Family Gathering

Memorial Day weekend, Angela and Nanette were planning on coming to Caldwell. I thought it would be fun to have a family gathering. I sent out an email invitation to all and hoped we could make it happen... and then it did. :)

For the first part of our gathering, we had dinner. I was hoping for warmer, dryer weather, but we toughed it out and gathered under Grandma's carport for taco salad.

Hoodies, ear warmers and blankets welcome!
Grandma Ison

Rylee

Ciarran & Colin

Aaron & sweet Lydia

Arielle

Chanel

Dean & Candice

Angela

Tim, Karen & Sydney

A cool new meal strategy; let the kids play inside (warm , dry and entertained) while the adults eat, then tell the kids it's time for dinner.

They were having so much fun playing "house", that when I told them it was time for dinner I heard, "Awww, but we're still playing."

After a quick clean up, they finally decided they would come out to eat.

Jackson & Treyson

Taylee & Micaela

Lizzy, Tim & Audrey

Katelyn, Abree

Lizzy

Morgan

The next part of our plan, was to visit the cemetery and Grandpa Ison's grave site.

The weather was cool, but for the most part we stayed dry.

At Grandma Ison's request, we gathered around and sang a few songs; "The Family Home Evening Song" written by Uncle Lynn Hansen(?) and "I Am A Child of God".

Emma

Grandma told anyone who would listen, about the chicks and who they represented, (on the headstone) over and over.

Rylee

After the cemetery, we sent husbands/dads and kids home, while the girls gathered back at Grandma's for "chick chat".

We looked through memory picture albums.

Caught up with one another's life happenings.

Answered "get to know you better" questions.

Shared treats.

And met new family members.

This is Tiffany's new family;

Scott, Darin (new husband), Tiffany

Isaac & Shelby

Welcome to the family!

Many of us stayed WAY late talking.

Grandma Ison didn't want to miss a thing and managed to stay up for all of it.

Family, thanks for gathering. It was fun.

Next gathering? We are tenatively planning on the second weekend in August, in Utah, when Martha and her boys come to visit.

Hope to see you there!

Cousin Fun -Day 1

Plan A- Go camping as a family, for our summer vacation.

Plan B- Jared, Teresa and family come up from Utah and go camping with us.

Plan C- Jared, Teresa and family come up, but stay at our house and forget the camping thing.

Making Teresa and I happy. Less work, less dirt.... maybe.

Plan C addendum- Julia and her 4 boys join us and stay the night on Friday.

Although our plans had evolved we knew what ever we did we would have fun together. Jared's family arrived Wednesday night. We stayed up late playing and talking.

Thursday morning we decided to take a hike.... literally. As we drove up the windy Bogus Basin road, I talked to the kids and asked them questions about our surroundings, trying to distract them from possibly feeling carsick. It worked for about the first 20 minutes. Pretty soon we started hearing things like, "My tummy doesn't feel so good". I half acknowledged the comments and then pointed out the window, "Look! There's cows over there."

Pretty soon I was looking at Jason and asking, "How much farther? Now my tummy doesn't feel so good." :)

I'm happy to report that no one made good on their threats and we reached our destination barf-free.

First on our agenda was a picnic.

It was a cooler Summer day in Boise, maybe 75-80's. Nice if you're in the valley, but going up several thousand feet made things really cool, like 55 degrees cool. We were unprepared for this. We scavenged a few sweatshirts and jackets, then wrapped up in blankets we found in the trunk.

Teeth-chattering, chilly picnic- sandwiches, chips, cookies and lemonade.

We were pretty sure we'd be warming up as we started to hike, so we put the picnic and blankets away and started up the trail.

It was a BEE-U-TI-FUL hike.

This was the same trail Jason had taken the kids on when they did their little camping trip. I was glad to be there with them this time.

Teresa & Jared

and "cup holder" rock. That's for you Jared.

Jade & Rylee

Carson, Treyson, Colton, Taylee, Abree & Jordyn

Thinking about peeling off their jackets... starting to warm up.

Abree had just recently re-discovered her camera she got for Christmas. She took many headless and off-center pictures along the hike.

The kids LOVED climbing on the rocks and getting too close to the edge for my comfort. Many times I felt my heart racing, wondering if I should say something or if I should just bite my tongue. I did a little of both.

Nice pose Colton!

Brothers... Jared & Jason
"Sucka!"

Toward the end of the trail, there was a beautiful meadow of purple flowers.

We also discovered this cool log. It looks like some sort of animal/reptile.... platypus or crocodile?

Carson...

and Abree had to sit on it and try it out.

To avoid the "my tummy doesn't feel so good" trip back, I told the kids to take a nap. I was sure that they could use a little rest, cuz we weren't done yet.

When I looked back, this is how I found Abree. Yes, she's totally asleep.
A little creepy, huh?

Next, we had decided to check out the Morrison Knudsen Nature Center.

"Just keep swimming...swimming, swimming." -Dorey from FINDING NEMO

They had a cool indoor center with lots of animal taxidermy and hands-on kid stuff. I swear I had been there before, but didn't remember all of this. I liked the center where you could make animal tracks in the sand.

Carson LOVED looking through the book, then finding the same animal in the room. He spent several minutes there and kept saying, "Look! There it is."

Next we went outside and walked along the nature path. The kids enjoyed looking at the fish and the underwater life.

One of our favorite parts was looking at the HUGE sturgeon, as we crossed over a bridge. There was a sign calling them, "dinosaurs". The kids LOVED that they got to see "dinosaurs".

We were WAY hot by now.

After dinner, we headed to our neighborhood pool to cool off.

Jared and Jason DID end up in the pool. Teresa and I DIDN'T. We were content to lounge poolside. :)

A nice end to a LONG day.

It ain't over yet.... more fun tomorrow at Eagle Island.