Roberts Family Reunion July 13-15, 2020

The Roberts family reunion this year was held at Elba, Park in Elba, Idaho.  Hugh was in charge this year and the reason he picked this park was because it was close to Dad's house.  We had not been sure if mom would be able to make it to the family reunion this year and so we thought being close would make it easier on her.  Sadly she passed away on June 1st and hopefully was able to make it in spirit.

Hugh reserved the park for Monday through Wednesday and when he showed up it sounded like he had to move sprinklers out of the way.  My family did not get there until around 1 p.m. and it seemed most were already there.  There was a bridal shower going on for Jackson's new wife Camille.  

Dinner that night was potluck.  We all contributed something.  I had a new recipe for a type of "mulligan stew" that I wanted to try.  As always, my dish took much longer to cook than I thought it would.  I think it turned out ok, but most people were done eating before it was done.  LouAnne and Troy came up a little after dinner and luckily a big pot of stew was sitting there as almost all the  other food was gone.  

After dinner we had a family get together and the assignment was to have some memories of mom to share for the group.  Hugh took notes and typed them up to the best of his knowledge.  These are they:

Roberts Family Reunion 2020 – Thoughts of Mom (Harriet Roberts)

 

Morgan

·       Mom is selfless.  When I was in primary and had been assigned a talk, Mom would write the talks because I was so young.  Then she would help me memorize the talk.  After I gave the talk, mom would give me a treat.  Mom had spent a lot of time helping me memorize my primary talk and then she gave me a treat.  What did she get out of it spending all that time helping me?

 

Leigh

·       I just have to share this story that I found in Mom’s jewelry box dated November 9, 2004.  Mom wrote about how Dad brushed his teeth and noticed afterwards that there was an earwig in his toothbrush! 

·       One summer mom and I went on a hike where we came across a bull moose.  Mom called out “Moooose” ever so gentle to get the Moose’s attention so it would raise its head.  It was very funny listening to mom call out “Moooose” over and over but nerve racking at the same time.

·       Mom taught me how to make pies.   She always said that the crust was the easiest part so she would have me make the crust.  When I started making pies on my own, I discovered that the crust was not the easiest part of the pie making process!  However, while growing up, Mom led me to believe that it was the easiest part.  Therefore, I made the crusts while Mom made the rest of the pie, the easier job unbeknownst to me!

·       There was this one time we ate some peaches that mom had bottled and Jeremy had found a worm.  Mom denied that there were any worms in her peaches.  She would not believe that Jeremy had found a worm in her bottled peaches.

·       Mom is very selfless.  A sister in Mom’s ward who mom ministered to said that Mom was always caring about her (the sister) even when she (Mom) was in great pain.  Even though Mom was in pain, she still ministered to her assigned sisters in the ward.

·       Some of Mom’s famous sayings are, “Do what you are supposed to do”, “Shape up or Ship out”, and “There is nothing I can do about it, so I’m not going to worry about it”.

·       Mom loved milkshakes.

 

David

·       One time when I was hunting with Mom and Dad, Mom would hike up to where I was sitting on the mountain and ask, “Where’s my deer?”.

·       Mom taught me how to can and bottle food.

·       Mom is very selfless. During a family event, there were only enough Ding Dongs for everyone to have one.  I took my Ding Dong and stuffed it whole into my mouth then ran to play.  I run up a hill then ran down the hill.  While running down the hill, I tripped and fell down and got a mouthful of dirt and my Ding Dong lay on the ground all covered in dirt as well.  I started to cry because I lost my Ding Dong and couldn’t enjoy the morsel of a treat. Mom had sympathy towards me where she gave me her Ding Dong since there were no extras.

·       Mom always found time for others. Mom wrote a letter to me every week while on I was serving my mission.

·       I stayed with my Grandpa for a few days.  I remember Mom coming to get me.  It was neat to see my Mom.

 

James

·       Sayings from Mom.  “Don’t sit down and cry, but get up and move on.”

·       Life is about problems.  You are either getting into one or getting out of one.

 

Mitsi (James Wife)

o   I traveled with Harriet on some trips.  She is such a nice person.

o   Harriet took the time to teach me how to crochet.  I will always be grateful for her kindness.

 

Jonathan

·       I bought a harmonica and practiced it and then played it for Mom.  She said, “Good job, Jon, now you don’t have to sing.”.

·       Mom always came to my baseball games in high school.  Mom would say to me, “You’re so slow; I want to get behind you and push you.”

·       When Mom would play softball, she would always run to second base instead of stopping at first base.

 

Hugh

·       When I was young, we had a bunch of chickens.  When it came time to butcher them, my job was to catch them and bring them to Dad.  Dad would cut the head off and mom would dunk the chicken in hot water than start plucking it.  Watching the process made me queasy.  Mom would tell him, “Don’t be a softie; be tough”.

·       When I was in Kindergarten, I tried to follow some other kids who were sliding down the pole of the big slippery slide.  The first time I did it, I slid down fine; it was so fun.  So, I went to try it again.  This time, in my excitement, I forgot to make sure I was holding tight onto the pole before I let go of the bar.  Gravity took over and I fell to the ground hitting my face on the pavement.     Mom came and got me and took me to the doctor. I had a couple loose teeth and scrapes and bruises, but luckily no stiches or broken bones.    After the doctor, Mom bought me a bag full of candy to cheer me up.  I got to each ice cream and other soft foods for the next couple weeks.

·       Mom was a fast runner.  When I was little and acting naughty, Mom could always catch me when I tried to run away.  Usually she would have a willow in her hand.  As I got older, I became a faster runner to where I could almost outrun Mom.  One time I did something naughty and Mom saw me.  I knew I was in trouble.  I started to run, but was afraid she would catch to me soon.  She did follow me but couldn’t catch up because of the head start I had.  Mom yelled that she would be waiting for me when I got back.  In my fear, I decided to get a willow and beat myself so Mom would not use a willow on me.  She felt sorry for me and didn’t punish me for that time of naughtiness.   

 

Chad

·       Mom could play baseball and she was pretty good and fast.

·       When we did something wrong as kids, she would chase us with a broom and whack us or get a willow and swat us.

o   One time, I was running from her and jumped through a hole in the electric fence to get away from Mom.  I got up and started brushing myself off with a smug look on my face thinking I was so smart and safe from Mom.   Suddenly there was a “Whack” on my backside and a jolt of pain.  Mom had jumped through the hole after me and whacked me.  My smugness quickly vanished as she had gotten through the hole just as fast as I  had.

·       Mom taught me how to sew and cook.  She was really good on rationing and could make a can of tuna fish go a long way.   She could make at least nine sandwiches with one can of tuna fish. 

·       Mom did not like us calling names or talking bad.  She was not afraid to wash our mouths out with soap.

·       Mom wrote me a letter every week when I was serving my mission in Spain.  She also wrote me letters while I was working on a ranch in Wyoming.

 

Teresa (Chad’s wife)

o   Harriet was an incredible teacher.  She taught that you can learn and do anything.

 

Jennifer

·       People would tell me that Mom was the nicest lady.

·       I once said a bad word and Mom chased me around the yard and whipped my legs with a willow (the ever-famous willow).

 

LouAnne

·       While we were living in Liberty, Utah when I was young, a friend of mine wanted me to come over to her house.  Mom told me no, but I went anyway and I ended up getting a really bad spanking.

·       When mom was pregnant with the twins, the cows got out.  Although she was big and pregnant, she went running after the cows to help get them back in the corral.

·       Mom made me practice the piano every morning for one hour.  If it wasn’t for Mom’s persistence, I wouldn’t be as good with the piano as I am.

·       Mom went with me and Troy to Salt Lake City to get Shaylyn when she was born.  While we were driving past the Inkom area, which is southeast of Pocatello, on the interstate, a deer ran across the road and hit the car and came through the windshield were Mom was sitting.  Glass got in her face.   The ambulance took us to the hospital in Pocatello to get checked out.  Although Mom had received cuts and bruises, she was okay and continued on our journey with us.  Mom stayed with me and Troy for a week in Salt Lake City while we waited to get everything done to take Shaylyn home with us.

·       Mom told me to take Home Economics in school so I could learn to sew because I was not very good.

 

At 4 a.m. I planned on getting up and going on top of Mt. Harrison to take a picture of the comet Neowise that has been prominent for a couple of months.  I invited Hugh, and Keaton came along as well as Quinn.  We got up around 3 am so we could get to the top of the mountain, find a spot and get setup in time.  There is only a small window in which you can see the comet as it comes up from the horizon in the north and then the sun comes up and washes it out.  We got there in time, and although I had a new camera and had troubles at first, was able to get some decent shots.  I put some of those in this set of photos.

We then drove back to camp and went back to bed.  I think I woke up at 10 and missed breakfast.  For the day we decided to drive over to Oakley and past the reservoir several miles to see some strange rock formations.  They are called the Teepee rocks and are not really marked on any map.  The are about 15-25 feet tall and pointed on top so they do resemble teepees.  They are whitish and really soft to the point where there is graffiti all over them where people scratched out their names.  They need some kind of protection as nobody seems to be respectful these days.   On the rocks before the teepee rocks were some possible petroglyphs.  You can plainly see an elk in one of them and then some other subtle creatures in others.  The subtle ones definitely looked more authentic but I am not sure.  Anyway, the kids had fun climbing on them and exploring the holes and caves in them.

That night for dinner was on our own.  We just ate leftovers of stew and other stuff we'd brought.  A lot of people joined together for dutch oven stuff and it looked like they had some good food.  I stayed up a little and took pictures of the stars and our camp.  You can see the milky way good in some of the photos.  

Breakfast was a combined effort where Hugh and Karen cooked pancakes and if we  wanted something else we cooked it ourselves.  I gave James my camera  while I cooked eggs and he went around and got pictures of everybody there as much as he could, even getting the people that like to hide in the campers.  Between the two of us I think we got a pic of everybody that attended.  If you look through these and see somebody we missed then please email me a photo and I will include it.  Also if you took some photos and you want me to add them send them to me and I will do that.  

Not sure why but the pictures are all going in reverse order, for example, there's a sequence where Jon gets hit in the back with a water balloon while playing water balloon volleyball.   The first picture is of him wet and the middle shows him getting hit and the end shows him dry.  Its too much work to switch all the photos around so just realize they are not in a decent order.  The Jenga game was the first evening and it is the last pic.

Quinn

Dad with his Teryx pulling a little train of kids.

Looks like they are having fun

The video shows Dad pulling Katy around and circling back because he lost most of his train.  The looks on the sad perplexed faces of the kids were funny until he got them hooked up again.

 

Grandpa pulling the kids around in the little train at the park.  Katy wanted to ride too.  Behind her is Logan, Chloe and Zoe I believe

Playing a large size Jenga

This pic from Jon.  "So James and my family hiked up on the Tuesday to the Independence Lakes, David and his Kids, and Jeremy and I believe a couple of his kids came up later.   Fishing was lousy.  Not sure if anyone got any bites.  But the hike was beautiful, and the lakes were beautiful.  It was a nice hike."

Here's a pic of Elwin eating lunch and fishing at the 1st independence lake.

The teepee rock photos are all in reverse order.

This teepee rock looks more like a creature

A large cave

You can really see the teepee resemblance.

The final picture after they had all climbed up

Kirsten and Quinn

Jaden, Meghan, Garrett and Keaton

Meghan

Garrett, Quinn, Katy and Macey

Looks like some kind of a duck, maybe authentic but it could be just a bad white person trying to  impersonate an ancient

The elk almost looks like a more current drawing but the creepy ghost looking thing looks more authentic

Obviously people don't obey the sign

Cactus blooms going over to Oakley

Katy and Macey's tent

Hugh's camper then Morgan and Troy's together

Morgan, Troy, James, Leigh I believe

Our family tent and then Garrett and Keaton's tents

Neowise Comet on top of Mt. Harrison overlooking Minidoka and Cassia counties

Keaton

Next set of photos are all reversed again.  You see Jon walking off with a wet back, then as you go down through the photos you see him get hit

Not sure, is it Alex hitting Jon?

Shaelynn, Liza and Josiah and Logan

My tent is down but this is where we camped.  David to our left

Cooking breakfast

Some of mom's things if people wanted them.

Meghan and Chloe

Quinn

Adam and Josiah seem to be pretty good friends

Seth

Jeremy and Alex

Jon

Elwin and Gavin

Say Cheese Dad!

Jennifer and Jeremy

Grace, Dustin, Logan

Emily

Adam

Josiah

Seth

Dakota

Karen, Hugh and me

Dustin

Jennifer

Leigh

Elwin

Teresa and Dad

Holly

LouAnne and David

Shaelynn

Liza

Not sure

Still not sure

Still not sure

Man, I guess we will never know who they are

Friend and Abigail and Kirsten

Chloe and Zoe

Logan and Grace

Keaton

Add Blurry Katy

Blurry Macey

Karen

If looks could kill.  

Bryson, Camille and Jackson

Kirsten

Is that a bedhead Adam?

James

Kylie? and Abigail

Bryson

Gavin

Garrett

Chloe on the left

Kirsten

Alex

Dustin

Adam

Yes, Logan, the camera is looking at you

Seth says the food is good

Brockton

Any chance I can photodocument Leigh and her kleenexes, I do it.

Troy cleaning the dutch ovens

A late midnight game

Looks like Cover your Assets

Whoops it was Garrett

Holly

Morgan's Pics

Dad and the train with Morgan's kids

Zoe, Chloe, Logan

Logan and his fish

Well, that will get into the record books for  sure.  Oh wait a minute, Leigh,  you told me you didn't take a single picture

Hmmm..  Soon I will be just as fuzzy as my wolf

Morgan wanted to add this picture to show proof that he broke it