An Island Park Getaway

Last week we took off to Island Park for one last mini-vacation before school started. Del was leveling a floor and installing a sump pump toilet for some friends who own a cabin there (notice the name of the owners!), and the rest of us (including Grandpa and Grandma) were just there to have a great time. Before we left, Devin bought a recurve bow that he's been saving up for, so he took that to try out. We all had lots of fun trying to shoot it, especially Grandma! Look at that expression on her face!

Our cabin was right on the river, so we got to do some canoeing, and we could have fished right off the dock if we had remembered to get fishing licenses. We had plenty to do, though, without fishing! The kids went for a walk with their grandparents and caught frogs (strictly catch and release!) and tried to catch the jackrabbits hopping around everywhere, too, but no luck.

We also found a great little bay by the Island Park Dam where we picnicked and played. Mom found a couple of awesome pieces of driftwood for my garden! Now I just need her to come help me figure out what to do with it! By the way, do you notice mom's cute new haircut? It looks fabulous on her, doesn't it?!

We also went to Big Springs to see the fish. There was one that was the fattest fish any of us have ever seen! It was probably as big around the middle as my thigh and it was only about 15 inches long! Apparently, there's no shortage of tourists to feed them off of the bridge!

When we drove home, we decided to take the Mesa Falls Scenic Route, and that was beautiful! Mesa Falls is huge, powerful, and you are standing right next to it! The fenced walkway is so close! Of course, Dad pointed out many geographical items of interest---that's why it's so fun to go with Dad! We'll probably go up there with them again in a few weeks when Del goes back to install carpet! This time, maybe we'll do some fishing and watch less TV (the Olympics were on, and they have been awesome)!

Getting Old: My 20 Year Reunion

I don't know why it is, but there is nothing that makes you feel more nervous than a class reunion. I guess it's because we temporarily revert back to our high school selves, awkward and insecure, sure that everyone notices every dumb thing we do! Isn't it nice to grow up and realize that everybody else is focused on themselves and the dumb things they do! Anyway, despite some nerves about what to wear, how to do my hair, and remembering everybody's names, I enjoyed my 20 year reunion. It was fun to catch up with old friends and see how their lives are going. There weren't a lot of people there, considering how many I know still live here in Pocatello, but I was really excited to see the ones who came. One that I really missed was my best friend and sister Becky who refused to come! It's funny that we were such good friends in high school considering how much we fought in our younger years! That should give all parents hope! Here are some pictures:

This picture is actually not from my class reunion, but Martie never made it because of a family reunion, so I included our mini-reunion picture from last year. Samee Barney (Beck) and Martie Bunderson (Hill) were two of my very best friends in high school. We managed to have lots of fun without getting into too much trouble. My favorite memory of Samee and Martie was going to Seattle when we were 17 (Becky was just 16). Samee's parents had given her a brand new, cherry red Nissan Pulsar (cool sports car)! I don't know what any of our parents were thinking, but we drove to Seattle on our own and stayed there for over a week, seeing the sights (the sights were mostly good-looking guys!) and having a great time! Every time I hear the song "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake, I remember that trip because I had just bought the tape and we played it over and over again as we drove along in Sam's hot red car! We thought we were something else! Maybe some of the guys did too, because we had a couple of them come to Pocatello to visit us! Oh, to be young and silly again!

This is my favorite guy friend, Don Eriksen and his son Weston (he looks like a Don-clone)! I was so excited to see Don because I'd lost him! Becky and I unofficially adopted him as a brother in high school and we probably would have gladly traded him for one or both of our own brothers, depending on the day! He's doing well as an Allstate Insurance agent in Salt Lake and comes to Blackfoot every month to spend time with his son. Some of my favorite memories of Don involve off-roading (otherwise known as "digging" in the 80's) in his yellow truck. It was scary sometimes---I was sure we were going to roll his truck---but we all loved it! He's a great guy and it was so good to see him again.

This is at our picnic. Left to Right: Don Eriksen, Rachelle Wilson, Me, Brady Belnap, Samee Barney, and Julie Stucki

The evening event wasn't quite what I had hoped. It ended up that most of the crowd I hung around with ("The Seminary Group") came the night before, and I had been out of town. It was mostly "The Drinking Crowd" who came, but it was fun to visit with them, too, although we left at about 10:30 when everyone was going on their second or third drink! We should have stayed

to see how much livelier it got!

Here we are again, this time with J'Dee Wilson from the class of 89 who joined us. J'Dee was one of my favorite dates ever! He asked me to a dance with a tape that was like a Mission Impossible assignment. He was so sweet and smart. I don't know if I would have made it through Algebra II with Mr. Dolkhani without him explaining it all in English! I really liked J'Dee! The picture on the right reminds me of how much fun high school was. Brady Belnap is one of the funniest people I know. He always kept us laughing! Thanks, Brady!

Becky and Martie,

I included this picture just for you. I thought you might want to see some of our other classmates. I must say they've aged well. That's Kim Noble, Paula Parkinson, Ruth Fowler, Sherri Reddish, Linda Harris, Carrie Wyatt, Ivy North, Don, and Me. I'm sad that you both missed it, but Samee and I had fun! See you at the 25!

I'm Finally a Blogger! WhooHoo!

Ok, Becky did a fabulous job of designing a Blog for me, so the least I could do is use it, right?! I love the header she gave me! That's a picture of my family's feet hanging off of the bridge at Catherine Creek park in Union, OR. We wanted our latest family picture to be unique, and I think we got it! Becky's pretty good, huh! Many families are photogenic enough to display their faces, but it takes real charisma and charm to display your feet!

Here are some pictures and highlights of my very exciting month!

Woops!

This is a picture I took of Del to remind me what my hubby's cute rear end looks like! A few weeks ago, I went to visit him on a job site and when I got to the home they were building, I saw him bent over in the doorway laying tile. Because I just can't resist teasing him, I tiptoed up and grabbed his butt! Imagine my surprise when he stood up and it wasn't Del! The other guy, Jeremy, was wearing the same kind of jeans, same ugly gray T-shirt, and baseball hat! We just stood there staring at each other for a while (which of us was more in shock?) and then I started to giggle and said, "I'm so sorry! I thought you were my husband!" He didn't even laugh! I was so embarrassed. He just kept staring at me and finally said, "Del's in the kitchen." I ran to the kitchen, gave Del his lunch, and got out of there! Unfortunately, one of our good friends is the contractor, and so he told everyone about it, and apparently after he got over his shock, Jeremy also thought it was hilarious, and he told lots of people, too! You can imagine that I've been teased a lot about men not being safe around me!

Twin Falls with the Phillips

Two weeks ago, we went with Becky's family to the Twin Falls Temple open house, and we had a great time. The temple was beautiful and it was a neat experience for the kids to be able to go through. We have great pictures, I'm sure, but they're all on Becky's camera!

After the open house, we took the kids to Shoshone Falls and Dierk's Lake. We had so much fun! I had no idea that Dierk's Lake even existed, and it's great! For only $3.00 a carload, you get to see the falls and play in a lake that has a lifeguard, diving board, wading area for small children and cliff diving for older ones. It's a great park! My pictures make it look like they were doing some really impressive (and dangerous) cliff diving off of the falls, but it wasn't too high. Just high enough that they were pretty nervous (except Devin), and it took some encouragement and peer pressure to get them to jump. I was so proud of them all! You'd never catch me doing that! I'm way too chicken!

Girl's Camp

I am the 1st counselor in the Young Women's presidency, which means I got to go to camp this year! Yeah! I always loved girl's camp, both as a leader and as a girl. It's so fun to get away from all responsibility and worry and just enjoy a good time with friends. Next year, Maren will get to go, and I'm so excited for her! I could only go for 2 days, so I picked the first two because I hate the clean-up part! Packing up tents and cleaning up greasy dutch ovens is not fun! We had just set up all of our tents and sleeping bags when a HUGE hailstorm hit! We went running for the

cabin, being pelted with hard marble-sized hail the whole time. It stormed for about 2 1/2 hours, and then the flooding started! One ward had 2 tents with all of their sleeping stuff inside start to float away down the path. They were able to salvage them, but most of the stake slept in the cabins that night. It was pretty exciting! You always want to have a good story to tell back home, and we got it! I took lots of pictures at camp, but I forgot to have any taken with me in them, so the only picture of me at camp is this one of my muddy foot that I took. Gross, huh! The girls thought it was pretty impressive! The only bad part for me about girls camp was going home. I don't know why, but I was born with the unfortunate inability to navigate. I think it's some kind of genetic defect or something. When it comes to directions, I become a complete idiot! I was coming home by myself and took the wrong road out of Victor, ID and ended up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming! As I pulled into the city, I thought, "Dang, this isn't Idaho Falls!" I asked someone in a grocery store if there was a shortcut to Pocatello, and he told me he was sorry, but I would have to cross the pass again and go back the way I had come. An hour and a half later, I pull into Victor, right where I had started! By this time it was 8:30, and Del told me just to go back to camp and sleep for the night because it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive, but there was NO way I was going back there to admit how stupid I'd been! I just kept driving! I still haven't told them!

Enrichment: Sniper Training

In our ward, we take our talents seriously! In the quest to better ourselves, we have taken up shooting! It's been fun! So far we only have 5 women in our group, but I'm sure that when they see how much fun we're having, they'll be lining up in hoards! After all, what woman is complete without her sniper training?! We had a policeman and a competitive shooter take us out to the police range. They brought us lots of different guns to try out, including an AK-47! I'd blog my terrorist pose picture (that's the kind of gun terrorists like to use) but I looked really stupid, and not scary at all. Bummer! Even though I was a lot more accurate with a rifle with a scope, my favorite was this Luger! I love handguns! I shot a golf ball with it and sent it flying! That was fun! It did take me 7 tries to hit the golf ball, though. The trainer told me my shooting was excellent and I had "tight clusters"! Sounds good, right? I think I upheld the honor of all of the Nielson girls! You'd be proud! I know the picture is small, so you'll have to take my word for it that my "cluster" was "tight"!