My Kind of Weekend...

Because Friday is a Utah State holiday (Pioneer Day,) Jeff got the day off, so my boss gave me the day off, and we headed home to Boise Thursday night for the Wright Reunion! The Wright Reunions still include my extended cousins, with my Grandpa's siblings and their kids and grandkids, so it's still a huge event.

The reunion was technically only on Saturday, but we headed up Thursday to spend time with my family and my cousins who went up early as well.

Friday morning we went to the Boise Temple with my parents.
(We're trying to get pictures in front of every temple we go to!)


Friday afternoon a bunch of the people in town went up to Lucky Peak to go boating, so we headed up with my brother and his friend. Sadly, we got up there to find the boat wouldn't run. So, we just spent time jumping off the dock, eating bbq food, and teaching all the cousins how to slack line, which was a hit.




That night we took Megan, Cody, Tanner, his friends James and Carly, Mandie, and Allie to the train bridge. Megan and Cody have been talking about it since we attempted at the reunion last year at the farm in Idaho, but we were on the wrong side of the tracks. They wanted to do it for real this time, and you can't go wrong when all trains go on the same track in Boise!

Let me show you what "going to the train bridge" means:

Let me tell you. It's a rush. But that's what you do to entertain yourself in Boise...

Let me tell you about our adventure. Warning: this may be a long story...

We left our house once it got dark, around 10pm. Tanner, James, and Carly were going to ride with us but James’ parents made him go pick his sister up, so he had to meet us there. Lucky for him a train didn’t come before he got there an hour and a half later. While we were trying to find the right exit for the bridge we saw a train on the tracks! So we had just missed it, but Cody and Megan weren’t with us yet, and now we had a time reference. We found the bridge, Cody and Megan made it there, and eventually James. We took a bunch of pictures, hung out, you know, trying to pass the time. We decided to leave after we’d been there for like an hour and a half, but as we were walking down we saw red flashing lights down the tracks. So we all ran back up on the tracks and waited to make sure a train was coming. Well, one never came, so we went back down, and figured out that the red lights were just a radio tower or something. We waited another 20-30 minutes before we saw a spotlight on the trees near the road that leads to the bridge. Cops. Great. We knew it’d be better to get caught in the parking lot, not on the bridge, so we headed back down to the cars.

Once we got to the parking lot we heard a train whistle! Talk about freak out. We all ran back up again, and got down on the platforms as fast as we could. While getting down we heard another louder whistle, saw the train’s headlight on the trees, and then saw 2 cops at the other end of the train bridge with flashlights looking for us! Oh well we thought, it’s too late now! I don’t know where the cops went, but the train came hauling down the tracks and zoomed past our faces, coinciding with a few screams from either Mandie or Carly, or both. It was awesome. I love taking people to the train for the first time. This train was moving pretty fast, and was longer than any I’ve waited for before. The best part, is when the cars with deformed wheels come by, cause they rumble ten time louder than the others, so you hear it coming and getting louder and louder toward you, and then it’s right in front of you and rumbling past. It’s so awesome! Talk about adrenaline!

When it was over we got up and headed back down to the cars. I was really surprised that we didn’t see any cops on the way down, or waiting in the parking lot. Two years ago Jeff, Nate, his friend, and I got caught and the cops just asked us if us girls were there on our own accord, not forced. He knew we’d been on the bridge watching the train, and just let us go. So I was expecting a similar encounter. But they weren’t there. So I told everyone that if they come just tell the truth and we should be fine.

Well we all left, and as we got to the entrance of the pond that the bridge is by we saw a cop car sitting there and a few flashlights down in the marsh. As we went by the cop car pulled out behind us. James was first with Tanner and Carly in his old 92 Honda, then Cody, Megan, Mandie, and Allie in their new Mazda, then Jeff and I in our 99 Honda. I thought, oh good, he’s behind us so we’ll be the ones to get pulled over. But no flashing lights as we pulled out onto the main road… weird. As we got going the cop passed us, and followed Cody and James onto the freeway. I thought great, it won’t be us. He passed Cody and got behind James before he flipped on his lights and pulled James over!

Tanner called me real fast all freaking out, “What do we do!”

I’m like, “Tell the truth, it’ll be fine.”

Then, not 2 miles down the freeway what did we see? Flashing lights in our rear view mirror. So we pulled over and I texted Megan real quick, telling them to get off the freeway. The cop comes to Jeff’s window and says, “What’s going on tonight?” Well that’s pretty vague. How much info do we give?

So Jeff says, “Not much… just watching the train.”

The cop just stared at us like we were idiots. Then says, “Where are you guys from?”

“Utah.”

“Utah, why were you back behind that pond all the way from Utah?”

“Well she’s from around here.”

“Was anyone with you?”

“Ya our cousins.”

“Your cousins?”

“Ya we’re up here for a family reunion.” That inspired that look again. Ha ha.

“Okay…” And he was probably thinking, whatever you crazies. “Can I see your license and insurance.”

Ha ha. He obviously had NO IDEA what “watching the train” means. For some reason we couldn’t find our current insurance card, and he got impatient and said, “It’s ok, we’ll deal with that later. Right now I need you to get out of the car so we can check it. For drugs.” Sweet. So we get out, laughing to ourselves, knowing we have nothing to hide, while he searches our car. It felt pretty awesome standing there at 1:30 in the morning with 2 cop cars behind us on the side of the freeway. Ha ha.

This guy that was with the cops, who was either off duty or just a friend due to his t-shirt and jeans, turns to me and says, “So what were you guys doing back there behind the pond?”

Obviously he didn’t hear the conversation. “Watchin the train.”

His face said, you guys are idiots. Weird idiots. Ha ha. And he looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Watching the train? How many did you see?”

Laughing to myself, “One.”

Then his face said, wow you guys are really retarded. It was so awesome.

Then the first cop was looking in our trunk and said, “You guys going camping?”

“We did recently.” Apparently our air mattresses, Carhartt coat, hiking boots, and blanket needed some explanation.

He then said, “Well we have a lot of drug activity back behind that pond so when we saw 3 cars leave together it looked really suspicious. But your friends we had pulled over back there had the same story. So you’re free to go.” Thank you Tanner and James for telling the truth!

We got back in and I called Megan and said, “Where are you guys?”

She said, “Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We just got off the freway and kept driving.” Ha ha. Well we all made it back to the house and we asked Tanner how their encounter went. He told us the cop asked what they were doing back there, and Tanner said, “We have a family reunion.” Ha ha ha ha ha. That was the first thing he said!

The cop goes, “Family reunion? Back behind the pond?” He probably thought they were lying, and not doing a very good job at it. Family reunion at 1:30am?

“We were watching the train.” And then they looked at him like he was an idiot.

Apparently these cops weren’t aware of the train bridge like others. He told them he pulled them over cause they have an older car, and they have a lot of drug activity. Ouch for the 92 Honda. Apparently the older crappier car with Idaho plates versus the newer cars with Utah plates means he’s the drug dealer. Ha ha. Maybe it was easier to radio for other cops to get us with Utah plates. What an experience. Double time adrenaline. We stayed outside my parents house talking about it and laughing forever. I love my cousins.

The next morning my parents and grandparents made pancakes and eggs for everyone. (And it looks like Jeff helped flip... I was a little out of it at the time...)


Afterwards most of the extended family met at our house and we carpooled/caravanned to go float the river! I love floating the Boise River. It's like a fast, freezing cold lazy river. Which may not sound nice, but when it's a hundred degrees outside and it's beating down on you, it's great!

Everyone

Getting in the water may feel good, but that initial plunge is a shocker!

(thanks Grandma for taking all these pictures of us!)



(and Hailee for risking your camera's life during the float)


After floating the river everyone met back at our house for a potluck bbq. I don't think this yard has ever seen this many cars! They were packed in our driveway, plus lining the culdesac and down the street. Awesome.


After the potluck Tanner had a gig at Smoky Mountain Pizza so a lot of the family went over to watch him play. It was fun to finally see him live and to have all of our immediate family and a lot of the extended come over to support him.


Afterwards we taught some of my cousins how to play Greed. Though we were all really tired I think it was hit.

Sunday we had a way good morning brunch with all the cousins again, and then headed back to Provo in the afternoon. Awesome weekend! I love reunions!