The first part of the week I spent getting ready for the latter part of the week when I would not be home. Knowing I would be gone for seven days sent me into a frenzy of preparation. We’re at the point in the garden year when many things are ripening and ready for harvesting and processing. Some things you can allow some leeway like potatoes, beets, and onions. They can stay in the ground a while without too much risk. Other things like raspberries, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, corn, and zucchini can’t wait. When they are ready, they need to be dealt with. I started early Monday morning with picking raspberries. Their season is just beginning. They are a delicate crop. When ripe, if they aren’t picked right away they either fall off the canes or get eaten by birds or Japanese beetles. They are one of our most precious crops. I turn them into the most coveted of all the jellies I make. Monday morning I picked a bowlful, washed, and froze them. I’ll transform them into jelly some warm clear day in September.
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| Colorful summer flowers. |
When I finished with the raspberries, I picked two bucketfuls of tomatoes. Then I spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon washing, chopping, cooking, milling, and reducing them. When they’d become a nice thick sauce, I sauteed shallots and celery and made it all into soup. I canned six quarts of it. We love homemade tomato soup.
In the early afternoon, I went out to the big garden again and picked a bushel of cucumbers, a dozen bell peppers, and I pulled a dozen onions and set it all aside. That evening, Stacey ground it all up and we salted it and let it sit over night. Then on Tuesday I finished canning it. That’s relish batch number two.
Tuesday it rained off and on all day, so I switched to indoor jobs. After going away, I like to return to a tidy house, so I spent some time redding up my workroom, the music room, and the back porch. Wednesday I did laundry and packed my suitcase, all the while feeling that nervous sense of dread building in me that comes over me when I have to travel.
I’m not a happy traveler. It’s not that I don’t like being places, I just hate getting there. We left home in the wee hours of Thursday morning and drove up to Buffalo to catch a 5:30 a.m. flight. We drove in fog most of the way, but we got there okay. We were worried about flying because of all the trouble lately with canceled flights and missed connections, but we never had any problems. We flew from Buffalo to Denver and then Denver to Boise. Tabor’s mother met us at the Boise airport and gave us her car to use while we were in Idaho, which was great. We drove from Boise to Pocatello. I’d forgotten how dry and desolate most of the west is. When we arrived in Pocatello, we checked into our motel and then went to the temple. No other family had arrived yet, so it was just Stacey, Miriam, Hannah, and me.
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| In the air somewhere between Denver and Boise. |
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| Just us four at the temple on Thursday. |
On Friday morning our niece Savannah, Stacey’s sister Roxann’s daughter, had a baby shower. I didn’t go to that, but the women folk did. More and more family arrived during the day. Sarah and Tosh arrived around noon. My sister Nancy and her husband Bob arrived around then too. They flew in Bob’s plane from Washington state where they live. We picked them up at the Pocatello Airport and they joined the party. My brother Steve and his wife Linda were already in town and we joined up with them. By the end of the day on Friday, we had Means and Pister and Shillig families on Stacey’s side, and Mazone, Klenk, Foster, Thayn, and Howes on my side. All of our children were there with their families. Stacey’s brother John and his wife Delaina and two children, Enoch and Elizabeth made a surprise appearance. There were nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, and so much kin we don’t often get to see. It was wonderful having so much family there. We swam in the hotel pool, played games, and sat and talked and loved just being together.
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| At Savannah's baby shower. |
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| With Nancy by Bob's airplane at the Pocatello airport. |
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| Playing games with Aunt Stacey at the motel. |
On Friday afternoon, we had a picnic in a park on a hill above town where Vanessa, Josiah’s intended’s family joined in. We made a happy and boisterous group. During the picnic, a big storm blew in and put an early end to the festivities.
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| The picnic at the pavilion in the park. |
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| Daniel meeting his newest nephew Russell. |
The wedding was on Saturday. We gathered at the Pocatello Temple, which is a beautiful building. The ceremony was short and profound. Afterward we posed for pictures in front of the temple. At noon there was a lunch at a pavilion at the chapel where the reception was taking place later. We had great food and a great time being together. [They had a professional photographer after the wedding and I don't have access to those photos yet, but I'll share them when I do.]
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| Cousins at the temple on Saturday. |
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| Stacey, Roxann, Audrey, and John at the wedding. |
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| With my brother Steve and sister Nancy at the temple. |
The reception was beautifully decorated. They had a great spread of sweets and charcuterie that Sarah organized. People arrived at the reception and there was food and dancing and it was great. Then we sent the bride and groom off and cleaned up and it was over.
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| Waiting for the reception to begin. |
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| The wedding cake, made by Sarah and Josiah. |
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| The dessert and charcuterie table at the reception. |
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| Rachel and Florence eating wedding cake. |
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| Chatting with cousins we don't often see. |
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| More chatting. |
On Sunday people began to go their separate ways. Our time together was too short. I hate to say good-bye to people when I don’t know when I’ll see them again. We left that morning, the Thayns, the Dan Howes, and Steve and Linda, onto the next phase of our trip. Tabor took us on a tour of Thayn Country. We traveled north to the town of Salmon where we met up with Tabor’s brother Tyler and his family. From there we drove to the Greyhouse Inn, that their family owns, where we ate lunch. Then we drove down to Challis, where the Tyler Thayns live. They have a great place in the country there. We had dinner and visited and then we went in town and spent the night at the Red Rock Lodge, also owned by the family, which was a great place. If you’re ever in that area, I recommend it.
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| Our route through Idaho. |
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| Big horn sheep along the Salmon River. |
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| The Thayn house in Challis. |
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| Riding the four-wheeler in Challis. |
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| Swimming in the Salmon River at Challis. |
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| Sunset at Challis. |
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| Sunset at Challis. |
The next day, Monday, we drove on to Emmett where Tabor’s parents live and where he grew up. Our journey there took us through beautiful country. The road followed the Salmon River through canyons. We stopped at Stanley to look at the Sawtooth Mountains, which were very beautiful. We made another stop at Red Fish Lake for ice cream. Then we followed the Payette River down to Emmett.
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| Stopping for a break along the Payette River. |
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| Ice cream at Red Fish Lake. |
That evening we gathered with the Thayn family at Tabor’s brother Derick’s home for dinner and to bless baby Russell. It was great to be with all of them. They are a great family. We had delicious tacos. After the blessing, we went up to swim in the canal. I didn’t swim. Miriam and Hannah did. Some of them, not Miriam and Hannah, jumped into the canal from a high rock. Then they floated down the canal for a long ways. By then it was getting dark, so we went back to Tabor’s parent’s house where we spent the night.
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| Russell at his blessing. |
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| At Russell's blessing with the parents and grandparents. |
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| Three generations. |
Tuesday we had breakfast, delicious biscuits and gravy that Tabor’s mother made, and then we went on a tour where Tabor showed us his old stomping ground. The Thayns come from farm stock and they live in a valley crisscrossed by canals that carry water to the crops. There were fields of corn, alfalfa, hay grass, and other things. It is not the kind of farming I’m familiar with, running irrigation lines and that sort of thing, but it was impressive to see the difference water makes. Where there was water there was abundant, green life. Where the irrigation did not go, it was dry and dusty.
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| Tabor telling us tales from his youth. |
Steve and Linda left after lunch to drive back to their home in Cedar City, Utah. That afternoon, the rest of us drove into Emmett for ice cream at Roe Ann’s drive-in and then we said good-bye to everyone and Tabor drove us to the airport in Boise. Our time in Idaho had taken us in a big loop. We flew out of Boise at 5:30, reached Denver around 7:30, and then Buffalo at 1:30 this morning. We arrived home at 4:30 and went straight to bed.
Now we are home. Our big trip is over. Josiah and Vanessa are married. We got to spend time with a lot of people we love and meet new people. We got to see a big part of Idaho. We spent a lot of time in the air and in cars. I’m glad to be home. Kurt and Julie did a fantastic job taking care of things in my absence. We also had a friend of ours redo the upstairs and downstairs bathroom floors while we were gone and they look great. It feels good to be back where it isn’t so hot and where everything is lush and green. I have a lot of harvesting and weeding to do and I’m anxious to get at it.
