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.