Owen Woodruff Family Reunion

WARNING: LONG POST

This year, our family headed down across the border to Lava Springs, Idaho for our family reunion. Phillip was in charge of planning this year's reunion and as he lives in Rexburg, he found a place close by with lots of fun activities to do. 6 of the 8 siblings were able to make it with their families. I unfortunately had to leave my other half at home to work but I was lucky enough to get to travel down with my mama and little sister. In the week and a half that I was gone, quite a few adventures were had, so I think I'll just make this post a day-by-day report of the reunion.

Saturday:

Saturday, Matt dropped me off at my mom's so we could start our journey. Due to some much needed planting and purchasing of treats, we didn't end up leaving Tofield until noon. Our destination for day one was Barnwell, AB to stay with Aunt Jane and Uncle Merlin. With our departure time, we figured we'd get in around 4:30 or 5:00. So it began. Oakley did so much better at travelling. He didn't wake up to eat until Taber so we pulled over in the shade and I fed him. We were ready to continue on so my mom turned the key. Nothing. Our car wouldn't start so we popped the hood. How long do you think it would take for someone to pull over when three women are out of the car with the hood popped open? I thought maybe 2 minutes. Nope. We waited and tried to figure it out by ourselves for about half an hour. Then a wonderful stranger came and boosted us. He also informed us that our battery was basically dead. If we turned the car off again, we'd have the same problem. So off we went to the Walmart in Taber to get a battery. 

While there, my mom ran into her aunt and cousin. There was lots of visiting and finally the cousin helped out with the battery. He measured the old battery and found one that would fit in it's place. The new battery was grabbed and taken to the front. After making the purchase, another cashier informed our cashier that batteries are not allowed to be done at the till. After finding a manager, we were told that the transaction would have to be cancelled and redone at customer service so we could fill out the warranty. (Side note: That is the stupidest thing I had heard that day! Why couldn't we have bought it at the till and then filled out the paper work at customer service?! Alas.) So that was cancelled and I was sick of being in Walmart so I went out to the car. TIme passes. Mom still hasn't come out. More time. I'm bored. Finally, I see her. There were issues with her cards and after leaving the parking lot, I voiced my concern that maybe they hadn't refunded the initial purchase so we turned around to go back and see if my suspicions were correct. They kind of were. I didn't exactly follow all of the details. We left Walmart for the last time around 7:30. A little late. 

We drove the short drive to Barnwell and knocked on my aunt and uncle's door. No response. I tried the door and it was open. So, like any good niece, I let myself in. No one was home. We were all tired and hungry and confused. I texted my cousin to see if he knew where his parents were, which he didn't but he sent me both of their cell #s. No answer on either. We were really hungry now so we hopped back in the car, which luckily started, and headed back into Taber for some dinner. After returning, Josh asked what the status was and hearing that we still hadn't been able to contact my aunt, he sent me his sister's cell #. Finally I got ahold of someone. They were at the lake. Apparently my uncle forgot to mention to my aunt that we were coming and then he forgot entirely. :) When they got back, Uncle Merlin put the new battery in and the car was good to go again. That evening, Oakley rolled over from his tummy to his back all the way. He also rolled from his back to his tummy but I think it was an accident. I wasn't in the room but I heard him fussing so I went back in and he was on his tummy and not too happy about it. :)

Sunday:

We woke up a little late so we decided to go just for sacrament and then come back to have some breakfast and be on our merry way. This was a good plan but we forgot the minor detail that my aunt and uncle like to visit. :) Instead of leaving at 10:00ish, we were out at 11:30 and still had to make a stop in Lethbridge before entering the states. It was a long day of driving and I felt like I had been in the car too long. Unfortunately for the nursing mother, every break to feed the baby gave everyone else the chance to stretch their legs but not me. We got into Rexburg at 11:00. Some people were sleeping so we quietly figured out sleeping arrangements and headed to bed.

Monday:

This picture of big trees is for you, Matt :) 

The plan was to arrive at the camp a little before 2:00 so we needed to leave around noon. There were people bustling here and there in my brother's little place. It was a fun morning as we visited with my brother and sister who are both living in the states. We got off a little late so Greg beat us there. Camping spots were scouted out and we all enjoyed dipping our feet in the little creek that ran through our camp. There was a huge shelter with lots of picnic tables and a sweet fire pit.
After setting up tents, mom wanted to run over to the little town near by and get some of the big water bottles so I decided to tag along. Bad choice for me. Long story short, what should have been less than an hour ended up being four hours and stops at two gas stations, two big departments stores, only half nursing my baby before we got back, missing dinner and having an emotional breakdown when we got back. It was a long three days, ok? Ha! But I have a wonderful family who know me so well that I was ushered to the fire for my tin foil dinner, brothers put the fly on our tent and put luggage in and no one even made fun of me. That is a BIG deal in my family. Thanks guys!

Tuesday:

Tuesday was our rock climbing day. Right off of one of the main roads in Pocatello Idaho is this neat rock climbing area. It has climbs of varying degrees of difficulty. Phil and Thayer set up two climbs, one kid friendly one and one with a little more challenge. I missed Matt a lot while we were there because he loves rock climbing and wasn't there to enjoy it with me. The family set up beside the rock face. While the men set up the ropes, lunch was pulled out. Mom had the brilliant idea to bring one of her tents from home to act as a giant play pen for the babies. Westin had lots of fun crawling around in it.
I was one of the first to climb. I got on my shoes and harness and because the "adult" one was taken, I went to the kiddie climb. It was easy peasy except for the rocks. They are black rocks and at the time I climbed, the sun was directly on them. Every move I made needed to be thought out before and acted on fast. I actually think I burned my hands. Ouch! I only did one climb because I banged up my big toe the night before but it was still a lovely time. My brother-in-law, Thayer showed us some pretty sweet repelling tricks where he came down the wall face first. AND my mom even got in some climbing. I was so proud. She also did the kiddie wall like me. What an awesome mom I have!

I'm coming down

Poor Preston's hands! He got burned too

Christie and Westin

Miri bouldering

Greg

Nice form, Mama!

Ben on the "adult" climb

Spectators

There were lots of sleeping babies

Joey getting some help from his dad

Lisa and Lillian

See this craziness??

Two of my big brothers, Justin and Phil

Abbi was almost doing the splits as she climbed the wall

Wednesday:

The weather was hot the whole time we were down there, so we were all very excited to spend the day at the pool. Lava Hot Springs has their hot springs and a great pool with slides, diving boards, platforms, etc. Oakley gets shocked every time he is splashed so taking him to busy pools isn't always the greatest. He did pretty good but it only lasted a little while. While Oakley napped and his aunties watched him, I headed back in the pool. It's amazing how little prepared I was to be a mom. I didn't anticipate all the things that Even with swimming, now that I have a child, I can't do as much as I used to so I relished in the opportunity to have both of my arms free and be able to go completely under the water. Mmmm. So good. 

After a few hours there, we headed over to the hot springs. Lava had the coolest hot springs I have ever been to. There were five pools that increased in temperature and each pool had benches, platforms, and pedestals so you can have all of you in the water or just dangle your legs in. Two of the pools also had pebble bottoms. They felt so good on my feet.

Another view of the hot springs

The babes weren't allowed in, so Oakley is just chillin' 

Lily's feet were so cute crossed like this - cherub-like :)

Thursday:

It was by far the most eventful day! The morning started off with Miriam getting into her mom's mascara. For a two year old, she did quite an amazing job. Look at how well her lashes are coated. :) Soon after we made a trip to Soda Springs, a town built around these natural carbonated water springs. And what do you do with carbonated water? Why, make Italian sodas, of course! The water had a funny after taste but it was still fun to have our sodas. The options were raspberry (very good), vanilla and chocolate. I don't know about you but chocolate flavouring for an Italian soda just seemed strange. Let me know what you think of it if you've ever tried it. We also found out that the spring goes down quite a long way. My sister, Emily stuck her leg in it and the water came to the middle of her thigh.

Ben with his Italian soda

SO exciting!

Dang nab whip cream...and Emily

Oh, Phil

That was a lot of whip cream!

Mama and my babe

See? That's how deep it is. And it's cold.

All of the kids were playing on the broken swing and down by the river when suddenly there was a cry. Ben had fallen out of a tree, hurt both of his wrists and had a big scratch on his chest. After Phil and Thayer checked things out and did some first aid they suggested Justin and Jess take him to the hospital. Luckily, they got travel insurance the day they were travelling down for just such a moment. Turns out he broke both wrists. One needed a brace for a week and they other needed a cast. Poor Ben! It happened right before tubing so he was a little disappointed that he couldn't go.

We went through babysitting shifts at the tubing so the little ones were always taken care of. I had three runs down the river the whole time. It was great! It was so funny to go with my brother Justin. The first few rapids we came to, he would say, "Oh boy, oh boy!" I just laughed and laughed!
The second last run Phil wanted me to go down the waterfall. It was about five feet tall and as none of the tubes were going down the regular way, I had no choice. Phil, his two girls, Abbi and Isabelle and I hopped in the tube and Phil started steering. As we got near the falls, Phil was asking the others which way we should go down. There was a corner in the waterfall where the rock jutted out so you could either go down the flat surface, in the corner or on the jutted out flat portion. We ended up going down in the corner and I was at the front. All of a sudden, I was under the water and realized we had flipped. I pushed my way to the surface but couldn't get up. The tube was right on top of me. After getting grated across the bottom of the river, I tried again and resurfaced. After a quick scan, I saw that Phil and Abbi were a ways away from me on the raft and Isabelle was in the water close to me. She was crying and terrified. I got to her as quickly as I could but I kept going under because I didn't have a life jacket on. I will never go on a raft without a life jacket ever again. Finally, I came to a rock I could stand on and I just held Isabelle to me and tried to comfort her. Phil brought the raft over and I boosted Isabelle up and then jumped on. As we continued on, the girls were crying and asking to stop. We ended our run early but Phil took them over the waterfall one last time so the day would end with a successful trip instead of an emotionally and physically terrifying one.

There were many blessings that came from this experience. First, Phil was able to jump off the raft so that he would be able to turn it over. Next, Abbi came up in one of the holes in the tube. Phil Flipped the tube off of both Isabelle and I so we didn't drown. I was close enough to Isabelle to get her to safety. There was a rock for me to stand on so I could rest. And now, we have a good story to tell. I was so grateful that we all came out alive. I had a total of eight bruises from the experience. Are you jealous, Emily?? I was definitely ready for bed that night.

We brought out the glowsticks

 


Friday:
We packed up camp and tried to eat as much of the leftovers as we possibly could. Lots. Of. Food. During the packing up process, I got this gem of a photo:

I love Joey's crossed legs. Too cute!

When our car was packed almost as full as it could be ( I was in between Oakley's car seat and a pile of stuff so high that I couldn't see out the window), Mom, Emily, Oakley and I headed to Idaho Falls to do some shopping for Mark's wedding. Mom got a cute dress and a few tops. We looked at the receipt after and it was 70% off! Sweet!

Saturday:

Justin and Jess and their family came to stay at Phil and Lisa's for the weekend with us. It was a crowded place yet again. Saturday was Isabelle's birthday. Most of the family went to the park to play around and we had a bubble gum blowing contest. It was a nice, chill day.

Gabby made her gum into a "clown face"

Oakley found a big ball :)

Playing with babies

This couch gets around...

Ben is really good at making Oakley laugh

Zerberts

So funny

Sunday:

Oakley now fits into 3-6 month clothes so I can finally put him in his white dress shirt for going to church. I made him a few ties to go with it and I got to dress him up for church. He looked so darling with his little green tie on! We went to sacrament meeting and then got ready for the return trip.

Matching!

The plan was to caravan with Phil and Lisa up to the border and then split up. They would go to Raymond to visit Lisa's family and we would continue on all the way home. That plan didn't go through. Just outside of Butte Montana as we made our way up the big hill just north of the city, Mom's car stopped. We were full on gas and she had had her car checked out before the trip. We had no idea what was wrong. After being on the phone with AMA for about an hour, we discovered that there were no tow trucks that had room for all of the passengers in Mom's car. We had five people that needed to somehow get to Helena Montana and only room for two in the tow truck.

Now, Phil and Lisa have a five seater car and four children. They don't all fit in one vehicle so we had one of their girls. Phil suggested that the only option (other than getting a taxi to drive of the hour long trip) was to have Lillian and Oakley go on their mothers' laps and cram everyone who didn't have a spot into his car. That was a grand total of eight people in their five seater car. When he offered the idea, I cried. I know that many people, especially those in my mom's generation, are irritated by car seats and think it was a lot easier without them (nursing while driving, for example) but I am a believer in car seats and the safety they give my baby. I had complete confidence in Phil's driving but you never know about other drivers. I agreed on one condition. We had to say a prayer asking for safety. Phil asked me to say it and I told my Father in Heaven that I was concerned and that he needed to keep us all safe.

 So, we loaded up the car. Abbi and Isabelle rode shotgun, Miri was in her car seat, Lisa had the middle with Lily on her lap and I was behind Phil with Oakley. To keep us occupied, Lisa and I did some sudoku (in pen!) and I had the opportunity to teach Lisa how to play MASH. SO fun! As she's already married, I had to modify the "Who you will marry" section to be "The name of your first grandchild". As such, the drive passed by quite quickly and I was very grateful when we all arrived safely in Helena.

Squishy!

Mostly naked babies at the hot

Oakley chewing on Lily's foot

Tackle!

"I'll take you."

Monday:

Oakley looking out the window

Mom's car got taken in to be fixed and there was nothing wrong with it! The tow truck driver had speculated that it was a vapor lock but you can't tell if there has been a vapor lock so he was probably right. Regardless, the car worked so we could continue on.

While at the hotel, I called Matt. It was the first time I had talked to him in over a week. It's weird but I didn't miss him too badly when I couldn't access him but as soon as I was able to reach him, I missed him terribly. I still had to wait a day to see him. 

It was just a few hours to the border and Emily's boyfriend was waiting in Coutts to pick her up. After we dropped her off, I texted Matt and told him that I was back in our home and native land. He was currently on his way to Calgary from Elkford B.C. so he asked if I wanted to meet up and see him earlier. I loved that plan and luckily we had not turned onto hwy 36 yet. I quickly called Emily to see if they would mind driving Oakley and me to Ft. Macleod to meet up with Matt. After a a brief shuffle  of passengers, I was in James' car counting down the short minutes until I would finally be reunited with my husband. I was so happy to see Matt standing outside our car at the Shell gas station.

We were back together again! We spent then night at Dave and Ashleigh's. Matt was doing some training for work Tuesday morning and after that, we headed home. We arrived around 4:00 and then I started the mountain of laundry I had to do.

It was a wonderful week of family time. Phil did a great job planning it. He had us play until we were exhausted and we all have lots of memories from the trip. In retrospect, I will not be doing a trip like this again without Matt, which he is very happy about because he missed his little family.