von Niederhausern Family

Three weeks ago I decided to be adventurous and take Ava and Lauren to a family reunion in Idaho. Even though Steve had to work I didn’t want to miss out on the fun at the Too Lazy to Care Ranch (and that’s really the name of it) with my parents, some of my siblings, and a lot of cousins I hadn’t seen in ages. Ruth and I decided to go one day before my parents were leaving. Ruth and I were going to tap into our mom-power and take Ava, Lauren, Lily, Meg, and Grey in Ruth’s van. Tuesday, the day we were leaving, Ruth had some unexpected things happen, so at 3 p.m. she decided not to go. My parents arrived to get me and the girls so at this point we needed Plan B because now we had no car to ride in. I called Steve but he said our car wouldn’t make it on a 10-hr road trip. My parents went to get their other car (which had no AC but my dad was willing to drive). When they went to pick it up they realized it was not registered. Then we went to Plan D, my Grandma Morris’ car. She said we could take it but Brad and Becca had it at Newton Dam. I called them and they said if we met them there we could take it. So Plan D seemed like a winner. We packed all our stuff into my parent’s car and went to fill up with gas at Smith’s. In the interim I had called Ruth and begged her to meet me at Smith’s to bring me her DVD player so we would survive 10 hours in the car. When we arrived at Smith’s, Brad called me to say the key was locked in my grandma’s car. Well, as my mom rushed home to try to find a spare key for Plan D, Ruth arrived with the DVD player and decided to go to the reunion after all. We went back to Plan A and we took my parent’s van and Ruth’s van and headed on our way to extreme northern Idaho. We had a great time eating, laughing, and shooting off fireworks on the 4th. Family reunions are great. And mom-power is great, because Ruth and I made it safely home after 14 hours in the van with five kids. The High School Musical Soundtrack and Dora the Explorer on DVD are what actually saved us. 

The huge flag that reminded me how grateful I am to live in this free country.

Ava’s favorite thing about the trip was definitely the face painting.

This homemade playdough kept the little ones entertained for hours.

Lauren, Marlee, Ava, Lily

Rides on the fire engine and in the tractor bucket, the TLC Ranch is heaven on earth.

By this day it’s a miracle we got this shot. You can see on our faces the excitement to get in the car for the 14 hour trip back home.