City Slickers

When I was 3 years old my family moved out to the country. We had chickens, and a rooster. It was Paul and My's job to collect the eggs everyday. It didn't take us long to learn that the Rooster was big, and mean, and scary, and could bite us. We developed a strategy before too long, and it worked pretty well. one of us would distract the rooster, and get it to chase us while the other ran in the coop and snached up all the eggs.

Our summer days were spend fishing in the gentle creek by the house, building secret forts in the sage brush, exploring our mountain, picking flowers, riding the horses, weeding the garden, and LOVING life. We moved back into town when I was 5, but I have always remembered those 2 years as the best of my childhood. Deep down in my heart I have always known the truth...that I am a country girl.

My Family had our reunion at a ranch in Lava, Idaho this year. They had a few cows to brand, so being the country girl I am I ran right over with the kids. How exciting! I just knew the kids would think that was the coolest thing ever, and decide they are really country in their harts just like me. We all lined up to watch them brand the first one, and I watched Carters face....as he nearly began to cry!

He hated it!

He couldn't believe they would be so mean, and hurt that poor little cow. hahaha, so my plan didn't work out so much. After the kids slowly drifted away, my siblings and I jumped right in the middle of all the action. Matt held the calves down, Janelle and I gave them their vaccinations, and Joanne and Judy painted the oil on after the ranchers branded them. We were real life cowboys....for about 20 minutes, and we were all ready to get back to our city life ways. It wasn't until the reunion that I learned all my brothers and sisters have always felt just like me, and believed they were really and truly county kids at heart. However, we have been shown the truth, and have come to the realization that we are really nothing but a bunch a city slickers. The funny part is that we are all surprised by this discovery, even thought we only lived in the country 2 of our 29+ years, haha.

My camera died after the first couple hours of our weekend, so I missed out on LOTS of great pictures, but here is was I got.













The first night we had our branding experience, dinner, and then broke up into groups and made up skits. I had a bunch of props and costumes, and the skits were hilarious.


The next day people went swimming at the Olympic size pool and platforms, did crafts, slept, at really good food, played games, watched movies on the projector, and stuff like that. Judy made reunion shirts that turned out so cute. the boys were blue and girls were pink, all with a brown logo with our name and stuff on them. The theme this year was code of the west, so we talked about that a bit.

The last day we just had breakfast, and packed up. We all went to Moms grave together. It was the first time we have done that since the headstone was placed, so that was touching. I feel like Mom was smiling down on us, laughing at our cheesy skits, and loving the way we take care of each other. What a weekend.

4th Of July

My family has a cabin in Island Park, and every year for the 4th of July we have a BIG reunion up there that lasts the whole weekend. It's with my the 6 children in my Dads family, and all their children, and all their children....so it's lots of people, and lots of fun. Craig had to work this year over the weekend, but I thought I would be super woman, and take the kids up anyway.
My Dad rented a beautiful cabin near the family cabin for my siblings and I to stay in. It was so fun to go back to our cabin at the end of the day and sit in the hot tub, and play games till the weeeee hours of the morning. During the day we got to do all the fun camping stuff that kids love most.
At one point the ladies decided to take a ladies only boat ride, cranked up ABBA, and surfed behind the boat. It was my first time surfing, and I totally loved it. Even though Layla tripped while we were out, and her front tooth went through her lip; and Carter through the BIGGEST tantrum of his life because I was going on the boat without him...I'm still glad I went.

one jam packed crazy fun memory making weekend

WARNING: extremely long entry, may cause drowsiness and/or dizziness.

We made our annual trip to -------- a few weeks ago. It was Crazy fun like always. The reason for the secrecy is per request of the owner. We were talking to her while we were there, and she was saying the they are already booked for 2011, and filling up fast for 2012. They NEVER thought it would become as popular as it has, and they are thankful for the fun they can give, but they don't so much want any more people to find out they exist, or call them. Lucky for us, we already know, and they can't get rid of us now, Waaahaaaahaaa.

This was the first reunion my family has had since our Mom passed away, we haven't all (everyone but Paul and Janelle) been together since the funeral, so we missed Mom deeply. We kicked the weekend off at the best kept secret in Idaho, playing on the 700 foot slip-n-slide, 500 foot zip line, playground, mud football pit, waterfalls, and such greatness as that. Here are a few images of the fun we had...so much better in person.













The next day everyone (but me) ran in the "running the gap" marathon. Some actually did the marathon...OK, only one person actually ran the full marathon, but hey it sounds cool huh. My Brother Matt is CrAZy and amazing. He only trained for 4 weeks for the marathon, and we are talking he went from not running AT ALL to running 26 miles in 4 weeks....CRAZY! I look up to him a ton, for lots of other reasons too.
The rest of the family ran everything from the half marathon to the 1.5k for the kids.







That night some of us went to a wedding reception at Maridales (previously mentioned), and it was absolutely magical! Whimsical if you will. I mean really, It was incredible. So happy we had the chance to see it in it's prime.



The next day Craig gave Benson a name and a blessing...the name was Benson G. Hall. The G stands for "G". you know, like "whats up G?".
OK, so it actually stands for his grandpas. Their names both start with G, and we wanted to honer them both, so we just went with G. That's what I like to call "playen it safe".













After the blessing luncheon my side of the family all went out to my Moms grave (first time), and that was an emotional visit for us all. We had a bunch of flowers (that's a whole nether cool story where the flowers came from), so each of us (grown ups and grandchildren) gave a flower to Grandma Anna, and one to My Dad, and told our favorite memory or story with that grandparent. After that anyone that wanted a chance to say something about "Grandma Leslie" (my mom) got to have the floor...or grass. It was a very special afternoon, and we all felt very close to Leslie our Mom, Grandma, Daughter, and Wife.




The next and final day of the reunion was pretty dang cool. You see, we had it all planned, and it was cool. Here is what we did for the reunion.

Theme- Climb
song- "Go climb that mountain" by Mercy River
Book- "The Travelers Gift" by Andy Andrews

We talked about what it means to climb. Literally and in our lives. After that we listened to the theme song, it's about having willing feet, and taking one step at a time. after that Judy passed out shirts for every one that she made. They said "Climb, Romriell 2010" and had a picture of a person climbing, they were a great touch. Prior to the reunion we all read the book on our own, and the book has 7 decisions of a successful person. Each of us (6 kids) and my Dad choose a decision, and planned an activity to go along with our decision. We talked to the kids about the topic, and hoped they learned something from it...if not, at least they had fun.

Judy did "I will persist without exception" (#7) and we went on a hike...or a climb, if you will. She had jogged the trail a few days before and taken pictures of landmarks along the way. She passed out the pictures to the kids and numbered them, so the kids knew "I have number 1, so my land mark will be first" or whatever. the kid with #1 lead the group up the trail, and when we got to his land mark he stopped, and read a cool quote by someone famous about climbing. It was really cool.








the other activities I can remember were

1."The buck stops here" Matt, making and flying paper air planes in the holt arena. (I don't remember exactly how he tied that in, but it fit really well)

2. "I will seek wisdom" Annabeth, she did a treasure hunt.

3. "I am a person of action" Me, we played freeze dance.

4. "I have a decided Heart" Joanne, and I'm drawing a blank on her activity. (sorry)

5. "Today I will choose to be Happy" Dad, gave us a great talk about how being happy is a choice we make. Even when bad things happen, we can be happy if we choose it.

6. "I will greet this day with a forgiving spirit" nobody had this week...but it is a really good one too:)

I felt like I had been at EFY, The weekend was uplifting, fun, and tiring. What more can I say, I loved it.