Dopp Reunion

Two weeks ago we went camping with the Dopp family up City Creek Canyon above Junction.  It was a lot of fun! This is my most favorite time of year... Lots of time outdoors with family!  :~>!

There was only one unfortunate incident of which sadly I'm to blame...it was when I pulled a pop can out of Ivy's hand and cut her finger pretty bad :~<. I got so nauseous about what I'd done. I'm pleased to report, however, that it's healed very nicely!!

you'll notice we are doing exercises in some of these pictures...my nephew Kevin has a hip problem and has to work out alot more so we were doing exercises with him.

Our four wheeler has been the best investment this summer by far!!  $300 and it runs great...plus, I can start it haha!!!

Idaho / Montana vacation

It's road trip time!!

We left for McCammon, ID on Friday, July 13.

We are now the road to Helena, but let me tell you about McCammon:

Dirk's dad, Arlan, grew up in McCammon, ID and so that's where we held the reunion this year. It was a great time! Arlan's sister Marlene still lives in McCammon and we did most everything at her house, although our fifth wheel was parked in an empty field across the street along with Estella and John's trailer and Herb's trailer (Arlan's brother).

I've never met most of Arlan's family other than Marlene / Bruce and Dean / Brenda so this trip was a real treat. I really like his family! They are all very nice!

Arlan's family has endured some tragedy along the way: His oldest brother Sidney was murdered at the young age of 30 back in 1967. He had 5 kids at the time. Of Sidney's kids there has been tragedy as well, but this weekend I met Tina, Sid's oldest daughter (I think) and she's terrific!!!

Arlan's mom also had a few baby's that died right after birth (either two or three). I'll have to get more information about these. Arlan's moms name was Thelda and she was a nurse by trade. She studied up in Logan. Arlan's fathers name was Ariel and he worked on the railroad an we are not sure what else. I will be happy to meet them someday :-).

Marlene prepared and picture scavenger hunt yesterday and that was fun!! We split up into groups and walked around town finding the things she had given us pictures of. Estella, Emma, Carmon and I were on a team along with Ivy, Adan, Hazel and KayLee ( we were a bit handicapped with so many little ones). Fortunately, Estella knew where most everything was so it didn't take us long. We did meet up with the guy team at some point so Dirk and I stayed at the elementary school to play with some of the kids. I'm SO glad we made it to the reunion!!!!

Proud to be an American!

Happy 4th of July (a couple of weeks late)!!! We had lots of family at our house for the fourth: Julia and her kids along with my parents and little sis Emma! It was such a great time! Joseph city had an event at the park so we brought a salad and ate dinner their. We didn't stay for the fireworks show though as it was windy so we just went home and did some small ones there.

Most of the state was on a fireworks ban because there were so many fires and we were pretty much in a drought! We've since had rain and are doing much better (thank goodness)!!

I'm grateful for our country and hope that Dirk and I can do our best to help keep our country good and moral, great and free!!!

Long lost family

In April i attended a Nikken event in Austin, TX. It was an awesome event, but i had the opportunity to meet my mom's cousin Ben while I was out there. My mom has two cousins - Ben and Glenna whom I'd never met either until this year! Isn't that crazy??! Yes, it is. I have some pics on my phone so I'll post those soon. Ben is about 64 years old... Single guy, retired architect, Banjo player. He wants to buy an RV and start traveling north America. How cool is that?! Anyways, as soon as I saw him I knew he was a Stockton (I think I have a lot of Stockton in me too... He could prob pass as my dad looks wise).Hopefully he will pass through Utah on his upcoming adventures!!