The 5th Annual Merrill Reunion

June 10th-13th was our annual Merrill reunion. This is my sibling family reunion. It started out relatively nice weather on Friday morning. Then about noon on Friday until Sunday morning, when we were leaving, it rained. I have never seen rain be so persistent in never stopping before. It was, however, a lot of fun to spend the time with family, very close to a fire or in campers.

On Saturday it did stop for a short while when we went to the Minatonka cave. It was really neat to see all the stalagmites and stalactites in the cave. Nature is so amazing at what it creates.
The sad part is that the cave stays at a constant 40 degrees year round, and it felt warmer in the cave than it had been outside. Then of course when we came out of the cave it started raining again.

The kids found a neat little "fort" in a small grove of trees, not far from camp, where there was some dry ground. They spent a lot of their time in the "fort" and had a great time. That is really what reunions are all about, creating memories. Thank you Kelly for all your efforts in planning it. We had a great time even though it wasn't ideal camping weather.

Just some random pictures of Gage in some fun sunglasses.

If Gage gets to do it then Hunter needs to also.

Everyone waiting to start the tour of the Minatonaka cave. Please get the fire going rangers!

Gage and Howdee trying to get a head start to the cave.

Brindee and cute Rileigh, Mom and Kelly waiting for our tour.

Best buds Hunter and Mason.

EVERYONE at the mouth of the cave.

Inside the cave. Some of the formations.

These formations were known as the seven dwarfs. I could point them all out, but it is a little hard to do on a blog.

One of the bats that has residence in the cave.

Some stalactites.

Some bones of a porcupine that was found in the cave many years ago.

This was known as the "treasure room." There was water that was dripping down constantly on these rocks making it look like a bunch of gold pieces.

More formations.

All of us at the end of the cave. Yes, I had enough layers on.

Bradey, Lacey and Mason at the end of the cave.

A common picture of us at camp. Everyone huddled around the fire in the mud. You can't tell, but it is raining.

A picture of our heavily covered tent. Notice the nice mud bog right in front of our tent after the canopy. It was quite messy when we left camp.

Jason's Big 40!!!

Saturday the 29th was Jason's 40th birthday. We had a surprise party planned for him with his college buddies. It was a lot of fun, because he had no clue that they were coming. Thank you Breckenridges and Steph!! He may be 40, but he sure doesn't act like it. He is still wrestling with the kids, hunting ground squirrels, fit as a fiddle and looking forward to his new calling as Young Men's President. Happy Birthday dear, we sure love you!!

There are also just some random pictures of the kids I thought were cute so I added to this update. Blog you later!

Gage sporting the construction working gear.

It lasted about that long. He was done.

Sierra did Lindsey's hair for school. They were both pretty proud of it.

The girls had hat day at school. There is a teacher at school that is fighting cancer. She started chemo and will be losing her hair. They had hat day in honor of her. Jason thought they looked pretty cute in their hats and took a picture.

Jason's birthday breakfast.

Jason's casket cake. It was fun to make.

Blowing out the candles.

Steph Purcell, Jason and Jay Breckenridge.

Steph, me, Jason, Jay and Jenny.

The Bingham and Breckenridge clan

All the kids - thanks for coming guys I really appreciate it! It was a lot of fun.

Fun With Our Cousins

May 21st we had the opportunity to go to Sugar City, ID and see Jason's brother Josh be put in as the bishop. It was a fun and awesome weekend. Our kids love to go and visit their cousins. After being there for a short period, they were already playing dress up and jumping out of the window seal in the basement.

Our friends the Yeck's came with their family and we bar-b-qued and went swimming at Green Canyon. Our kids had a ball. So fun to see you Yeck's. Thank you for a wonderful weekend Josh and Tara. We sure enjoyed the visit. Thanks for feeding our troops. You are both amazing people!

The four Dorcas' Michone, Ashley, Sierra and Megan(aka - dork-us, dork-ful, dork-it, & dork-mund as is written on their foreheads). Michone's is written backwards because she was looking in the mirror when writing on her forehead. They were hiding from the little kids.

Grandma Baxter brought some paint and everyone was able to paint a rock.

Sierra concentrating very hard on her rock.

Hunter and Kalli working hard on their rocks. Kalli did a gorgeous horse. It was really amazing. I think she has a real talent with painting.

Grandma Baxter helping everyone with their paints.

Sierra's "Look-A-Like"

On May 13th, we took the "Achievement Day" girls to the Interpretive Center here in Baker. It was a lot of fun. I just thought I would put this picture in here, because one day it will be fun to look back at and see all the girls and what they looked like so young.

May 17th Sierra had a project at school called a "look-a-like." It is where you create a scene of any kind using only household items. It was fun to see the creativity of the students in her class as well as her. Jason and I had as much fun helping her with it. Though, I must say she did most of it herself and came up with the idea of what her scene was going to be. She did great and we are really proud of her. I put pictures of just some of the projects. There were 22 kids in Sierra's class. A lot of projects and a lot of creativity!

The Achievement Day girls at the Interpretive Center.

This was a ice house (aka. igloo), made out of sugar cubes.

Sierra's "ocean" scene. Notice the whales, seahorses, and jelly fish hanging down. Also "jaws" there in the back right of the box. She also had starfish going up the side of the box.

A zoo made with saltine crackers and other food.

This was quite the awesome fort. There were 200 and something pencils that she sharpened. Very creative!!

I thought this was cute. It is a clothing store.

An ocean scene and a little cottage made of pretzel sticks.

An ideal castle made with boxes and cans covered in life cereal with marshmallow on top. A princesses dream.