Savage Reunion Part 2

On Friday, we got up early and headed from Coure d'laine back into Montana to ride the Hiawatha Trial. It's a 15 mile bike trail that was once a train route that goes through 10 train tunnels and across 7 trestles. The best part is that it is all down hill and such an easy ride! There were like 50 of us from the family reunion that went on the ride. We got to the parking lot, loaded lunches into bags, got our helmets and head lamps (so you could see in the tunnels) and headed out on the trail. We all brought our own bikes from home so we didn't have to rent them there.

All the smoke in the air kind of put a damper on the beautiful scenery, but it was stil a beautiful ride! We stopped a few times along the trail to look at things and one time, a deer came right up to Landon!

The tunnels were very dark and one of them was quite long! We were warned that they tend to get muddy inside the tunnels, so we were prepared with dark clothes!

We all loved the ride, but our butts were sure sore by the time we were done! At the end of the trail, we were bussed back to the beginning and then headed back to Idaho for the evening gathering at the church.

At the church Friday evening, we had catered bbq for dinner and then an ice cream truck showed up for everyone to get dessert from.

After dinner and dessert, we played an epic game of water kick ball. I think my kids loved this part the most of the whole reunion. They split all the great grandkids and the few grandkids that played into two teams. There were lots of laughs and heckling of the ump, but it was a blast to watch!

At the end of the reunion, all of my mom's brother and sisters met together to talk about future reunions. It was decided that they would keep doing them and that my mom would be in charge of the next one in 2 years. She plans to host it a Bear Lake and we are excited (and should probably start planning now!). I am so thankful to be part of a family that, despite everyone's distance, we still try to come together as a family. I love that my kids have made friends with my cousin's kids and had a great time with them! It was so fun to watch them form friendships and have fun with them. We are even discussing have a little reunion for them out in Missouri next summer so they can spend more time together. I am so grateful for families and my knowledge that they can be together forever!

Savage Family Reunion

We just got back from the Savage Family Reunion in Cour de'lane, Idaho. This time my mom's sister, Arlene, and her family planned and hosted everyone. We left Wednesday morning and drove all the way there. It was super smokey from all the fires around, so the normally beautiful drive was not as beautiful with all the smoke. We arrived early evening and helped my Aunt get stuff set up at the park for the opening gathering. The kids played at the park, played pickle ball, and baseball. We grilled burgers for dinner and sat around and visited until it was time for a round of introductions and joke telling.

We rented an air B and B with Megan and her kids and my parents to stay in while we were at the reunion. It turned out to be a great place to stay. Megan was able to have the whole upstairs to her self with her kids, mom and dad had the main floor and we were able to all be downstairs. Everyone had a bed to sleep in and there was plenty of room to hang out with everyone. On Thursday, We got up, ate breakfast, and made our way to a park in town with our Savage family reunion shirts on.

It was so fun to see so many of us with shirts on. We had several random people make comments about them and how cool it was to see so many family members together in one place! What I loved about the shirts is that it had every member of the family's name on it and the front of the shirt says Savage and it is in my grandma's handwriting! At the park, we sat around and visited and then had pizza for lunch.

After lunch, my aunt and uncle reserved an entire boat for anyone to ride on our the lake. It ended up being a 2 hour ride around the lake and was about and hour too long. It was hot and there wasn't a ton to look at, but it was fun to be with and visit with family members!

After the boat ride, we went over with a group of family to some cliffs to let the kids cliff jump. They had a blast and the water felt really good after a long, hot boat ride!

The Foulger family

The kids cliff jumped for about and hour and then we headed back to the park where they had some games planned. The first game they played was family bingo. You wrote down random family names and then they called out names until someone got a bingo. Christian was the only member of our family to get a BINGO and he won some homemade blueberry syrup.

The next game was our family's favorite. They called the game "The best game". We got into teams and then they handed out baggies with papers in them. Each player had to take a piece of paper and see what they wer assigned to do (papers said like longest, biggest, fastest, etc. Then we found out what everyone had to do. Travis was part of the "farthest" group. Their challenge was to see who could make and throw a paper airplane the farthest. Travis ended up winning that challenge!

Carson's challenge was to see who could spin a quarter the "longest". He didn't win, but he was 2nd.

I was part of the group to see who could jump the "highest"(I definitely didn't win), and Christian was part of the "strongest" thumb (they didn thumb wars). This was quite funny to watch!

I loved how everything was random and it didn't matter how athletic or not athletic you were! It was so funny to watch! The kids made their way down to the beach after the games and had a blast hanging out with their 2nd cousins. We sat around and visited until it got dark and then we headed back to the house.

Before the day was over, we did have a big family picture. Sadly, some of the memebers of the family weren't in the picture, but this is the majority!! Our of 251 total people in the Savage family, 136 of them were present at some point during the week!