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Another Fun Birthday Celebration3 Jun 2012
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A few pics from our evening with Scott and Rick - was...
Getting ready to back the jet skis down into the lake.
And definitely ready now as Marie and Ben are boarding them to...
| Another wonderful weekend in the Boise area! We started off on Saturday having Scott and Rick over to dinner here at the RV. Like many folks who have never seen the inside of these things, they were pretty amazed at the creature comforts and how spacious it is compared to what they thought it would be like! We had a great time and visit and meal – and later this week we’ll be seeing them again to help Rick celebrate his birthday at a local restaurant! Today we drove over to Linda and Steve’s to go with them, the kids and grandkids out to Lake Lowell for fun on their new jet skis, have a picnic lunch and to help Jerry celebrate his birthday! What a gorgeous setting to spend Jerry’s special day. Lake Lowell is located within the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge and provides an important breeding area for birds and mammals as well as other wildlife. The refuge also plays an important resting and wintering area for birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway. The refuge is one of the oldest refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System and has an interesting history. The Refuge is divided into two sections: Lake Lowell (where we were) and the Snake River Islands. The Lake Lowell sector encompasses 10,588 acres that includes the almost 9,000 acre lake. The Snake River Islands contain about 800 acres and approximately 101 islands. These islands are distributed along 113 river miles from the Canyon-Ad County Line in Idaho to Farewell Bend in Oregon. Initially the area that became Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge was a low-lying area with many springs. In winter, herds of deer and elk came from the mountains to eat the abundant grasses. Consequently, settlers observing these herds dubbed the area Deer Flat. The Oregon Trail passed just to the north of the refuge area along the Boise River and south along the Snake River. Settlement radiated out of the Boise area and needing water to irrigate crops, settlers initially restricted their settlements to the areas close to rivers. The local desert had fertile soil and only lacked water to make it productive for agriculture. And that’s when the obvious solution began; to establish irrigation reservoirs. President Teddy Roosevelt, in response to this problem across the arid west, established the Bureau of Reclamation in 1902. Land owners near Deer Flat, led by Mr. J.H. Lowell lobbied this new agency for a local reservoir to allow them to develop their land. Their efforts were successful and in 1906 work began on Deer Flat Reservoir and later was renamed Lake Lowell in honor of the man who got it all started. The reservoir was finished in 1909 at the cost of $2,500,000 and is now one of the largest off-stream reservoirs in the American west with the capacity to irrigate over 200,000 acres of land! However, our day today was all about fun; jet skiing, enjoying the gorgeous day, the Lake, the company and having friends to help celebrate Jerry’s birthday with us. What fun we had. Jerry had not only his first jet ski ride with Linda at the helm, but then Steve had him get on to ride it himself with his son, Ben behind him to ensure he had the lay of the land, the knowledge of the jet ski and just there for moral support – Jerry was pretty much grinning ear to ear the entire time! And then Steve took him at again and really gave him the “thrill ride”. I was the only one who didn’t go out on the jet ski and not because I didn’t want to, but didn’t remember to bring anything to hold my glasses on in the event of going off the ski and opted not to lose my only ability to see, haha! Hopefully there will be a next time and I’ll be better prepared! Linda, Marie and Marissa prepared great picnic fare for us to enjoy after several hours out on the water. We were also joined by their long time family friend, Brian who arrived with his boat in tow – so jet skis, boating and rafts being towed behind each filled up our entire afternoon! We brought psychedelic colored cupcakes for Jerry’s “birthday cake” and what a treat Jerry experienced. All four granddaughters, Alyssa, McKenzie, Paris, and Macie along with McKenzie’s best friend Trinity serenaded Jerry with the Happy Birthday song complete with dancing and “cha-cha-cha” added to the end of each line of the song – it was darling! We both would also like to thank all of you who sent e-cards, e-mails, snail mail cards, and calls to help Jerry celebrate – definitely made his day. It was definitely another one of those magical, fun-filled and special days we thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks so much. Till the next time . . . P.S. To those friends who have expressed their disappointment in us not receiving the cards they sent to either of us on various occasions, guess the best thing I can say to that is to remember we probably order our mail delivery about once every 4-6 weeks, and so if there is an occasion you want to send us a card for, just send it any time you want and annotate on the envelope "do not open till x-date" and we always hold any and all cards to open on our special days or occasions - hope this helps! |
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