Schaffer Family Reunion 2013

This year we decided that it would be fun to camp at Grani and Bop's house before the family reunion.  So we hauled the camper over to their house on Friday night.  We got there after dinner time and got set up.  The kids got to play with each other and then we all headed to bed.  On saturday we got up and ate breakfast.  We decided that since there was going to be a parade in town for American Falls day we should take the kids to it.  It was something to do besides run all over Grani's house.

Here is the group that watched the parade.  

It was just American Falls and so the parade was pretty small but boy did they hand out tons of candy.  All the kids had so much candy.  Rachel walked home with Grandma Tracy and Amber's family.  Scott and I walked around the park.  Scott then walked me around the neighborhood and showed me where his great grandma Schaffer lived and where Grani and Bop used to live before the house they live in now.  

We had to go into Pocatello to get some money out of the bank and take money to another bank.  While we were there we hooked up with my parents to eat at the Mandarin House. As we were on our way to the Mandarin House we ran out of gas on Yellowstone Road.  It was kind of embarrassing but at least we had an extra gas tank in the back so we didn't have to push the truck.  Lunch was of course really good and then we sent Rachel to my parents house and Scott and I went to finish running our errands.  We picked up Rachel and then headed back to American Falls.  Jamie was there finally and Rachel was so excited to have Karlee there to play with.  They are two peas in a pod.

 Bop put up the swimming pool for the kids.  Karlee and Rachel though are at the fish pond.

 Jamie checking out some of the items for the auction tomorrow.

 Closer view of Rachel and Karlee.  Rachel loves the pond and playing with Hawg.

It was a beautiful night and so we eat our steak outside.  We helped Grani get ready for the reunion tomorrow after everyone was done eating.  It was fun hanging out and laughing.  Rachel got grumpy and so I put her down in the camper for bed.  She woke up around 9:00 and so we had to go to bed early even though she wasn't tired.  She was dressed for bed and that's where she had to stay.  I stayed up with her until she went back to sleep.

New Car

Scott ended up getting hit out at work in our Toyota.  The guy had a Ford F150 that rear ended him.  What happened was Scott stopped at the stop sign to let the state troopers go pass and the deputy in the truck was doing the same thing but didn't notice that Scott had stopped in front of him so he hit Scott on the driver side rear end.  The state trooper happens to be the witness to the whole thing so that is the funny part.  We took the car to get fixed and we ended up with this rental car.  A 2013 Nissan Altima.  Oh man can I just say that it was a really nice car.  I loved it.

The red car in the background is our rental car. (This is the only picture we got of it).

Wednesday before we left on this trip they called us and told us that they were totaling our car.  I was so ticked because they totaled it over 18 dollars.  We had no problems with our Toyota and now we had to go buy a new one because it was going to cost 18 dollars more than what they say the car is worth.  I was so mad at this point. Scott and I went out every night looking for a car.  Finally on Tuesday we were out looking and found ourselves this car.

 It is a 2006 Nissan Altima.

I was so glad to be done car shopping even though it's no where near as nice as our Toyota was.  It does have less miles but there are a few quarks with it that is frustrating to me.

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.