Idaho

Well I am way behind in my blogging, that is why I had to do the slide show to recap all the FUN! But let me just tell you about our exciting weekend! We went to Island Park for my annual "Preece" family reunion. My family rocks-just so you all know. I dont get to see my brothers and their families very often and so it was SO good to see them! We didnt get to see Dustin and Brandy though this time. :-(

We spent time 4-wheelin, waterskiing, geocaching, playing games, eating (well I might add), visiting and of course pranking all weekend.

On Friday we spent the majority of the day boating on the Island Park Reservoir. It is spectacular there, and the cabins on Bills Island are breathtaking. I think that it is one of the great skiing spots there is. Caden, Megan and I even tried our hand at swimming to the "Sunken Island" to try and find a geocache. We didnt have luck, but it was sure fun! Our Meg is a fish. We finally got Mikayla to knee board this year. She has been such a chicken that she would break a leg and not be able to dance. (go figure)
Our ski weekend was cut short---both Derek and Darrin hit rocks with their props and we were unable to use the boats. We were all sad!

SO, we went back and went 4-wheelin. Did I mention that Meg is a 4-wheelin maniac. She loves it! She had a little accident. Scared me to death! She ran into her cousin Bailey on her 4-wheeler and flipped over the top of her bike. SCARY! I was thankful she had a helmet on. She was bruised up a little, but not hurt. Thank goodness.

Later that evening, the kids all decided they wanted to go on a geo-cache. So of course Steve and I are always up for a geo adventure. It was dusk and we shouldnt have even gone--BUT we are suckers. So we drove in as far as we could. According to the coordinates we had to go about 200 yards. So we all jumped out of the van and headed up the mountain. A little ways in we were stopped in our tracks by this loud growl. Mikayla literally went white and you could see the fear in her face. All the kids screamed "Bear" and ran. Well, Mason froze! Steve picked him up, threw him over his shoulder and we RAN! All the kids were screaming and bawling and we couldnt get out of there fast enough. Another few minutes and we would have all been a bears dinner. We went up the next day to confirm that I wasnt crazy. So lesson #1 in Island Park-take a gun, or dont hike in bear country!

Saturday brought even more adventure as we all went to Yellowstone Park, and yes Old Faithful is still there blowing to this day. Steve and I spent the day in West Yellowstone though. We love it there, and it brought lots of memories back of our youth and dating, and growing up together.

Throughout the weekend the kids kept trying to catch chipmunks--well Uncle Dustin (Trish's) hubby-helped the kids finally rig a trap that actually worked. He caught a chipmunk in a box and brought it in the house. Well that chipmunk apparently didnt like 15 kids looking at him and he took a flying leap out of the box--hitting Mikayla and Jack on his way out. And scampered through the house trying to find his way out. OMG-can we say scream all over again! It was so funny to watch everyone scream and scamper all over the place. I wish I had had my video camera with me.

Then the big storm hit-knocking power lines down. Do you think we were prepared? NOT! Well Derek and Dustin went into town to buy lanterns (because we were 3 levels of pitch black, and 24 people!). They came back unbeknownst to anyone. Snuck up the deck and scared the crap out of all of us. So the screams came once again. We could have killed them!

Sunday we went to Big Springs and fed the trout and said our goodbyes for another year. I thought that last years reunion was the best, but we keep topping them. I am glad for such an awesome family who loves me and my family, because we sure love them! Thanks mom and dad!