Grandpa's Birthday Party

My sisters and I put on a 90th birthday party for Grandpa Allred while we were in Canada.  While Grandpa was so excited about this party, there was some confusion in the family as to who was actually putting it on so Genny and Cassy and I decided to take it on.  It ended up being more expensive than we thought it'd be and a lot of work but it made my grandpa SO happy so it was so, so worth it. Then when he passed in December, I became all that more grateful that we'd been able to celebrate him.

We sent out invites and put on a dinner of pulled pork wraps.  My Dad and Robin, Grandpa's two surviving children (Melinda passed away from ovarian cancer in 1983 in her early 30s), did a life history/biography and then my grandpa got to stand up and give his life story/advice to the crowd.  It was well attended - about 70 people came.

Cassy had the great idea of hiring a photographer to get some family pictures done at the event.  I am so grateful now that she had that insight!!

My siblings and I.  Me, Dustin, Genevieve, Jason, Cassandra.

This is Larry Schnieder's family, I think. Eee, I'm going to have to ask my dad again, haha.  If I remember right, Larry Schneider is my Grandpa's nephew.  They traveled all the way from BC to be there so it was really nice of them to come support Grandpa!

The young great-grandkids.

Brielle, Brinley, Whitney, Eden, Gracen, Eli, Adelyn, my cousin Gaelen's daughter, Alden, Reed.

Alden.  The ruiner of all our family photos for the last few years. :( 

My grandpa is such a neat guy.  So many life experiences that took him all over the world on the oil rigs, from Germany to Saudi Arabia, to Chile.  He's always so positive and upbeat. Love him for that.

Dustin and his bride-to-be, Violeta, who is super cute and sweet.

Grandpa and Robin's family who made it.

John and his wife, Harry, Robin, Gaelin and his daughter and wife.

My grandpa is such a stud.  He has outlived two wives and this is Guila, his girlfriend.  

Can't you just tell she is sweet and fun?

My sister, Genny, and her family.  Mckay came but had to leave early for his cousin's wedding reception.

My sister Cassy and her husband Jarom.  I know, we married a Jaron and a Jarom.  None of my family can keep that straight. :D

Grandpa and his two surviving children, my dad and his older sister Robin.

Grandpa's posterity from my dad.

Grouping everyone in two rows, left to right: Back: Violetta, Dustin, Jarom, Cassy, Irina, Dad, Randel, Jason, Genny holding Bronson, me holding Adelyn.

Front: Eli, Guila, Alden, Grandpa, Brinley, Brielle, Gracen, Reed, Jaron, Eden.

Missing: Mckay (Genny's husband) and Jason's other son, James.

Canada Trip 2016

Our Canada trip was pretty busy this year - mostly dedicated to Grandpa's 90th birthday bash and Dustin's wedding.

We didn't find time to go to Calaway Park, which the kids were really disappointed with, but we did find time to do a few other things.

Grandpa Allred and Grandma Irina treated the kids to ice cream at the play place.  It was great for the kids to have somewhere kid-friendly to burn energy while we visited.

We heard there was an amazing shoe sale at the mall so we took 9 kids...eek!  I ended up killing time on the rides with 9 kids while Genny shopped. 

Every time I go home, I'm re-amazed at just how flat it is!

This was my first visit home since Mom's funeral.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but visiting the grave made everything fresh and raw again.  I have my moments but I am so unbelievably grateful for knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and the peace that comes with knowing that she is happy and with loved ones and it is only a matter of time before I see her again.

We took time to love on our newest nephew and first male addition to the Steed family, Bronson.

Cassy is a great aunt and always makes a point to take the kids on a special outing.  This time she took them to the new Jungle Book movie at the Movie Mill.  What a brave woman she is with all those kids!

Haha, Reed! What a ham!  These three made a lot of mischief and mess!

The night before we left Canada, we found out that Grandpa Allred was in the hospital in Raymond.  We decided to stop in and see him on our way home.  I'm SO glad that we took the time to do that, even though we had a long drive ahead of us because it was the last time we saw him, as I expected it would be.  Grandpa kept talking about how ready he was to move on from this life, that he had had a full life and had no regrets.  I thought that with an attitude like that, he wouldn't be here much longer. He passed away the day after Christmas, after being in and out of the hospital for months.  I'm so glad he was able to be active and alert right up until his passing.

Cedar Grove

On our way to Canada we stopped at an amazing cedar grove that Jaron had remembered visiting as a kid.  The smell was unbelievable - sooooo good!  The trees were huge and we had a great time stretching our legs and exploring a little bit.

 Oh my heart!  May this sweet boy never get too big to run at me with wide open arms and a huge enveloping hug when he gets to me. :)

Hello Cottonwood!

We finally arrived in Cottonwood in mid July.  Our stuff had been transported to our house there more than a month prior and it just sat in the garage, waiting for us.  We chose Cottonwood for several reasons: First, the job was very family friendly with still a good income to pay down our student loans with.  It was also a unique job in that it's a critical access hospital where Jaron will be able to use all of his skills - OB deliveries, colonoscopies, geriatrics, pediatrics, ER etc., but there are 7 practitioners here to share call days with.  Other jobs we interviewed at only had a couple or a few practitioners so call days were many and often, making family life a little harder.  We also felt like the Cottonwood area had many good people and would be a good place to raise our kids.

When we first got here, I was so struck by the natural beauty.  It's such a mix of landscapes, with the mountains right there yet Grangeville is on rolling prairie and Cottonwood is deep green hills.

These old wooden train bridges are just amazing!  I've never seen anything like them and there are a couple here in Cottonwood and several on the drive to Lewiston.

 One of the first things we did was hit the local swimming hole with the Rambos, the Secrests, and Kelli Bruner.

Kelli (her husband is Dr. Bruner), me, Haley (her and her husband are both physicians who work with Jaron), cute little Winnie, and Megan (the girl who knows EVERYBODY).

Gracen, Alli, and Winnie

 Alden, Briggs, and Ben getting ready to jump in.

The view from either side of the swimming hole wasn't too shabby!

We expected Jaron's licensures to take a few months so we had an interesting summer of being a family with nowhere we had to be!  Having down time together was great.

Jaron took the older kids on a couple of camping adventures.

 He also got to spend a week hiking in the middle of nowhere in the Idaho wilderness with his Dad and his brothers.  

Visiting SE Idaho

Before we officially moved up to Northern Idaho, we swung by SE Idaho to take advantage one last time of living so close to Grandma and Grandpa Brunson

Reed and Adelyn really enjoy the play set that Grandpa built for his kids years ago.

Every summer we like to go up to Rexburg and take advantage of doing the fun things in Rexburg with Melissa and her kids.  We love the 100+ year old carousel.  It's right next to the fun splash park too.

I see pictures like this and I can't believe how many and how big our kids are!

 The Fat Cats in Rexburg runs their 99 cent deals every summer.  Who can pass up 99 cent bowling and laser tag?!

One afternoon Addie tucked herself into the dog bed.  We must've tuckered her out!  So, so cute...and a little gross! :D

Las Vegas

Jaron and I have never been away together overnight since we've had kids.  To celebrate residency graduation, we decided to just go ahead and do a getaway! We hired my college roommate, Kim, to take the kids and she was awesome to take on five kids in addition

to her four for five days.

My first impressions of Vegas were kind of shocking - dirty and poverty and low morals everywhere. We spent a few days walking the strip but were so grateful that we decided to stay at Trump tower.  It was a totally different atmosphere - no smoking, no gambling, and classy people.

We enjoyed exploring the Strip for a few days, especially the huge buffet we splurged on and the outlets, but we cut our trip short when the Strip was just to wearing and we were ready to leave!

The coolest building!  We found it on the way to the outlets. I have no idea what it is.

Our view from our hotel was pretty sweet!

One of the days Jaron's Fitbit tracked us at over 11 miles!

And of course we gambled.  We each spent $1 on the penny/quarter slots.  Jaron got up to almost $5 before losing it all.  I scored $9 on a game and decided to cash in while I was still ahead of the game!

 If my internet here wasn't so miserably slow, I would have had the full chocolate Statue of Liberty and the licorice one.  The internet CRAWLS here and we pay a small fortune for it. :(