*Hold onto your seats folks! This post is overflowing with pictures and fun!!*
Today was the day of the big
Furniss Family Reunion
but more appropriately titled
Dad was in charge of the reunion this year
and he decided months ago to do a history tour.
My first reaction was like ummm boring! lol
But then he quickly explained how Grandma Norma is 92
and healthy and mobile
and we needed to learn about our heritage and home town
while we still have her with us.
I was immediately humbled and told him he was exactly right!
That was the perfect idea after all for this reunion.
But to make the "history tour" sound more exciting
I immediately offered to do the "cutesy" stuff to tie it all together!
So while he stressed away planning and coordinating the entire all day event,
I got to create the fun stuff
Then I hauled my goods from Arizona
and lo and behold it all came together!
We all met at the Moreland Church at 11am
where our chariot bus was waiting!
I had made these bus stop signs
you know just in case someone couldn't see the BIG YELLOW bus! :)
We all gave hellos and hugs to relatives that we hadn't seen in years
and then loaded onto the 'ole school bus.
Watch out!
The Furniss' are rolling through town in style! lol
(hey for this country town this actually is fancy!)
Once we were all on board the tour began!
Dad was the Head Guide at the front microphone
while I corralled by bestie cousin Lacie to be my fellow tour guide.
Which yes that means complete with matching aprons! :)
She's as crazy as I am and knew she would jump at the chance to help!
Oh and don't worry we're also both the designated family photojournalists.
Which means our cameras were hanging around our necks to accessorize our aprons.
So don't mind if a camera smacks you in the head
as we're bending down handing out snacks! :)
Aunt Marla (my super cute aunt who's Lacie's mom) asked me to do a headcount.
Wouldn't you know it we were almost over capacity.
47 relatives were bouncing, chatting and laughing in that 'ole 50 person bus!
Dad had the route all planned out and we toured through
all the miniature suburbs
(if you can even call them that)
of Moreland, Thomas, Pingree and Riverside.
We stopped at the Moreland Bell in front of the Moreland School.
Some of the boys got to hop out of the bus
and ring that bell.
(Dad really had to pull strings to be entrusted with the bell dinger that the postman is in charge of!)
That little Moreland School was the high school for some of my older relatives
and eventually was turned into the Moreland Elementary school.
That's where my siblings and I even went to Kindergarten through 2nd grade!
(None of this K-8th nonsense like the city does. We uproot our children to new schools every 2 grades! lol)
Next we moved to an old little shack of a home that one of our relatives,
which was the first Blacksmith in Moreland, lived in.
(Or at least I hope I got those details right. I was juggling a cranky baby!)
After we left this little cabin
we headed around Moreland a bit more.
Then we continued out past the high school and on out to the farm.
The troops were hungry so the onboard snack service began.
We munched our treats as we all chatted on the drive to the farm.
We pulled into the old potato cellars and a ton of memories came flooding back to us.
That was some of the worst and the best times.
Seriously the hardest manual labor disgusting dirty work I've ever done!
We all were cracking up reminiscing about the good 'ole days of potato harvest
where you got paid peanuts to work 14 hrs a day.
(Clearly Idaho doesn't have child labor laws)
I realized my own kids and Ryan had never even seen a potato cellar.
So Justin gave them the tour and explained how it all works.
Let's face it, I have no clue about this stuff.
I was just a teenager who had no other choice but to pick dirt clods
off a conveyor belt for 2 wks a year!
Oh and of course everyone got another good laugh about the year
I passed out and fell off the equipment.
Hey you try staring at a moving conveyor belt with bouncing potatoes
for countless hours straight! lol
Oh and also the year that the boys taught me how to shoot a rifle
during one of the breaks.
They were so kind to tell me the proper stance.
Cross your legs
Lean back
Put the butt of the gun away from your shoulder.
Now carefully pull the trigger.
BOOM
And I went flying flat on my back.
Never trust your brothers and their friends!!! lol
We finally brushed off the dirt, loaded up and headed on to the next stop.
From there we headed past Uncle Boyd & Aunt Nancy's first married home
and then on to Riverside.
Wrestling a cranky baby that should be taking a nap!
Why can't my child just fall asleep like Uncle Kirk?!
(he even had 2 sleeping kids on him as well! lol)
Aunt Marla told us all stories about how incredibly hard working Grandma Norma was.
Her job was never done in between taking care of 5 kids and her husband
while still working just as hard on the farm as any hired man.
When we pulled into the next stop,
a good 'ole fashioned wagon ride was ready and waiting for us!
Poor tired Laiklyn refused to be held on the wagon ride.
So she played on the wooden rickety floor board with Aaron's shoe lace.
I figured we'll see how tight her grip is if those horses take off.
There was a barn full of antique farm equipment and other historical stuff to view.
There was also a huge swingset on the property
so of course the kids ditched the horses and "old rusty things"
to play on that instead!
Eventually we loaded up the tired and wired troops
and headed to the last stop.
The Moreland Cemetary
We visited Grandpa Ralph's and Uncle Rudell's graves
Finally it was back to the starting point.
The Moreland Church
This is actually the church building that I attended as a kid
before our services moved to the bigger stake center building.
The whole gang before they dispersed in a million directions! :)
Gosh I sure do love these people!!
Then he had a late lunch and played 'ole fashioned games
(luckily Lacie took all the game pics since I was on baby duty)
She's my other sister in life!
The Cute Hone Girls
3 Legged Races
Apparently Anden was just going to drag Jake with him!
Sack Races
Judging by the starting stances,
I'm gonna make a safe bet that Casper the Ghost
(aka my son)
on the end isn't going to win!
Adult Sack Races
And then the longest game of Red Rover began!
These kiddos had me cracking up!
This is a very serious game!
Uncle Kirk got called on over
And then Mr. Tough Kirky decided to give the
"I'm watching you Focker" stare lol
The nappers spectators
Then for the grand finale of the
Furniss World Tour 2015 Reunion
we had our own private concert!
Dad hired a local couple that were amazing!
Seriously they sounded better than the original singers!
It was fun and interactive!
At one point they sang "Let It Go" and had the girls all come up and sing with them!
Yes the means nonstop crawling Laiklyn actually had a legitimate
reason to be in front of the stage for once!
After more songs they got on the floor
and we did the Cups song!
Laiklyn thinks she's such a big girl amongst everyone! lol
But then she decided it's more fun to eat your cup
Which Anden succumbed to the cup eating fun too
The concert was really an awesome way to top off the day!
We all had so much fun.
Thank you SO much Papa Nolie for all you did to bring everyone together!!
Now although the official reunion ended there
the after party continued late into the night
in between Dad's house and Grandma's house!
I just love catching up with my family and laughing so hard it hurts!
Truly memorable day!!
And if you didn't get enough pictures here,
check out Lacie's blog!
She's amazing and already had hers posted a few days after!!
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