Price Reunion

We left on Thurs. morning, August 16, about 2 hours later than we had originally planned (surprise!), and headed north. Keri and Shane and the boys had spent Wed. night with us so we could get up early and take off together. It's takes about 5 hours of driving to get to the May Family Ranch. That doesn't include stops for food, gas, etc. I just remembered that when we stopped at one gas station in a very little Idaho town, I walked over to where Shane was pumping gas, and as I approached, I asked, "How goes it with you?" There were a couple of motorcycle guys in black leather at the other pump, and one of them answered, "Pretty good. How about you?" I said, "Fine, thanks," while Shane tried to keep from laughing.... The ride was long, but Dan and Tom traded off driving, so it was fine, and we saw some beautiful, and sparsely populated, country.


We got there around 3pm, and got settled in. Keri and Shane and family took one of the three cabins, and Friday when most of the others showed up, Mike and Michelle and family took another cabin, and the 3rd cabin was taken by Dixie and Rick and family.


Tom and Daniel and I shared a wonderful room in the main house. Paul and Sharon live upstairs, and downstairs are 3 lovely rooms that they rent out as a Bed & Breakfast. So we had 2 queen beds and our own bathroom. And air-conditioning.

Thursday night we had a big spaghetti dinner with everyone that was there, and then after dinner we sat around the table and Sharon told the story about her 1st husband, Richard, and their experiences in Valdez, Alaska, which ended when Richard was killed in the earthquake they had there in 1964, and then how she met Paul, their quick courtship and marriage, and the blending of her 3 children, and his 4 children, his youngest being about 4 months old. His wife had died shortly after giving birth. It is quite an amazing story, and we laughed and cried together. Sharon is such an amazing person, and we love her so much.

Here's the view from the house looking over their beautiful valley. You can't see it, but the Salmon River is out there.

Friday morning Kathryn and John and their kids, us, Keri and Shane and their kids, and Nate and Casey and their kids, decided to go explore a place called Custer. It's an old mining town that the National Parks has taken over to restore. Up that canyon their are incredible remnants of the gold dredging that they used to do. For quite a ways, the entire canyon floor is covered with piles and piles of rocks and gravel. It is such a mess! It is unbelievable how the dredging destroyed the land. Up at Custer, they did regular mining, so it was very pretty.

Here's grandma (me!) leading the pack of gold miners---panning for gold! It was fun, but we only found one or two flecks, which were so tiny, that you could barely see them when our guide taped them to a piece of black paper! At least she said they were there! So much for getting rich!

Here's Cameron outside the country store, where the kids got some candy.

It was a fun morning, and that afternoon the rest of the families started arriving. From our family there was Mike and Michelle, Keri and Shane, and Daniel. Here's who else was there: Dixie and Rick, and Hayley and her little girl, and Ben and Becky; Steve and Merlynn, Devin, Abbey, Marci (just home a couple of days from her mission--our mission--in Washington, DC), Casey and Nate and kids; Clark and Irene and Rex; Kathryn (Sharon's daughter) and John Chapman and family from North Carolina; Theresa (Sharon's daughter) and her husband and their daughter, Loni, and her child. I think that's it! (There were lots of little children running around that I wasn't sure who they belonged to!)

Of course, one of the important parts of a Price reunion is the eating of food. We were all given assignments to help with the preparation and clean-up for each meal. Here's where the food was prepared...

(Paul, Keri and Dixie)

and here's where we ate the food.......

This room is so big that they can seat about 125 people at tables, so we had plenty of room!

Friday night a bunch of us sat around the fire and talked about family memories. It was very funny at times, and also very tender, remembering Rex. It was a special night.

Saturday, in this great room that is sort of like a family room, we had a family meeting for the adults, that Tom was in charge of. One of the things discussed was our NEXT reunion, which Keri volunteered to be in charge of. We have set the date for August 6, 7, and 8th, 2009, and it will again be at Paul and Sharon's. Rick was assigned to explore the possibility of having a reunion next year for just the siblings and their spouses, possibly a cruise or some such really fun thing! I'll vote for that!


Sat. afternoon brought on the water slide competition. Of course, some of us had to be spectators, cheering them on to victory!

I must say, Keri was one of the fastest sliders that we saw, but during the official competition she had to attend to Cameron, and so we'll never know if she could have beaten Shane, who was one of the winners! This is Shane--I remember his feet!

Emma was one of the winners in the children's division, along with Josh. They were both little speed demon's!

After the water-slide competition, I went to lie down for a little while to get out of the sun, and while I was resting, we had a scary thing happen to the other family that was there using the ranch facilities. One of the mom's put her 8 or 9 month baby boy in the high-chair, and forgot to put the strap on him, and he fell out of the high-chair onto the cement. He was crying, and she held him for a couple of minutes to calm him, and then gave him some juice. Suddenly he became unconscious and unresponsive. They called for an ambulance, but Paul and Sharon's place is about 30 minutes from Challis, and 60 minutes from Sun Valley, where there's a hospital. He had been unconscious for about 15 minutes when either the grandma asked for a Priesthood blessing, or someone in our group volunteered. As soon as they anointed him with the oil and began the prayer, he regained consciousness. By the time the ambulance got there, her was responding and seemed OK. The problem was that he had been unconscious for 15 minutes, which would indicate bleeding in the brain, so they decided to life-flight him. They landed in the Paul and Sharon's field, and took off for Sun Valley. However, Sun Valley refused to let them land because they didn't have anyway to take care of a pediatric head trauma case, so they had to go to Twin Falls. After running many tests, they couldn't find anything wrong, and released him. It was such a miracle and blessing for that family, and we were all so very grateful for the healing power of the Priesthood.

By Saturday night it was obvious that we were all starting to drag a little, or maybe a lot, so we didn't have any organized activities. Some people made smores at the bonfire, and others sat around the tables visiting. It was fun just being together.

Sunday morning, after breakfast, we had Church in the Family Room. After the sacrament was passed, with families sharing the few water cups we had, we had a testimony meeting, which was very special.

After that we packed the cars, made sack lunches, said the many goodbyes, and headed for home. We were about 35 minutes down the road when Tom realized that he didn't have his glasses. So we turned around, sent Keri and Shane on their way, and drove back to Paul and Sharon's, passing Mike and Michelle on the way. When we got there, Sharon had already searched our room and couldn't find them. We looked all over the area where the car was parked, and in our room again, went through the dirty towels and sheets, looked in the kitchen and eating area, looked in the Family Room where we had held Church, and even unpacked the car, thinking maybe they had fallen out of his pocket while loading the suitcases. But we failed to find them anywhere. I was saying that we would just have to leave without them when Clark and Irene and Rex decided to have a little prayer by themselves and ask the Lord to help us find them. John Chapman had just walked by on his way to the house. As soon as the prayer was finished, John called out, "I just found these on the grass--are these what you're looking for?"
Of course they were! We have no idea how they got on the grass, and I had walked by that same spot at least 2 or 3 times and hadn't seen them. We were so grateful to have them! It's amazing how the Lord lets us know that He loves us and He's aware of us--always--when we are facing a tragedy or when we're just in a predicament.

So, we loaded up, and hit the road--again! It was a wonderful reunion, and we sure missed those who were not able to make it!

Well, almost 2 weeks ago I had some surgery, and am slowly getting my energy back. I've been surprised at how tired I have been. I have a few restrictions for the next month, such as not lifting or pushing or pulling, but I haven't had any pain, so that has been very good!

On Thursday we celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary! Wow, that's a lot of years! But there's no one I'd rather be with, still, than my sweet and wonderful Tom. We went to dinner at Maddox, and then to the movies. We saw "Hairspray" which was pure entertainment! We really enjoyed the singing and dancing--really a fun movie! And Tom gave me a pair of beautiful earrings! He spoils me so much! But I'm not going to tell him to stop! Love to you all, Mom