July 14 – After breakfast, we all gathered for a family photo. This photo didn’t include everyone who came, but it included a lot of us (about 100).

The siblings: Grandma Anderson, Aunt MaryAnne, Uncle Bill, Aunt Pat, Uncle Brent (Uncle Darwin wasn’t able to make it because he was suffering from shingles)

We drove up to the ghost-town of Custer for the Custer-days celebration. The canyon leading up to the town was other-worldly looking with the giant piles of rocks strewn along the canyon floor. We later learned that this was from the gold mining still going on in that area. Once we got close to the town, we had to park and either wait for a shuttle or walk. We opted to walk the mile-and-a-half to the town.

At the town, we mined for gold. With the help of a professional gold panner, we each found at least one little speck.

They had all sorts of yummy treats to try: homemade ice cream, dutch-oven cobbler, and cotton candy.

They reenacted a shootout while we were there.

We drove down to Stanley to do some souvenir shopping and then headed back up to the ranch.

This kids (and Grandpa) played on the slide until it was time for dinner.

After dinner, we had a blast playing candy-bar bingo!

Then we played outside until it got dark (which is REALLY late in Idaho).

Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Pat

Grandpa and Millie

Playing volleyball again, this time with a beach ball because Uncle Jed left with his nice soft volleyball.

The next morning we cleaned up, said our goodbyes, and drove back to Woods Cross to Grandma and Grandpa Dewey’s home. The next morning we flew home well before the sun rose.

It was a good thing we got home early because we found our refrigerator at a balmy 85* and we had to deal with that the rest of the day. We bought a new one, trucked it home, got it into the house and then got the old stinky one out all before we could go to bed.