Ransom Reunion 2013 (and brand new niece)

Get a snack because this is a LONG post. 55 pictures of our big family trip to Yellowstone for the Ransom reunion with Andy’s dad’s siblings and cousins.  I took 365 though and then narrowed them down to 197 after deleting the not so great ones, so count yourself lucky I didn’t post ALL of them. =) Wednesday, we convoyed with Andy’s dad because his dad rented a giant van (we called it the Party-van) to take Andy’s three sisters and their seven kids and one of our kids.  We drove Andy’s dad’s truck with all of the camping gear, clothes, etc. and three of our kids. Here’s the Party-van in action. The Stuff-wagon with Abby, Olivia, and Vincent. We left our house at 6:20am PST, drove to pick up Sara and her kids in Cheney and then drove through Montana to get to Island Park (where one of his uncles lives).  We stopped for a fun picnic along the way and plenty of other times for potty stops and leg stretching (leg stretching just happened when we were already stopping.)  By the time we got to camp, it was after 9pm MST.   I believe it was thirteen and a half hours. (If the times don’t add up, it’s my lack of math skills this morning.) We did our quarters for the kids every 15 minutes like we did during last year’s road trip.  The kids were much better this year and filled up their chart quickly.  Last year we didn’t use a chart, we used actual quarters, but I made a chart this year and used painters tape to put it on the dashboard of the truck.  I checked with Andy’s sisters when we stopped to see how Elizabeth was doing in the Party-van.  The yellow pictures of quarters are each a dollar.  They then can use that money for souvenirs or treats when we stop.  The chart at the end of the first day looked like this because they spent some on the way.  They were all very good. The first night while Andy was setting up our tent, Elizabeth found a second cousin who had the same fleece jacket.  They became fast friends. Olivia and Abby helping to keep their cousin entertained while his mom set up their camp. The next morning, we found all sorts of fun things around the group campsite (it was at Eagle Ridge Ranch and had some cabins other family members stayed in closeby.)  These little frogs were fun to watch.  Andy’s cousin’s wife caught this one for Vincent. The creek went under where the kids were playing in the dirt. Olivia was keeping all of these kids out of the parking area, along with another cousin with the watchful eyes of plenty of moms. We got a text from my brother saying they had their little girl an hour and a half away from us Thursday morning.  We debated throughout the day how we could go and visit them. We went to Yellowstone with all four of Andy’s sisters and parents and the 15 of 17 grandkids.  We saw this elk on the way in, but not many other animals (other than geese) in the parts of Yellowstone we went through. Andy’s sister from Utah came with her husband and four of her six kids and hung out at Old Faithful for an hour before we got there.  We had another hour wait for Old Faithful, so we went to eat in the cafeteria they have.  While we were eating lunch, a buffalo wandered through, between the cafeteria and the benches where you can watch Old Faithful.  We were glad to be in a building.  Normally those things are pretty mellow, but you never know when they’ll get ticked-off, for no good reason, and try to gore people. Andy’s dad with Daphne and my girls. After we ate, Andy and I took some of the cousins out to the shady porch, by where we were eating, and watched Old Faithful erupt.  At least we saw it this time. (Last time we were impatient and had to go to the bathroom, so we left before it went.) Then we went over to the old lodge for Grandpa George who wanted the grandkids (15 of 17 of them) to pick out a little souvenir. The lodge is a huge log cabin.  These kids went up to the second level to check it out. Grandma Shirley with Abby and Daphne in the lodge. We traded Olivia to the Party-van to bring Elizabeth with us in the Stuff-wagon (then mostly empty) on the way out of Yellowstone.  We decided to stop at a few more little geysers on the way. Finally a picture of me.  I’m sure you were all just waiting for that.  The steam came up behind us in this picture. The kids by the geyser other than Olivia.  It was sort of strange to be missing one kid the whole time. Andy with Elizabeth checking things out.  Vincent’s over there too. The formations that have been made by these geysers are so cool to look at. We found a blue dragonfly along the way. We got back to the group campsite in time for a taco sundae dinner (taco stuff on top of rice).  It was delicious. The campsite had an old cabin the kids liked to play in.  Here’s Elizabeth and Olivia in the doorway between the front and back rooms. Abby played with Andy’s cousin’s little boy for a little while throwing this badmitten birdie to him so he could hit it or try to hit it. Abby had her nails painted. We headed for the Island Park church building for a “Ransom’s Got Talent” show. Videos are linked below. Olivia did cartwheels. Vincent sang “Twinkle, Twinkle”. Take One He started singing Abby’s song instead. And Take Two. Abby sang her ABC’s. Elizabeth did some jujitsu on Andy. Andy with all four of his sisters. Friday morning we decided to have a mini road trip to go and visit my new baby niece.  Elizabeth and Olivia stayed with the Party-van and went to West Yellowstone to look at the shops. Isn’t she adorable?  Rebekah Jean Crowther.  She was only 5 pounds 15 ounces and all sweetness. Here we are holding baby Rebekah. My little brother holding his baby girl. Brant went and picked up his three boys Friday morning because Tina and Rebekah were checking out about noon.  He got back from getting them while we were there so we could see his three boys. The gum machine in the lobby.  We told Vincent and Abby if they were good they could have one on the way out.  Vincent put the first quarter in and it didn’t give us a gumball, so Andy did the next one and a white one came out.  Abby and Vincent had to share, but didn’t complain.  Andy only had two quarters. There was a fun old man with a shuttle cart in the parking lot.  He took all of us back to our cars. We went to Winco and picked up a lot of food for the breakfast we were in charge of Saturday morning as we left camp.  We bought muffins, bagels, and cereal.  Andy’s parents picked up some yogurt and fruit in West Yellowstone. Then we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch.  Vincent saw the restaurant from down the road and said it was on PBS.  The toy in the kid meals was from Martha Speaks and that’s on PBS, so Chick-fil-a must sponsor that show. We were just a few miles from the Rexburg Temple so we drove past it and took a picture. We got back to camp about 3pm and the Party-van pulled in just behind us.  We were finally able to go in the pond with the boats.  Elizabeth and Olivia had been bugging us since we got there to go in the water. Here I am pretending I know how to row a boat.  I was actually stuck in the corner here and it was windy, so anytime I got out, the wind pushed us back into the dock. This pond had frogs as well, but they were tiny! Sara came down with her kids to join us while George and Shirley went on an errand in the party van. We played for a little bit and then it started raining so much that we packed up to leave with Sara and the wet kids in the back of the stuff truck.  Then the rain let up, of course, and Andy’s two other sisters walked down from their cabin to hang out with us at the pond.  We were glad we didn’t leave. Elizabeth and her cousin took Vincent on a paddle boat ride. Olivia was the queen of the canoe.  Andy tried it out with her this time, but other times she did it alone. Abby picked up several of these little frogs that were just swimming along the shore. Abby playing on the shore in the rocks. Andy and I rode in the boat once too. We played there long enough for the horses to come through between our cars and the pond. We had BBQ pork sandwiches for dinner and then took some family pictures. Here’s Grandpa George (in the yellow stripes) with his four brothers and sister. All the siblings with their spouses. Andy with almost all of his cousins.  At least one left before this and one hadn’t arrived yet, but over the reunion 29 of 30 grandkids were there (the last one is on a mission).  Isn’t that amazing? We tried to take a picture of the great grandkids in front of the old cabin. Then I handed off my camera to Andy for the in-law cousin’s picture.  Nice, right?  (I’m in the blue shirt behind the middle kneeling boy). The camera was on what Andy calls mega-mode (the setting for pets that takes multiple pictures in a row if you hold the button down).  Andy didn’t know that he had to hold it down, so we just had a few blurry pictures of us.  Andy’s photographer cousin was taking plenty of these too with her camera. A picture with those of us who traveled from Washington in the Party-van and Stuff-wagon. After dinner the treat was bags of Cracker Jacks.  The prizes have sure gotten lousier.  For every bag it was this black and white Louisville Slugger sticker.  Yep, that’s all the prize was.  Lousy if you ask me.  The kids don’t know the difference though and liked it anyway. We had a program where Andy’s dad and uncles and aunt told about how their kids are doing and a few stories about their childhood and their parents.  This picture makes it look as though our kids were listening and not running around wild. Part of the group listening to George. Our kids came and went (mostly went) but they listened a little. Then the reward came out with the supplies for smores. (POST INTERRUPTED FOR AN ER RUN FOR ABBY’S FINGER.  More details in next post.) This is a quilt they made with a block for each of the grandchildren when there were only 17 of them. Saturday morning Andy’s cousin showed up.  She couldn’t get a flight out of Las Vegas so she drove all day and got to Idaho Falls at 12:30 that morning.  She surprised everyone.  Here she is with her little sister who’s going on a mission this winter. Friday night I decided I’d jog over to check on the kids while they went to sleep.  I took one step and fell, twisting my ankle.  Andy has a nurse aunt who thought it was just bruised and got me ice and another aunt got me some crackers and Sara got me a cookie.  It was nice to be mothered, but I wish it didn’t hurt so much.  I iced it and tried to keep it elevated on the way home. Abby was trying to figure out why I was sitting around.  Does this look like a last day of camping, or what? I guess some of those Cracker Jacks had different stickers.  Vincent had one on his nose. Even Vincent helped carry things to the Stuff-wagon. We drove home Saturday all day long, getting home at 11pm and then Andy drove the truck back to Kennewick and picked up Elizabeth and came back home making it even later, but it was a fun trip and well worth it.  We loved spending time with our family.  Reunions are always a highlight of our summer.

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