Jorgensen/Taylor Family Reunion 2013

Scott actually ended up being off for the weekend of Kathy's family Reunion and so we decided we would go.  It was over in Palisades Idaho.  I picked Scott up from work at 4:30 and we headed.  We had the rental car and it was an awesome ride.  We loved it.  It got 36 miles to the gallon fully loaded with all our camping gear.  We got into Palisades around 9:30.  It was a little bit rough figuring out exactly where they where.  We got our tent out and got it set up in the dark.  Scott was a little bit frustrated with having to set up a new tent in the dark but we actually did good.  It was a really easy tent to set up.  We got ready for bed and headed to bed since I had to get up early to cook breakfast.  I got up when Kathy woke me up and we headed to get the food ready for everyone.  I was on egg duty.  After getting all the food ready and seeing the line of people we knew we didn't have enough food.  So we had to use the food that was going to be used for breakfast on Sunday.  After getting a little frustrated because they didn't want us to use the food it was pretty much told to them that they need to let those of us who cook get some food also.  After we finished eating and cooking I went back to camp.

This is Belle who is Karl's Dog.  Rachel was in Dog heaven at this reunion. Dogs Dogs Dogs everywhere you turn.

This  is Fred.  She kept taking Fred from his owners any chance she could.  She just loves little dogs.  The morning had games for the kids.  Rachel wasn't into actually being on a team and doing it she just wanted to do the different games by herself.  Here is her doing some of the minute to win it games.

 Elephant bowling.  She was really good at this game.  She would knock them all down and then we would set them back up for her.  Several of us just watched her while she did this over and over again.

 Laughing about this and how fun it is.

 Look at her go.  Knocked them all down. 

Shake all the gumballs into the other bottle.

After the games we went back to camp and just hung out talking until it was time for lunch.

 Part of the group that we hung out with just talking.

 This is how Rachel looked at one point.

Hadley and Rachel playing in the dirt.  They were actually putting dirt on each other.

Both of them rolling down the little hill in the weeds.

For lunch we ended up having taco soup.  The soup was good but it wasn't filling for the whole rest of the day. After we ate we headed back to hang out at the camp spot.  Rachel got cold because the clouds came in and it rained a little bit on us off and on.

She fell asleep on my shoulder.  That was good because she really needed to sleep she was getting grumpy.  That night for dinner was hot dogs and of course everyone ate because we weren't full from lunch.  They of course ran out of food again.  It was so frustrating.  This reunion was the most unorganized that I had ever been at.  You could tell the people in charge didn't care very much.  We ended up having the auction and I bought a watch with the bead bands.  It was so cool.  Justin told us we could bathe Rachel in his tub but I was like no we can use your outside shower.  He felt so bad that it had gotten cold her insisted that we do it in his trailer.  So we got her all showered and ready for bed.  We missed the talent show because by the time we got her in bed and asleep it was already over.  We stayed up and talked for a little bit and then went to bed.  That night it rained again and I was so grateful that our tent didn't leak.  Rachel had a rough night sleep and when we woke up she told her Dad, "Next time we go camping can we take the camper?"  She decided sleeping in a tent isn't as fun as she thought it was going to be.  I was so grateful for that.  We ended up eating breakfast, which they had enough food even though we had used part of it yesterday, for everyone who was still there.  We then went back to our camp and got everything packed into the car.  We decided not to stay and listen to the family meeting because we really didn't care.  I asked Kathy to get any prizes we win and I would pick them up the next weekend when we were back in Poky.  I was hoping to win the cookie contest but I didn't win.  Rachel though won the guessing game.  Here is her prize.

A jar of good and plenty's. 

Crafts

I found this really cute magnet painting craft and Rachel found it in the cupboard and asked if she could paint.  I decided I didn't care if she did.  I let her go out on the table to do it so the mess would be contained outside.  She had fun and it was easy enough to clean up.

Steamboat Day 6 / Rock Springs Wy

Today we had to get up and get ready to go.  It's always interesting to figure out how long it takes to pack.  If we get ready to go to quickly we have to leave even though we have usually several hours before check out.  Rachel is not patient at all about waiting.  We always try to time it as close as possible to check out so that there is no fight with Rachel.

Daddy doing Rachel's hair before we left.  He is a good Daddy.

We ended up eating lunch before we left and then decided to take a different route to Rock Springs.  We had found a road on mapquest but it wasn't coming up on the GPS system that we had.  We tried to used our cell phones that had internet and that wasn't helping either.  So we went as far as the road went until it became a dirt road.  At that point we decided not to keep going on that road and just turn around.  It was a 30 minute one way detour.  At one point we had to take a potty break on the side of the road and look what we saw.

 We were actually this close to this Antelope.

When the Antelope got up and moved Brad was able to get a better shot of him at a different angle.

We got to Ty and Tia's house and ended up having dinner.  

Afterwards dinner this entertainment system is what they put together.

It was great watching them attempt to get this put together.

We girls we hung out watching them.

This was the last fun day of our trip.  The next day was spent driving home.  We dropped off Scott's parents in Montpelier and then we headed off to Boise.  It was a long drive home but we had a great trip.

Steamboat Day 5

It rained a good portion of the night and so when we got up it was a gorgeous day.  We headed to go ride the alpine slide because it was supposed to open at 10:00.  Well because of the rain they had to delay the ride for about an hour.  We sat around waiting and let Rachel play on the toys.  She made friends like she always does at the playground.

 She loved this sea saw toy and the boy was more than willing to be the moving force behind it.

 Close up.

 The Alpine Slide was in the same area as the Olympic Ski Practice Resort.  So it was fun to see what it looks like when there is no snow.  The only bummer part was there was no training going on.

We had tried to talk Scott's mom into going on the Alpine Slide but as it became time she decided she couldn't do it.  So we headed to pay and get in line.  Rachel of course didn't like the waiting. 

 We had to wait for about 30 minutes in line before even getting onto the ski lift.

 Lifting off on the ski lift for our 15 minute ride up.

 This is my little daredevil.  I tried to put her back in the seat and she wanted to be able to put her arms over the rail and look down.  Needless to say I held onto her shirt even though she was pretty upset about it.  I was just afraid she would fall out.

 Scott's turn for lift off.

 Grandma and Grandpa staying on the ground and going to video and take pictures for us.

 Can you tell that she is in heaven?

The picture of Scott behind us.

 Most of the track.

 Rachel decided she would ride with Scott on his sled.

 Me on my sled.  I was excited but as you can tell by the next picture we had a little bit of a wait.

The line of people we had to wait behind before we could go.

We pretended to race but Rachel kept pulling up the brake and then Scott would have to rock to get it going again.  Finally he just took the reins and told her to stop pulling back on it.

The end of our three minute ride.  I don't know why I have that look on my face because I wasn't scared at all I actually really wanted to go faster but was trying to stay close to Rachel also.

After that we went to eat lunch and walk the main street of Steamboat.  We found some fun statues to get pictures by.

 Me and Ben Franklin

 Rachel with a Frog Princess

This was outside the western store FM Lights & Sons.

After we finished walking both sides we headed back to the condo and went swimming again.  Rachel and I were the only ones to go and we went to a different outside pool.  We ended up hitting every pool on the property.

Steamboat Day #4

As we watched the weather we decided we should go on a hike before it started to rain today.  So mid morning we headed into the middle of town and found the Fish Creek Falls trail head.  It was a great little hike.

This is all of us heading from the lower parking lot to the trail head.  Check out Rachel's walking stick.  Yep extremely bigger than she is.  We even cut it off a little bit for her.

Running to catch up to me as I was trying to take a picture of everyone walking.

Rachel sitting before we even hit the trail.  She wanted to sit in the shade.

Yep we got her going again.  

 We got to hold hands a little bit of the way.  This helped to keep her going. 

This is the view from the outlook point that we walked to.  It was paved all the way so it was a great little hike.

Rachel didn't want to have any more pictures taken.  So this is the best family picture we got up there.

Grandma & Grandpa with the waterfall in the background.

So after going to the top lookout point we decided we would take the fork in the road and go down to the bottom of the waterfall to see the water up close.  

The trail was a little bit more rugged.  Rachel was a trooper even though the way back up we had to practically pull her up the trail.

We are this close to the river at the bottom of the falls.  This is actually a bridge that goes over the water.  There is a 3 mile hike from this bridge to the top of the falls but we were told it went up 5000 feet in that 3 miles so we didn't even attempt it. 

We of course tried new restaurants for every time we headed out for meals.  After lunch we went back to the timeshares to swim.  I took Rachel out and we went swimming.  It was fun.  We were relaxing at the timeshares when it started to rain.  Rachel loves water no matter what form so of course there was playing in the rain.

 It was coming down so hard.  We were glad we had gone on the hike before this storm came in.

 Grandma and Rachel dancing in the rain.

Dancing in the rain.

 Yes she is soaking wet but she was so happy.

 http://youtu.be/n_Y7VV8T_Cc

The above link will show you just how we all got so wet.

This is how she got so wet there was water dripping off the roof like a shower and so we all had to put our heads in it because it was "fun" for a 4 year old.  She sure makes you become a kid again which is good for the soul.