clothing in the wash.  The proprietors are Bobby and Jolene Wellard.  Contact them on this website, or by calling them at 208-406-6848 or 208-406-6840.

Firehole is open at last!

For all you water babies, Firehole swimming hole is finally open.  We saw it with our own eyes on Tuesday afternoon.  The air temps were cool that day, but there were swimmers splashing around.  Bring sunscreen and a towel.  There are outhouses to change in if you prefer not to wear your suit all day in the park.  Surf's up, dude!

That is Sarah with Alex and Jayme from home in the very middle of the picture

Guinea Pigs' weekend

This last weekend Jeff and Lisa and 2 kids, and John and Wendy and 2 kids were our guinea pigs for meals for our upcoming family reunion.  Brian and I fixed breakfast each day, then we all put out lunch fixings on the table and each made a sack lunch to their own liking, and we took turns providing dinner for the crowd.  It went pretty well, I think.  The table isn't big enough to accomodate all the fixings each family had for lunch, so that idea may not work after all, when we have 6+ families involved.  We are rethinking that one for the reunion.  However, breakfasts and dinners worked out very well. 

Activities we enjoyed were canoeing, moose hunting (with our cameras!), trips into Yellowstone, and of course, the 4th of July BSA fund raiser garage sale, where we came away with nothing, not even the steal of a queen sized bed because the bid closed as we got there!  Darn!

On Saturday night, Scott and Chris invited us to their place for dinner around the campfire.  Fireworks on the lake in canoes was a rare and fun event.  The reflections on the water were fabulous.  We went to bed quite late but happy that night.

Wow, What a weekend!

We had a great weekend with 3 sets of company.  First Aimee and the girls arrived to brighten our sad cleaning faces.  Then we got a call from Brent, Amie, Jamie and Alex.  They were in town so we hooked up with them for some sightseeing, shopping, and dinner.  About the time dinner was over Howard, Jeanette, and Nathan arrived to spend a few days.

We all went to church Sunday afternoon in the A frame.  Brent and company left from there to head back.  The rest hung out a few more days for more fun.  We had rain and cool temperatures, as seen in Aimee's pictures of Nana and Papa with the girls at Big Springs.  The park was lovely and quiet.

And Here We Have Idaho...

Yes, it rained our whole weekend up at the cabin.  I wasn't expecting much different.  May & June are the spring months in Idaho which means rain if it is a good year, snow if it isn't.  I giggled to myself every time I saw a sign warning about sudden weather changes.  Yep, that's Idaho for you.  Best to pack for whatever season you are going, plus the last one and and next one.  But it should be great weather next time we go up.

Friday we went to feed the fish in between rain showers.  Saturday we went to West Yellowstone.  Next time I go, someone please keep me out of that candy store - my wallet and waist were not protected.  Also the bead store - yes that is a fun place to explore and shop!  Church was very nice on Sunday.  And we went for a walk afterward and saw a moose.

We had a great time, and Helen even started to cry when she realized I had packed the car.  Poor girl.  We were inside a lot, so I didn't get the pictures I would have liked.  I did get a few pictures the first day when we went to feed the fish.  Can't wait to go back!

First trip into Yellowstone this year

We finally got to see baby buffalo, a baby elk, and a grizzly.  Our friends, Howard and Jeanette and Nathan, were with us.  The baby elk was the biggest treat for us.  S/he was hiding in the trees in the middle of a board walk around the geysers at Lake in the park.  Mom was close by, and would not leave the area, so that was our tip off to watch for more.  The baby could not have been more than a day or two old, with wobbly knees and all.  The grizzly was sighted later that day with Brian's scope, quite a distance from the road.  We also saw a moose and an elk at the cabin that week.  A good time was had by all.

Oh, hurry up, Summer!

Well, here we are at the cabin.  School is out, summer is supposed to be upon us, but alas, the cold rain and occasional snows are still here.  The highs are in the low 50s.  Plenty of dark clouds between thunderstorms and rain.  Lucky me again, I came with a gallon of primer and 2 gallons of paint!  Tonight I finished up the worst of the interior painting.  I have two spots that need attention with the brush, but no more roller and no more scaffolding - hooray!  I know I will be happy once the lovely weather hits and I don't have any painting left to do. 

Brian has been rewiring the breaker box and many of the outlets, lights, etc.  Today he hung a new light in the mudroom and added a baseboard heater in our bedroom, which has been the coldest room up to now.  Sarah repaired a dust ruffle, made dinner, loaded the dishwasher, rode the motorcycle around, did her facebook thing, and played guitar. 

Tomorrow Aimee and the girls will arrive.  A breath of fresh air!  We will be so ready for a break from the work.  They bring such smiles on our faces and in our hearts.  I have all the ingredients for sugar cookies to make with the darling animal cookie cutters they gave me for Mother's Day.  I also have the materials ready from their last visit to make sock puppets to go with the book, If You Give A Moose A Muffin.  We ran out of time then.  The cabin is really starting to take on a charm.  And it is beginning to feel like ours - finally!

Local Webcams for current views!

Hey, want to see a live webcam from Old Faithful? Well, log onto this link.  The link I had was broken for some time but not it is fixed.  Here is another link for some static pictures closer to the cabin.

April Spring Trip turned Winter

Linda, Sarah and I arrived late Thurs night. (April 1) . As we struggled to find the cabin in the dark we were surprised at how much snow was still there. Over two feet, everywhere. We brought the 4 wheeler and the sled and parked the car and trailer about 2.5 miles away at the warming hut. The trip back and forth to the cabin on the 4 wheeler was gorgeous when the sun came out.

It was conference weekend and that made it an even bigger treat.

We were there to work and we did. Painting (2 gallons of primer and 6 gallons of wall paint), internet service, lighting fixtures, kitchen faucet, water heater drain, toilet rebuild (again), dishwasher repair (yahoo!), mud room shelving, etc. Thank goodness for the lumber store (Island Park Builder's Supply). 

Good thing we had plenty of work to do. It snowed about 12 inches the first few days we were there. We only went out a few times. When we did it was very lovely. The large birds were visible in the good weather and there were some animal tracks to keep us guessing.

Valentine's Day 2010

We spent Valentine's Day with our entire family, minus Michael, who had to work, at the cabin this year. This is the snow cave the kids built after the 2 feet of snow slid off the roof. Ask Jake about his PTSD that day. :) The cave went back several feet. Helen sure enjoyed playing in it.

We got Kelsey on the cross country skis for the first time. I think she enjoyed it. Her knees held up pretty well. We had a nice time with one of our pretty girls. Brady skipped the skis in favor of the snowmobile.

Games after it was too dark to be outside.

First snow adventure

So, our first snow adventure was with our friends, Scot and Kris. We tried out the cross country skis we bought last year, rode around in the snow in Scot's truck, ate, worked, tried to go to church but it was stake conference an hour away.

Fall Clean-up

The first 2 trips to the cabin, once it was ours, were to dejunk, deep clean, unload the camping trailer, and just enjoy the newness of being little cabin owners. There were lots of sighs, sore muscles, boxes coming in and boxes going out, and some really deep sleeping at night. We had visitors even that early. Our dear friends, Howard and Jeanette came the first weekend we were there. Jeanette and I deeeeeeep cleaned the kitchen. I think that was the only thing we got done. Then Jackie and Keith came the second weekend to work and play. They helped with repairs on the roof, chimney, and refinishing some furniture generously left behind. We did get in some play, thought certainly not enough. We took walks, spotted moose, fed the fish, and ate out. It was so hard even back then to leave it behind. We just hadn't had enough in those long weekends. Well, Sarah told us she had had enough. When we asked her what she thought of having a cabin, she said, "I don't mean to hurt your feelings, BUT cleaning is NOT my idea of having fun...." Mine either, but it had to be done, and we couldn't have done it without all the help. Thanks so much to everyone who made it up and worked beside us. There are still a few more things left to do, but we should be caught up before all the company comes. So please, come!