Island Park family reunion

Over Labor Day we went to Island Park with Jeff's siblings (Minus Kevin) for a family Reunion. Well I went to Jeff's reunion. He stayed home so that his back could continue to heal and so that he could stay with Taylor who was still sick.

We got up there Friday night right after Brian & Tiffany. Boy were we greeted with a surprise. The cabin was a disaster and there were dead mice everywhere. It is the most mice I have ever seen in there. All I can say is how disgusting it was everywhere and I mean everywhere. We completely cleaned the entire cabin before we got unpacked. What a fun job that was.

Saturday we met Kristen & Craigs family at Macks inn. (Rob and Janelle arrived friday night a few minutes after the clean up was complete). We had such a fun day floating the river. The water was numbing cold! Ryan fell in at one point and it was so funny to see his face when the cold water took his breath away. As we floated the river we played on the rope swing, played tag with each other, ate lunch, tossed the football between rafts and had a lot of fun.

That night we went to the play mill to see The Secret Garden. The kids sat through it really well and we all enjoyed the evening even though the play was a little dull and hard to follow.

After the play we of course enjoyed ice cream in West Yellowstone.

On Sunday we held a little church service. The highlight was having Grandma & Grandpa McMinn give us a lesson via video tape. What a great idea Brian & Tiffany to include them in our reunion even though they are far away.

That afternoon we worked on a few crafts. we did prayer rocks, and rock creatures. The older kids did a hackey sack with rice inside balloons.

The hightlight of the day was the smores contest that we had that evening. Each family was in charge of bringing an original smore recipe to be judged. Rob & Janelles smore won first. It was 2 shortbread cookies, milk chocolate bar, slice of strawberrry and roasted marshmallow. It was yummy! Our smore took second. It was 2 ritz crackers, a heath symphony bar(2 pieces) and a toasted marshmallow. It was a good combo of the salty and sweet. We had a great evening ended with games around the campfire. It was really fun to have all of the kids participate.

Monday was the usual rush of winterizing and cleaning and heading home.

The clean up crew.
Craft time on Sunday.

This is a rock Taryn found that was a little bit too big for her prayer rock so she and I painted it to look like a ladybug. We named her Lucy and she is now guardian of the cabin. She now lives on the front porch.

The kids loved painting their prayer rocks and rock creatures. I should have taken more pictures of the finished products, but I didn't. I actually didn't take many pictures at all. I need to get some from the other that took more.

Maddie & Kaylee & Jocelyn

The kids before the rafting. I left my camera in the car because I was paranoid about it falling in. So I only have before pics.