Bowron Lakes

Ok! So I have been dreaming of returning to the beautiful Bowron Lakes Provincial Park in British Columbia for about a decade now. I am inviting YOU to come. I am organizing a group that can be no larger than 14 people. I am also sending an invitation to more than 14 people (assuming married couples are interested in canoeing). A number of people are already interested so here is how I will favor YOU over the other guy:

Pay up! Its only $60 a person and I am not loaning any money when I make the reservation. Cancellation fees are only $6 if cancelled 21 days in advance.

Now as far as when I am making the reservation . . . I am totally open to suggestions. To be safe, we will give ourselves 9 days to do everything including driving. I want to do it in July; that’s my suggestion: good weather and longer days. I’m guessing you are going to want to know a definitive date before forking up any dough, so here is how I pick your date over the other guy:

Call me soon! I plan on making a reservation by the end of January, so if I hear from you and can tell that you are as excited to see the moose and loons and eat raw trout as I am, then I will be all the more persuaded to pick your week.

There is a family reunion in August, and I am going to find out what dates are out of the question. Click here and here to see some websites with pictures of the park. You can also look up the park on You Tube.

Enthusiasts must read this link. It has all the info you will ever need on prices, essential equipment, and bear ninja techniques (not to be confused with ninja bear techniques).

Contact me ASAP!

Jordan

360-281-7779

jordinobug@gmail.com

Family Reunion Pictures

Ok, I'm finally done with all the pictures I'm going to add, and I put all three posts in the correct order so keep scrolling down. Sorry to those of you that have already seen the first two I posted. Also there's a new post from Nonny down there too. Don't miss it.

2008 Family Reunion Pictures

Best reunion ever? I think so, but then again, I'm a little biased as the planner. All I know is there was a lot of fun had, and about a bah-gillion pictures to prove it. I've been cracking up as I scan through them. There are so many good ones that it's going to take me forever to get them all on here, so I decided I'd break it up a bit.

Hot/Cold Therapy
Otherwise known as a bunch of masochistic hot tubbers.

Gracie girl hangin with the big boys...

...then more came out, and they all went LOCO.








...aahhhhhhh sweet hot bliss.


A bunch of crazies.


Later, Greg decided to go tunneling. What we didn't get was a picture of him biffing it on some ice as he jumped over the side of the tub. Ouchy, yet hilarious.


Crack open your Dew, babe. You earned it.

2008 Family Reunion Pictures

Snow Play


I tell you what, we couldn't have had better snow conditions for this reunion. The trees were all fat with snow, making it a winter paradise.




Don't worry, he may not eat much food, but Eli got his fill of snow. He's good to go.


Eli and Brenden. Two peas in a snow pea pod.


Uncle Greg helped to kiddos make a pretty cool snow cave.


Here's Miles testing it out before completion.


The mystical snow fairies. (Sorry I forgot their fairy names.)


Or maybe they were snow angels. :)


I can't believe how big this girl has gotten. What a little cutie!


Little Gun


The Gunderson Kids

2008 Family Reunion Pictures

The indoors were just as merry.


Gunnar wanted to join the hot tubbers so bad that he decided to take matters into his own hands.


All aboard the Mexican Train. (A Gunderson favorite.)


Of coarse it wouldn't be a Quigley reunion without a little golf. Just a Wii bit of golf.


Eli caddied for his daddy.


Eve is getting better at sitting on her own every day.


Little red, big red.


Garth claims that Will is the cutest of all the grandkids. That's debatable, but he's definately in the running. (Right behind all the Hough kids.)


Dad and Mom, you started it all. We love you!


Ask Jordan, this really was the best reunion ever. And I'm sure that has nothing to do with this being the only reunion he's been to.


So sweet. I wish someone would have gotten a picture of little Clairy hot tubbing. She's her daddy's little girl for sure.


So fun to hang out with Grandpa!


Sunday evening we had Family Home Evening, and the kids dressed up as the nativity.


Claire was the Christ child though there's nothing boyish about that girl.


But I don't wanna be a rabbit!


What did you call him, Lawerence? I think it was Number 1 holstein. I think Little Ham may be more appropriate. That Gunnar loves the spotlight.


Mother Mary (Oakley) with baby Jesus (Claire).


After Luke 2 was read, the three wise guys sang us Jingle Bells, and then broke out into some Kung Fu. Oh, you didn't know Kung Fu was associated with Christmas? How wrong you were.


Hi-YA!


Lindsay, Oakley, and Connor taught us about Christmas in the 70's. I'll never forget those five huge mood rings....Ou! Ou!


Cabin Smooches


Lawrence finished the night by reading the kids How Murray Saved Christmas. Thanks Law, they loved it!


Did I mention Jordan was totally psyched about this reunion?


Garth too...apparently.


It was nice to see Morgan getting around so well. We love you, keep getting better!


Morgy's family. We're looking forward to Alturas this summer with you guys!

Thanks everyone, for all your support of our reunion. If you haven't gathered, we loved it, and are so glad you were willing to brave the cold to join us. All these pictures are a compilation of ours, Mom's, Gwen's, and Reese's photos. I've had so much fun looking through them all, and reliving some of the memories. Feel free to throw some of your favorites up here. Love you all.

Oh, and a note to all you that weren't able to make it: WE MISSED YOU! We're excited to have the opportunity to get together again this summer.

Christmas Fireworks!

We were awakened Christmas morning to the musically symphony of sputtering upchucking from Zachary....it was nice.  When he felt a bit better we headed down to see what Santa brought.  The excitement was too much and Scott snapped a picture of round two.

We had a great Christmas regardless, but missed being with family.

The night ended with a surprise as Porter pulled out his tooth and than threw up Christmas dinner!  But at least the tooth fairy remembered to come....I ran into her on one of my many visit to check on him.   So, we are glad we didn't share our germs with all of you.   That being the case, hopefully, your celebrations were NOT as exiting as ours.

Love always,

The Jeppsons

We were all feeling a little better today (Sunday) and took this picture.  We are missing all of you that are at the cabin and Lee, Jana, and Carmen.  We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

The Jeppsons

Greg, the Reunion Trailer is awesome! Don't know how long you have had it there, but just noticed it. Love the music! Definitely got me excited! See you all in a couple of days!! Mom

We're moving again!

Hey everybody, I think I've told most of you but our plans are now finalized. We'll be moving to a different apartment this week. Our new place doesn't have any internal stairs to go up and down all day. Since stairs are about the only thing that still causes a lot of pain in my leg, we're hoping that reducing our need to use them will drastically help. Bethany and I are very excited about the opportunities for recovery that this new place will bring.

We do need help loading and unloading our truck. So if any of you living close are able and willing, we'll be loading the truck Wednesday evening and unloading Thursday evening. We rented the biggest U-haul available so we won't have to pack like a jigsaw puzzle, so it shouldn't take long at all. In our past moves, it's only taken about 1.5 hours to unload and 2 to load.

I also wanted to give you all an update on us... Bethany is doing great in her new job at the Meridian St. Lukes. They've been training her in triage, c-sections, and fetal resuscitation. They're very in to improving the knowledge of their employees at St. Lukes which Bethany really likes. Her next step will be to get qualified to work in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU). My leg is doing pretty good. My appointment a few weeks ago confirmed that my leg is still broken. My docs don't really anticipate it to ever heal at this point. But the rod that they put in is stable and supporting my weight well which is helping with the pain. Due to the difficulties i have with carrying weight we decided that I shouldn't strap on a back pack and rush in to school this semester. So we are going to focus on getting my leg better for the next 5 months and start school back up again in time for the summer term at BSU. Claire is growing up fast. She's been getting much more mobile lately. She can roll from front to back like a champ and is so close to rolling from back to front. She'll be five months old tomorrow.

We just got our first real good snow storm here in Kuna! It's awesome to be able to enjoy the Christmas season again. I look forward to it all year, every year.

Hope every thing is going great for all of you! HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Morgan & Bethany

Love for the Looslis

Family-

I just found out that our cousin Ryan Loosli's wife, Tamera, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer right before Thanksgiving. She had her thyroid removed yesterday, and besides having a jack the ripper scar on her neck, she is doing really well. She will have radiation in 6-8 weeks, and is hoping for superpowers as a by product. :) Anyways, it's been really fun to be in contact with her on Facebook. She's super positive, and seems to be handling things well, but I thought it would be good for us to say an extra little prayer for her and her family. Love you all so much.

Melinda

Reunion

PS- I don't know if I've mentioned that the cabin for the reunion does NOT permit pets. I'm sorry if this inconveniences any of you pet owners out there. Hopefully this is enough time for you to make arrangements for their care. Thanks for your cooperation in this.

Melinda

Meal Assignments

Hey everyone! Here's how we decided to break up the meals for the reunion. Let us know if you have any questions or issues. Love ya!

Friday Dinner: Melinda & Greg (We'll probably do soup and rolls, so dinner will be ready to eat whenever you arrive.)

Saturday Breakfast: Morgan & Bethany

Saturday Lunch: Bryant & Jenny

Saturday Dinner: Mignon & Scott

Sunday Breakfast: Mom & Dad (Something fast- church is at 9am. We need to be there by 8:30 if we want a seat.)

Sunday Lunch: Garth & Britani (Big meal of the day. Guests at church are asked to only stay for the Sacrament so you should have plenty of prep. time if you need it.)

Sunday Dinner: Sharese & Jordan (light meal)

Monday Breakfast: Mom & Dad

This one's for you pops!

You taught us well...

Vintage Eve Marie

Gwen, Mignon, or Reese do you remember this dress?

One of us used to wear it. Mom thought it may have been Reese or myself, so she let me have it for awhile to use for Eve. I thought I recognized it, but I looked through my pictures, and didn't see it. I'd love to have something that may have been mine, but I want to make sure it wasn't yours. Anyways, Eve is so cute in it. I think today may be the only day she'll be able to wear it. It's a bit small, but I still love the baby doll look. Thanks for letting me use it, Mom.

Oh, and Mom, do you know if someone made it? I can't remember if I already asked you this.

YO MELSZERS - WEBMISTRESS EXTRAODINAIRE

MELSZERS...THANKS FOR THE OUTSTANDING HOLIDAY FORMAT OF OUR BLOG WHICH IS SO PLEASANT AND READABLE. YOU AND GREGSTER DO UNBELIEVABLE THINGS ON THE 'PUTER. MOM AND I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. AND CONTINUE TO BE IN AWE OF ALL 16 OF OUR WONDERFULLY TALENTED KIDS! LUV...pops

1st Solo Flight

Hello everyone,

It's the middle of the night and I can't sleep so I thought I'd give you all a little update on how things are going. Now that my financing has all gone through for school I've been able to make some considerable progress. I've passed off all the basic maneuvers, advanced maneuvers, emergency procedures, weather, and airspace navigation/radio communications in the helicopter and on the ground. I do engine out procedures on a regular basis where my instructor cuts the power and I fly the helicopter safely to the ground. We've also been doing a lot of work off airport practicing pinnacle and confined landings along the Boise river, foothills, and canyons which is pretty fun. Friday night I had my first night flight which is quite relaxing with all the city lights and has a bit of a romantic feel to it. Yesterday was my first Solo Flight!! It's was a liberating experience for me. I've been looking forward to my first solo flight for a long time. Helicopter training is a bit different than fixed wing. Uncle Randy said in his explanation that trying to keep a helicopter level in a hover is like trying to stand on a beach ball in water. I wouldn't say it's quite that hard but pretty close. Especially at first. In helicopter training, a lot of students actually drop out before a solo flight is even possible. Anyway, thankfully things have been coming along pretty good for me. Next week I will do my first cross-country flight where we will fly to Twin Falls or Ontario, fuel up, and fly back. Shortly after I will do my first Solo Cross Country. Then, I won't be to far from getting my Private Pilot License. After my private license, I'll start working on my instrument rating, followed by my Commercial License. Then my CFI and CFII. So I've still got a way's to go but am making progress. Here are a couple of pictures of my 1st Solo Flight for those who might be interested.

Love you all,

Bryant