Keep on Diggin - Fuller Family Reunion 2017

The Neil Fuller Family descended upon Franklin County in a big way the first weekend of August, 2017 (and yes, I know it is nearly August 2018 - it has been quite a year).

The Neil Fuller Family - minus a few nephews selling in TX and missionaries in Caribbean and California

The reunion was "officially" one day and intended to be as close to Mom and Dad as possible so they could be a part of things. The cool thing about it was that we all wanted to gather the day before and the day after doing other area-activities! And, even the next week, Monday, we had another meal together (those that were still around) at a buffet in Logan! It was truly awesome.

Reunion Prep Crew - burrito-making boys

I will try and relate these days together in chronological order. We had such a great time together, a really special feeling pervaded everything we did. Unfortunately, we missed Janie and her family for most of it (except just Janie, for day-of) as they all came down with stomach sickness. It nearly broke my heart to think of her family missing this fun time.

Day 1
With all of the little kids and minds to teach, Greg and Marci offered a tour of their farm in the morning, complete with Gossners milk -- haha (their farm is Organic Valley).

The funniest of all funniest 2017 family memories was made here. After the tour, the large group gathered at the end of one of Greg's clean barns. We were all just chatting and the two youngest cousins satisfied their curiosity by checking out the gigantic manure splats (that in reality did look like it was hard-packed). After the first step, they both fell to their knees. They were covered from belly to toe in wet manure slop. They came crying to their mothers, who were horrified! We all tried to keep our reactions to ourselves but the image of manure-covered little bodies running to the group will be long remembered. Fortunately, the farm had places to clean manure off little kids :-). 

After a fun lunch at Marci's, Uncle Gaylin has a really great spot on the Bear River for gatherings, called, "The Grove". He suggested we float the river, finishing off at his place, and following the fun with a cookout. We did just that. The floating was really slow but so relaxing and enjoyable. The weather was simply perfect. This was an activity perfect for a large range of ages.

These two girls played in that hot trailer day after day.
They were like two peas in a pod.

The cookout afterward was everything I remembered about cookouts growing up because our mom and dad were both there! I love cookouts. The Grove was neat, Uncle Gaylin and Aunt Edna joined us too.

As for lodging, Jess and Melissa and kids were staying at Mom and Dad's.
Marci, so kindly, set up her camp trailer in Curt's field for my family. I think Dan may have stayed at Mom and Dad's too. His kids were in Arizona with Tricia. Janie's trailer was already in Curt's backyard (I think she had a summer parking pass with that trailer in Idaho).

Day 2
The reunion started bright and early. Basically, everyone showed up at the right time! We wanted to hit the "race-track" pretty early with our first-ever "Fuller Family 5K-ish". The distance doesn't really matter :-) but the race route was from the red brick home to the cemetery. Dad even had his starting gun ready. Everything was very official as you can see.

Dad fired the shot and off we went! Chase was the overall winner and Kayla took first for the females (2nd overall). Janie came in soon after Kayla, taking the oldie goldie award. We also had awards for the "Youngest Finisher" - Aubrey, "Oldest Finisher" - Don, "Best Sportsmanship" - Mom.

We gathered at the North end of the cemetery to enjoy breakfast burritos, race awards, and some fun family chatting to begin the day. This is where t-shirts were handed out, also a first for the family. I introduced the family reunion theme: "Keep On Diggin" - a family saying from Uncle Kenny where he talked about "falling down and getting back up and diggin and diggn".

Master StoryTeller

Cutest Little Seamstresses EVER

We walked back down the hill to the pavilion. I had set up puzzles, a sewing service project for a local hospital, games, and of course more food. We discussed and carried out a family service project for the community which was to spend about 20 minutes (with a group our size, that was all that was needed) weeding and cleaning up a yard in the community. The recipient was so grateful and expressed words of kindness.

Lunch was good, there at the pavilion (even though the bread was pretty hard). The kids played over on the swings and in the "gaga pit". Dan set up a fun slip and slide. We had Sno-Cones and outside games going on.

Before we knew it, our catered dinner showed up, which was definitely delicious (Thank you Smarts!). Then, the big event of the evening was to have a volleyball match between the "Oldie Moldies" and the young teenagers.

Those young girls didn't stand a chance :-)

The game was a blast. Those not playing watched from the sidelines (or played more gaga ball -- seriously, that game was being played nonstop) as the Oldie Moldies took it to the youngsters. Dan brought up how this was reminiscent of being children watching our Uncles play against the older teenage boys. What a fun memory!

Lots of pictures of kids pushing Grandma - she was such a good sport

Day 3
The next day was Sunday and we all showed up in the Clifton ward! It was really special, to all be there together.
We gathered for dinner at Don's afterward.

We finished with a family devotional/skit where I had recorded the uncles (and Dad) giving a saying or singing a song. The kids were supposed to lip sync it and we would all guess who was delivering the prompt.

Maybe it was most fun for me to gather this (and listen to it over and over) as the audio didn't work especially well. Mom was there with us for the potato bar dinner.

Be careful with your eyes, what you see - mm, mm

We finished the evening with watching family movies up in Don's loft. He had us all kneel in prayer before leaving. It was a moment/weekend/none of us wanted to end, it seemed.

8 Siblings in the kitchen of our upbringing
after 2nd Funeral 2018 -- Keep on Diggin - indeed!

Now, fast forward almost exactly a year and, WOW, none of us had any idea what was in store for our family for the next year. The best way I can end this post is to say, "We can do hard things". Families are Forever.

Beautiful dresses of our Mom

Colette Goes to the Dump

This is the first time in my married life that I have taken a trip to the dump, so it is noteworthy. First of all, up here, I don't think people call it "the dump". The posted signs say, "Transfer Station" and there is a big mural of green trees and green grass on every side of a covered open shed. In the middle is a big pit. I backed into it and literally threw my stuff over the ropes into the pit. It was great fun. A man dumping yard waste beside me helped me with the big stuff. 

But, before I got to the big pit, I learned I would be charged an additional $25 if I didn't cover and tie down my load, according to Washington state law. So, I headed back home. Fortunately, Callie remembered one of the items in the load was a trampoline cover (don't even ask). Brilliant!! So, we pulled over to the elementary school that is just a few blocks away from the dump. We easily tied down the load and covered the whole thing. Oh, and in case you are wondering, signs were posted all over the place about making sure the load is covered and tied down. I must have been too busy enjoying the mural and wondering what could possibly be behind it!

Before all of this, I had stopped at the dump on the way home from a nice lunch with friends, to find out logistics (cost $24.25 minimum, hours of operation - closes at 5:30, procedure for dumping - "if you take your microwave and lawn mower to Factoria, you can recycle them for free", didn't find out about the covered load part though). I rushed home and loaded up the rental truck, excited to be getting rid of things, and only considered for half a second driving during rush hour to Factoria to recycle vs dumping to middle earth, or wherever that pit leads.

Chips Forever

I've been laughing all day about this:

Callie's class at school is doing a "Secret Pal" gift exchange for each day this week. She learned her pal likes chips so she scrounged up three different chip-like foods to give him today. If you look closely, one type is a rice cracker, one is a regular potato chip (only it has pepper on it - definitely not kid-friendly), and the third is my favorite tortilla chip - Trader Joe's Blue Tortilla (but does a tortilla chip really count as "Chips"?). 

She is great isn't she? And, I wonder if you'd be surprised to learn I've never been accused of being the kind of Mom who does everything for her child -- hahahha, I offered to take her to the store to buy some good chips, I promise!

This is all reminiscent of an Easter egg hung a long time ago where the kids were each going to fill a dozen eggs to take to the party. Somehow Callie passed over the goodies I thought I provided, for she filled her Easter eggs with pebbles and paper clips. We didn't discover any of this until at the party when a little girl opened her egg in disappointment to find paper clips!!

It still fits Mom!!

I added another exclamation point to the post title because that is how I hear the phrase being "spoken" to me.

I have been getting pictures from my google feed reminding me of what was happening x years ago. One of the pictures was of my sweet Callie wearing her strawberry shortcake costume that was one or two years old.

She is just funny.

Now, fast forward to this year. I was in charge of the family reunion (I'm still going to post about it, I promise) and in doing so, wanted to do t-shirts. My talented sister-in-law Melissa did a whole bunch of shirts for me and conveniently lives near my sister Janie. So, when the t-shirts were done, they were very kindly delivered to Janie who then sent me pictures of how they looked. 

This is what she sent, with a message saying, "I think they might be too small."

Hahahahah, I simply laugh every time I see this picture. I love her little boy so much. He has kind of a contrary facial expression about 95% of the time so I'm glad to have that preserved in the picture, but this shirt and his cute little prego-belly, hahahha, oh, tears streaming down my face funny. Janie and I laughed and laughed and laughed at the time. I was kind of stressed about the reunion anyway, so it felt good to just let it all out. Then, I said, "What am I going to do?!!" since all the shirts were printed and done. 

Anyway, long story short, her little boy was wearing his little sister's shirt after all (when he got in the correct shirt, he said, "But, I liked the other one better.") and my sil Melissa made some more shirts for me to make it so we'd all have a shirt that fits. She's super awesome and I just think this whole story is a good one. 

He Hasn't Hurt Anyone Yet

4th of July Fun

Carson's Fortunate Day

Unfortunately, my boy woke up not feeling well on Monday.
Fortunately, he was able to power up and go to school.

Unfortunately, he forgot his Orca bus card.
But, fortunately, he knew the way to school, so he walked.

The route took much longer than he expected (4.6 miles).
Fortunately, the fresh air cleared his head.

Unfortunately, he missed all of 1st period.
Fortunately, he was able to learn for six other periods that day.

Bingham's Organic Valley (haystack)

Unfortunately, after school, Carson walked (remember - no Orca card) to Bike Lab at the Boys and Girls Club.
Fortunately, his instructor Lance, helped him fix Mom's bike, which Carson then rode home (3.8 miles).

Unfortunately, he was a little late for soccer practice Monday evening.
But fortunately, Carson loved every minute of the time he got.

Carson found out the shoes Mom purchased from Value Village for $7 were actually football shoes .

Rattlesnake Ridge

Fortunately, he hasn't been kicked out of a game yet.

Unfortunately, Carson could really hurt someone if keeps playing in those shoes.
Fortunately, he hasn't hurt anyone yet.

Unfortunately, Carson didn't get to play his
board game of choice, "Spy Alley" for Family Home Evening.
Fortunately, he showered and was in bed by 10:00.

Rattlesnake Lake