In August we went up to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho for N8's family reunion. There were easily over 100 people there. This family branches down from N8's great, great maternal grandparents that came to the United States from Denmark. We had a great time.
The first night was pretty cool. There was a meteor shower and we were in a perfect place to watch it. We saw about a dozen shooting stars. JME got to see the Milky Way for the first time. It is amazing to see how many stars there really are when you aren't in a city with a bunch of lights.
We spent one day of the reunion tubing down the river. There were hot springs along the river bank. We would get out of our tubes and sit in them and relax on some of our trips down the river. We had a great time. We went down with Pounder and her friend, BJ, Uncle L, and Z. It was a blast.
While we were in town, we found some fliers advertising a zip line course that was close by. It was only $20 per person, and we decided to try it out. N8 had been ziplining when he was in YMs, but JME had never been ziplining before. We were the only two people out of our whole family that signed up.
The man that runs the course is Czechoslovakian. His name is Mulon and his partner is Keith. The zipline was over 1,000 feet long. Keith and Mulon showed us tricks to do while on the zipline like laying flat or flipping upside down. I don't think either of us went upside down while doing the course, but we tried it while on solid ground. It was kind of scary at first because we had to run off the side of the mountain and hope that the equipment would work. Once we tried it the first time, however, we weren't so scared anymore.
The zipline course is fairly new. This was its first year running. Because of that, there was only one zipline and we had to run back to the launch point each time we finished a turn, but we were able to go on it about five times which means that we were able to zipline for over a mile. That also means that we ran a mile while running back to the top.
When we got back into town, we found a shop that sells potato guns and we both got one. Our neices and nephew all got one as well, and when we got back to camp, we had a big potato gun fight. Shy little Pooh Bear even got involved and had a great time. Pooh Bear used JME's gun so JME had to sit out for a while, but that was okay. JME threw a whole potato at N8 since she didn't have a gun, and told him it was a grenade. N8 thought that was pretty funny and got a good laugh out of it.
That night we had the traditional potluck and auction. N8 brought a personalized Danish licence plate from Germany that had the family name imprinted on it. It went for about $36. We bid on a marshmallow gun and bought it for $8. We also bid on a 1935 Silver Certificate one dollar bill from Hawaii that was stamped with special stamps so that the Japanese couldn't counterfit it. We bought that for $22. Who knows if it will ever be worth that much, but all the proceeds from the auction go to next years reunion so we didn't mind spending that much on the dollar bill. Plus it will be neat to show to our kids someday.
We left that night so that JME could be at church the next morning for her calling, but as we were leaving, we drove slowly by the family who was still gathered together from the potluck and auction, and we did a drive by shooting with the marshmallow gun. It was so much fun! N8 was the sniper and JME was the getaway driver.
Next year, it looks like the reunion will be in Oregon. N8's already talking about the hang gliding they have up there. Stay tuned for that . . .
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