What a busy summer! We spent much of July going through Mom's house and planning for the Scheeler Family Reunion in July. Had a really good visit with sibs: Jane, Kathy, and Chuck while we were in the Boise area. Although we did have
a memorial service for Mom in Nampa the first part of May, we also opted to have a memorial/ tribute for her at the Scheeler Family Reunion. On Thursday of the reunion, many of us made the trek up to Warm Lake to scatter her ashes. We had a short service and then everyone who wanted to took part in scattering her ashes. I must admit it was very hard to see the Warm Lake area since I haven't been up there since the big fire in 2007. It's still one of the prettiest places in the country though even with the signs of fire!
Jane, me, Kathy and Chuck up on the ridge above Warm Lake. It was a bitter-sweet day and hopefully all that we've been through this summer will just continue to keep us close. We have lots of good memories of this area and had lots of fun reminiscing while we were together.
This is a picture of the view from the ridge where Dad's and Mom's ashes are that overlooks Warm Lake. The huckleberries will come back some day.This used to be one of their favorite patches. For those who were not there, YES it was cold! We were at Warm Lake on July 8th and it was about 58 degrees and there was still some snow on the ridge to the West of this ridge. We couldn't remember ever seeing snow in the mountains as late as this year.
What fun families are! Although reunions are mostly for visiting and catching up on everyone, we did plan a few fun activities. On Friday, many of us took a day to drive to the Snake River valley by Marsing and tour a winery and a distillery. The view from each was just out of this world and the cousins and Mom's siblings were impressed. (Mom's siblings: Mary, Jim, and Sally are on the front row.) 
On Saturday, lots of cousins and kids went on a float trip of the Payette river. We had enough go that we had four boats. Our two sons-in-laws didn't think the trip would be much because we offered to also take the two oldest grandsons who were in attendance, Koby 8 and Karson 7. If they could go, the trip couldn't be that bad. The first rapid was a Class I, the second was a Class III! It was quite a ride and they were pretty impressed!
Koby decided he could "ride the bull." Here he is up in the air clear in front of the raft. . .
Here they are getting a little wet! They really had a good time and all the cousins talked about the trip for the rest of the reunion. I think it was a hit!
During the Wine tour and raft trip, several people also went on a tour of the territorial prison and Basque Museum and National Birds of Prey Research Center. Chuck, Kathy and I toured the Birds of Prey before the reunion and afterwards we took a tour of the prison and then met Jane and toured the Basque Museum and went our to lunch in Boise. We had a really good day!
We used to see a lot of the sheepherder wagons growing up!
We left Boise on July 15th and drove to Burley to visit Jenn and Jason and kids for a few weeks. One of the days, Howard and I drove on old US30 from Twin Falls to Burley. You get more of a feeling of being in the country we you drive the old highway. There are fields as far as the eye can see. This is a field of potatoes with a farm in the distance and wa-a-ay in the distance the mountains.
We thought this shop showed the irrigation really well. We were right next to it while we drove!
This farmer is actually working sugar beets. There are a lot of these in the area too. The corn looked pretty small when we arrived, but you could watch it grow as it warmed up.
One of the days we were visiting in Burley, we got to go on a picnic with Jodi and Jenn and their kids. Jodi and Jenn met when they were two years old so they've know each other for a REALLY long time. The kids think it's cool that their Moms knew each other when they were their ages.
The three older kids took swimming lessons while we were visiting and we got to go so we could watch Lia while they were swimming. Kate did really well floating and holding her head under water.
And Karson did really well in his class. He even got to learn how to float on his back.
One day while we were in Burley, we got to drive back up to Boise so Betsy could go to a planning meeting for her 45th Class Reunion. It was really fun to see so many people and especially when I recognized them! I haven't been to a reunion since 1987!
Driving back to Burley from Boise we stopped at Malad Gorge and Three Island State Park. This is the part of Malad Gorge that you can't see from the freeway (you can barely see the roadbed in the top of the picture.)
I visited Three Island State Park with Di & Jenn before we moved to Moscow in 1986, but they've really added some neat things since we went. This is where lots of wagons traveling on the Oregon Trail crossed the Snake River. It was the most dangerous crossing on the trail, but they had to cross in order to be in less rugged country and to be able to stop at Fort Boise and restock supplies before crossing the Blue Mountains in Oregon. The diagonal cut in the hillside behind the wagon is the roadbed the wagons used to get down from the plain to the riverbed. The crossing too about two hours per wagon and I think they still have a reenactment the first week in August each year.
The last full week of July Burley hosts the International Dance Festival. They had eight teams come this year and Jenn and Jason hosted a Mom and son from Belgium. On Wednesday, there was a parade around the square in Rupert and afterwards each team danced and then let the crowd dance with them. This is Kate and Zoey (Jodi's daughter) dancing with two Belgium ladies.
This is Kate and Karson dancing with one of the ladies and with Anne, Jenn's guest from Belgium.
The 28th of July we left Burley and started the trek to Lewiston. We decided we'd drive up Hwy 55. It's slower, but it's really pretty. When the family floated the river, they started at Banks. Just north of Banks, there is a many mile section that is Class V most of the way. It's really beautiful. This is just around the first curve from Banks.
This picture was taken north of Banks, but south of Big Eddie. The syringa are still in bloom so it made a pretty picture.
This is my artsy picture of the Payette River canyon with a bit of tree in the foreground.
Looking off toward West Mountain and lots of snow on top. This is in Long Valley just south of Cascade. It was a beautiful day for this drive and not a lot of traffic.
Payette Lake at McCall is a pretty lake and I think that's Brundage in the background. Chuck said the last reading he saw was 400+ inches of snow on Brundage this winter. Can't tell by this picture though.
We camped in Canyon Springs RVPK about 10 miles south of Riggins and then drove the rest of the way into the Lewiston/Clarkston Valley. We're staying in a new RVPK for us, Hells Canyon Resort. We may stay here again. Nice park with bigger sites and we're still right on the Snake River. We'll be here until August 22 then we'll caravan with Howard's brother, Clyde, over to Vancouver, BC for Brian's wedding on September 3rd. Like I said, it's been a busy summer, but a good summer too!!!
We drove up to Moscow last Sunday afternoon for dinner with Noel & Judy and Gail & Dan. I took this shot at the top of the hill just as you round the corner and can see Moscow with Moscow Mountains behind. We noticed Moscow is growing, the sign at the city limits reads 23,000 population! That's up by 5,000 since we moved!!!!!
Driving back to Lewiston the sky was so pretty and the Palouse is getting on her harvest colors so I had to take a shot. This is the Moser's farm about half way between Moscow and Genesee.
We had to stop at the top of Lewiston hill with such a beautiful sunset over the L-C Valley! It really was a beautiful sunset. You can even see a bit of the confluence of the Snake and the Clearwater Rivers. On a clear day, you can see a bit of Hell's Canyon from this hill.
This was taken from the same location as the picture above, but this one I'm looking back towards the Palouse and the beautiful cloud!
I decided to try "fussy cutting" a cathedral window hot pad. My Aunt Sally is moving into a new house and she loves birds so this was an experiment with her in mind.
Yesterday we drove to Kamiah to visit Loriann. We had a good visit with her and got to go out to dinner in Kamiah. We left Kamiah about 7 p.m., just about when the canyon goes into shadow. (This is a phenomenon that we miss in Florida!! When the sun goes behind the mountains, but it's a long time until sunset.) You can tell the sun is still up because it's still shining up on the tops of the mountains. This is also an unusual river in Idaho -- very few rapids! There was an article in the paper that said Idaho has more white water than any other state and the state that comes in second has more than 1000 miles less than Idaho. 
I took this shot as we were going across Red Wolf Crossing Bridge in Clarkston at about 8:30 pm. During our 1 1/2 hour drive from Kamiah to Clarkston we never had the sun in our eyes, but we didn't start to see the sunset until we were almost to Clarkston. What a beautiful drive, the Clearwater River looked like a jewel with the light reflecting on it. We have really enjoyed our visit to Idaho this summer and revisiting many of our favorite places and some new places too. I was speaking to a visitor the other day who said that she thought Idaho was the best kept secret in the nation and we were really smart to keep it that way.
