I'm going to be honest right now - over the past couple of years I've suffered from family reunion envy. I always see my friends post amazing pictures from all the fun family reunions they go to each year, and I've always felt a little sad that my family doesn't have awesome reunions. I do have family in Washington that has a yearly picnic, but its mostly extended family that I don't know very well from my Dad's side. My Mom's twin brothers and their families have always lived far from us. One uncle has four kids and a lot of grandkids, and my other uncle has six kids and even more grandkids. Some of them have come to California to visit us over the years, but they last time I saw everyone together was when I was six years old. The Geiser families (my two twin uncles and their kids and grandkids) try to have reunions every once in a while, but have not had one in six years. This year my aunt decided to host one near her house in Idaho. I don't know this side of the family well, but I figured it was important to make the four hour drive so my kids can get to know their cousins better. The introvert in me was really nervous. I'm not a huge talker, and I was going to be the only one from the Cabell side. The reunion was located at a farm property near the outskirts of Rexburg. The activities they had planned were all things that the city girl in me has never done before - skeet shooting, fishing, floating down the river, and jumping off bridges into the river. Most of the Geiser family lives in Idaho (in tiny towns), Montana, or Washington (on an island). One of my cousins didn't even know what a freeway was. I'm the only cousin that grew up in the city. I knew I was going to stick out, but I really felt weird when I told them I didn't know how to fish or float down a river. Luckily, everyone was really sweet and patient with me. They were excited to teach me their country ways! (Ok - I made that up, but I was really out of my comfort zone most the time!)
The campground was located on a two acre farming property near the river. It had one old bath house with a toilet, shower, and two sinks. There was an old trampoline (I'm so grateful no one got injured on that thing) and an old play set covered in spider webs, loose nails, and dirt. There was one old modular home on the property that we could only use for power and for the refrigerator. The inside smelled like an old library, and the decor looked like it came straight from 1972. The water on the property either comes from wells (that sit stagnant all winter and contain who knows what pathogens), or the water is pumped from the river (for irrigation). The entire campsite was covered in mosquitos and other bugs. I was a little weary when we first drove up. I wasn't sure if I could last the entire week without one of my boys getting hurt, or having one of us contract a parasite! However, the boys loved it, we had a beautiful view from our camper, and it was actually a relaxing location. My kids jumped on the trampoline with cousins and played in the river during the day, and at night they played games with glow sticks and sat by the fire. My aunt prepared and brought food to feed all of us (50 - 60 people in all), and each family just took turns cooking the meals. It was a very laid back reunion. She gave us ideas of things to do, but most of the time people just sat around and talked to each other while the kids floated the river. Jason had to work during the day, so he stayed in the camper and worked on his laptop until lunch time. In the afternoon we went on different adventures around town. Jason found some dunes that he took the boys to one day while I was off shooting guns. I did not have any desire to shoot a gun, but I decided I needed to check that off my bucket list. Skeet shooting is probably not the best way to learn how to use a gun though. I managed to skim the edge of one skeet, but I didn't hit any hard enough to blow them into pieces. It was a good experience, but I'm not in any hurry to shoot a gun again!
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| the view of the river from our camper |
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| View from the campground |
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| The view from our camp spot |
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| BB gun shooting |
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| Our little spot |
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| Gun time |
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