Thompson Reunion 2010

This years reunion was up in Redmond, Oregon. We absolutely enjoyed ourselves with our family! It was especially wonderful having Matt with us all day for 7 days! Evan was such an adventurous kid and loved everything we did. Alex did so well on this trip and was just a little cutie. Evan and Alex were the youngest kids there. We left on Wednesday June 30th. We only drove to Boise Idaho so we didn't make our kids sit in car seats all day. It was fun being able to play and enjoy our drive by visiting some sites. We stopped at the Twin Falls LDS Temple. Alex fell asleep before we stopped so we didn't take him out. After that we stopped at Shoshone Falls. We never been there before so I'm glad we did make the stop. It was worth paying to see it. The water was low so it wasn't full like it normally is but it was still very beautiful. Uncle Micheal and soon to be Aunt Julie with Evan We tried to get a family picture but Evan was being a little stinker. So we got one with just Alex. They're so much easier at this age :). After we got to our hotel and had dinner we took Evan and Alex swimming. This was Alex first time and he seemed to enjoy it because he didn't cry. I actually expected him too so I was pleasantly surprised he didn't. Evan was on cloud nine. He no longer hangs onto us so it fun watching him swim around on his own. Early next morning we drove the rest of the way to the reunion site. Our Room. When we get a bigger bed room, we'll need to buy a California King. It was so nice! Friday we went to Lava Butte It was chilly but very enjoyable. Made it nice for our hike that we made into the Lava Cave. It was even colder in the cave. I think it was about 30 to 40 degrees in there. Cold enough to see our breath. It didn't make it easy to take pictures inside but made some interesting photos. You couldn't do this hike without a flash light or lantern. It was pitch black in there. We were at the front of the group and we thought it was so cool looking back seeing all our family coming down the stairs with their lights on. The Cave was so interesting. I thought of The Chamber of Secrets. Probably because I was reading the series again. I also thought of The Goonies and Indiana Jones. Since it was a long hike I also thought of our Savior, specially on the way out. I made the hike back with just Julie since I couldn't go as far as everyone because the cave went to a crawl. I was holding Alex in the Snugli. Our single light lite our path so we can see. The Light of our Savior can also light our path and show us the way even if it's dark as dark as can be. Matt was was with Evan and during the part that you had to crawl, Evan was just walking since he's short enough. He held the lantern for everyone to see. He was their guide. The Cave got to the point where Matt couldn't go any further but Evan was so eager to keep going. He kept pointing deeper into the cave and saying "This way!" Before he went any further where Matt couldn't go after him he told him "Swimming pool that way". That got him to go out :). Alex slept the entire time :). When I got him out of the carrier and put him back in his car seat he stretched. Looked around And went to sleep! Since Julie came with us to the reunion and will be married to Micheal in September, I thought it would be fun to throw her a surprise shower since all the Thompson Aunts will be together. Micheal knew about it and helped distract her from the living room. I wish I had a picture of her reaction because it was so priceless. We played two games. One of the games she had to answer questions about Micheal that he answered earlier. If she got them wrong she had to put a piece of gum in her mouth. She ended up with 14 pieces in her mouth! YUCK! The other game was the matching candy bar game. Then she got to open presents! . The next day we all went to Smith Rock State Park. There are trails to hike and you can rock climb. No one had gear to rock climb but on my Mother In Law's hike she asked a group of rock climbers how they do it and they were kind enough to let her try it. She actually tried it after much support from the group. She loved it! There was a writer for an outdoor magazine out there and watched her climb. He took pictures and asked her questions. She was asked if he could quote her and put her picture in a magazine. She's famous! Matt took Evan on a 3 mile hike around that mountain and Evan walked the whole thing except for the last stretch. Matt says the switch backs are worse than the ones going up the Y Mountain. Way to go Evan! I stayed behind because I was sore from the Lava Cave. I need to get back into shape! This is Evan after the hike. He was so tired! Later that evening Matt, Nathan and Uncle Devan put on a funny show for us. I made a video but blogger isn't letting me upload it for some reason. Sad because it was so funny. On the 4th of July we celebrated not only our Nation's Freedom but also Leanna's 20th Birthday! She's no longer a teenager. We had FHE and talked about Captine Moroni. For our activity we made our own Family Title of Liberty. We wrote standards that our family stands for on a white t-shirt. Since we weren't allowed to shoot off fireworks at the house, we exploded Diet Coke with mentos instead. Not the brightest display but fun results :). After dark we got to watch the big fireworks in town. Evan wasn't interested in them but truthfully they were very dissapointing. Monday was the end of the reunion but we drove to the Sacramento area to visit Grandma Haymore and the rest of the Haymore clan. Their reunion is coming up in August but Grandma wont be able to come so we wanted to make sure and see her since she hasn't seen Alex yet. I have no pictures of this but on Tuesday Matt, me, Leanna and Evan went to Sunsplash with our cousins. Yes I left Alex for a few hours and missed him like crazy but it was a very nice break. It was a lot of fun! They have some fun slides that actually scared me. That's unusual for me. They also have a wave pool. It made me miss Surf n Swim so we plan on going there on a Saturday sometime soon. Anyones invited! Wednesday we drove back home. It was an awesome reunion and we look forward to next years as always. It's our turn to plan it so I'm looking forward to getting plans together. Thanks Uncle Alan and Aunt Jenny for your hard work in putting the reunion together for us.