Spencer Reunion 2009

Third Creek Campground was invaded by approximately 80 decendents of the Kline and Leona Spencer Family. It was a great visit and a welcomed relaxing time.

There were some wild games of Flog that one feared getting caught around the neck with.

I don't exactly think that the boys were always aiming for the stands for typical scoring. :-) There were a few "wild" throws that needed pulled out of the bushes or off the roof of the cabin.

Would a Spencer family function be complete without a water fight? I would say not! I will admit that I started the battle, but Dad took the suggestion with full zeal and helped the little ones keep the water stirred. (Grandpa Spencer would be so proud) Alex and Darci had a great time soaking the adults and children alike, they weren't worried who got wet!

Just good clean fun!

C.L. had the opportunity to go fishing with Joe and his Dad all by himself. Joe helped him and he was the only sucessful fisherman of the night. He was pretty proud of his catch! Thanks Dad and Joe.

Homemade Dry Ice Root Beer....................... Just another great Spencer Family Tradition! Naomi, Darci and Alex learned to play in the "smoke". :-)

Okay, so tattooing is definately not a Spencer Family Tradition, but we did it and had a good time! The story began back a couple of months ago based upon a dream that Jessie had which she posted on Facebook! :-) I just couldn't resist, seeing that Aunt Carol had already picked out her tattoo and all.

Don't worry, they were done with Henna, and will only last a couple of weeks! :-)

I really enjoy the time spent with my cousins and their children. So many great memories that I have from being a kid with them, and now I get to watch our children creating those memories..........

This years great memories are...................

-The fort in the trees

-Water Fighting

-Catching and playing with Frogs

-Catching grasshoppers

-Riding scooters and just hanging out

-Ben and family so excited about the reunion they were ready a week early.

-Jan and the case of the missing tent

-Making "doughies" late at night (without the kids)

-Aunt Carol channeling Uncle Lamon. (Slapping Erin & Jessie when crossing the cattle guards)

-Mom channeling Grandma Spencer (Trying to wash the plastic cups and spoons!)

-Tattooing many of our wonderful campers! (I absolutely had a great time with this!)

The bonds created as a child go so much deeper than ever can be explained. I will forever cherish the friendships and relationships that I have with my cousins. I am greatful to my parents giving me the opportunity to build these bonds that will last a lifetime. I hope that my children can love being with family as much as I do.

Pioneer Day Celebration....................................................
I remember as a kid dressing up and decorating our bikes and riding in a 24th of July Parade! This year they celebrated with an old fashioned parade for the kids, games, wagon rides, and a great afternoon.

Darci in her dress and all........... Never slowed her down.

C.L., Spencer, Bryton, and Darci

Spencer and C.L. getting ready for a horse drawn wagon ride.

Darci getting ready for her wagon ride.

C.L.'s Final Ragball Game!

It is always fun to watch the kids learn and enjoy playing ball. C.L. was the only one involved in summer sports this year, of course I have to admit it was nice only being at the ball field once or twice a week!

Weekend at Mackay Reservoir

We took a quick camping trip not far from home last week. We went to the Mackay Reservoir for two nights. We had both the fishing boat (thanks Trevor) and our boat. We had a pretty good time.

Darci loves the tube and made Bryton ride a few more times than she wanted to. She of course loves the bumps and the wild ride while Bryton would rather just skid along on the water. I do believe that Darci occasionally would jump up and down just to liven up the ride!
Darci, Bryton and Boston

Boston, C.L. and Darci in the Boat.

Carson went for a little bit of a wild ride. However we determined thatthis new tube is nearly impossible to dump. (Sorry Todd, where was this tube last year! )

Barb gave in to a ride with Darci also! (Thanks for taking my girl!) She just couldn't get enough of the tube!

Trevor, Brynn and Boston. Carson took a slow ride and for the most part the kids liked it. Brynn just wanted to curl back up in Mom's arms and take a nap.

Brynn's favorite nap spot the whole weekend! She didn't want to sleep in the tent or at night, but as soon as the boat was humming along she was out like a light!

Miss Darci, can you say CHEESE!

July, Where??????

Okay, I realize that I live in Idaho, and sometimes the weather can be a bit un-predictable, but when I got home the other day I could have sworn I went back to March at least!

Honestly I had a drift of Hail at my back door! I couldn't find the snow shovel, but could have used it!

Then there was the lake! It never fails that when we get a lot of rain/snow/hail that it has to gather at the front of our Garage! When I came home and found it seeping into the Garage I decided that I better do something with our drain. Carson put a board over the opening of the drain to protect small feet of children and dog from getting hurt. However it also was preventing the 6-8 inches of standing water from going away fast enough and it was still raining! So, I took my pregnant self out in the middle of the lake in irrigation boots with a hammer to pry out the board. Thank goodness only a couple of neighbors got to witness that one!

Notice the water on the bicycle tires! It was quite exciting. We have had a series of Hail storms and I am afraid that this one and the one that followed on Sunday may have taken my garden by storm literally. Maybe this year wasn't the year for me to start gardening! I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Oh, what to do in the summertime?

C.L. turned 7 on May 27th. It was the last week of school and lots of chaos. Notice that he was sporting a mowhawk. Mom had a weak moment and cut it for him for the last couple of weeks of school...... I guess it is just hair, and he is so cute that he can pull off any look!

He was extremely excited because he was still in school for his birthday and got to have friends over that rode the bus home. We had a double party and celebrated with the Grandparents, The Gilchrists,and the Davisons.

The kids had begged for quite some time for an adjustable basketball hoop, so after some negotiations and them coming up with some cash Dad took them to town and they picked out one that they were quite pleased with. They weren't a lot of help assembling it, but they had a lot of excitement and wanted to try.

On June 13th we had a Cancer Aware-a-Bration day. It was a great event that our local county employees sponsored and have declared an annual event. We started the day off with a 3 mile cancer walk in the rain, then we released balloons in memory of our loved ones and then resumed a day of activities in the park. The Bloxhams were here to celebrate with us and we had a great day. I am so glad that we have such special individuals to step up and come up with a day like this. It was a great family fun day with a great purpose!

In the pictures below we had a dunk tank in the afternoon with some "Celebrity" dunkees. Travis Gilchrist, our City of Arco Councilman was one of th individuals lucky enough to get dunked. :-)

I do believe the finger pointing was at Carson who was the first one to dunk him. The photo below was quite ironic, because the sky was full of thunder and it was quite stormy. I think he felt quite powerful. :-)

I lost Darci one afternoon, and when I found her she was quite pleased with herself.

Darci turned 3 on June 26th. I don't have pictures of her birthday cake, my camera was dead, so Grandma and Grandpa took those....... Will have to get them later. She was all Tinkerbelled out! Couldn't have enought Tinkerbell, even the duplicated ones were loved!

She got a big girl bike that has proven to be a newfound freedom for Darci. I really don't think we needed her to have more freedom! I think Grandma Pearson was right when she said that now I am going to have to install a beeper on it just to keep track. The photo below shows her and her friend Sierra dressed in Tinkerbell dresses riding bikes together! Got to love Summer Fun!

How did I get so far behind?!

Well, I will update with photos when I locate my camera. We have been living in limbo and a little chaos. Over the past week we have had a guy prepping the kitchen floor to get ready for linoleum, so I quickly remove obstacles, and I guess the camera is somewhere!

I can't believe that we made it through the last weeks of school, C.L.'s birthday, and memorial day and I haven't updated my blog! I will do individual posts.............later!

We did have our ultrasound! Watch out world because we have baby boy Bogart coming our way! He is a very busy baby already (afraid he might take after his big sister!) My goal is to have him around Dad's birthday (September 19), but I found out yesterday that the doctor will not induce me until I am 39 weeks! I was not very happy about this news, however, I haven't gone much past 38 weeks with any of the others, so we'll just have to do it on our own for Grandpa's birthday!

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Utah! I just love our trips down there to hang out with family. It was the first time in many years that we have been in Utah for Memorial Day. We had a nice visit and I really enjoyed visiting the cemeteries of the family down there! I am going to work on a Pepsi/Duct tape flower arrangement for Grandpa Spencer for next year. I really enjoy remembering the relationships that I was blessed to have with my loved ones! There are many memories that I will forever cherish.

This last week has brought changes in our family and life in general. After 11 years of working in the Mortgage industry I came to the conclusion that with the combination of the current market and economy and the fact that three kids for the summer can be a task to manage that it is time for me to try the "stay at home" role! It will be really different for all of us and a major adjustment. I am looking forward to spending more time with the kids and getting all those little projects that I just think about done! Of course I already have realized that with my volunteer habit I will not be bored. :-)