Gerald's Clan 2017

Gerald & Tena

Don't really have any news they say a picture is worth a thousand words same old routine Church watch grandkids play sports occasional camping trip occasional pack trip into the mountains with the horses hope everybody's doing fine love Gerald and Tena 

Nathan and Linda

We hope everyone is doing well.  We had a great time seeing everyone at the reunion.  It was so much fun.  Thanks to the Ken Humpherys Family for the time and effort put into it.  I feel like I write the same things every year, but here we go again.

Nathan is still working for Union Pacific.  He gets to travel all over.  I was able to go with him last August to California for a week.  It was a lot of fun.  We got to see Newell, Sally, Damien, Kenny and Myrna.  It was a week of doing nothing but relaxation.  I plan on doing it again this coming summer. 

Nathan and I went to the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament in Salt Lake City.  I love it!  I look forward to it every spring. 

I am teaching 4^th grade.  I have started my Masters in Educational Leadership program.  I am hoping to graduate next June.

Trae and I got to go on a fun horse ride with Shawn, Shane, all of their kids and my dad.  We rode to Union Falls.  It was about a 7mile each way ride.  I made it all the way.  Shawn and Shane had bets how long I would last.  It was so much fun.  I hope they include me again.

Nathan and I attended many concerts, Def Leppard being my favorite.  I go every year.  Maddy and I went to Tim and Faith Hill.  It wasn’t as good as when Tim is by himself.

Nathan bought me a kayak for Mother’s Day.  He talked my dad into getting my mom one.  We only got to go twice, but plan on going a lot more this coming summer.

Carter got married in December.  They are doing great and plan to write their own newsletter, so I will let them tell you all about it.  They are living in Rexburg and are attending BYU-I. 

Trae and Marley will be writing one as well.  They live in Pocatello and Trae will be graduating this spring.  Marley was accepted to the dental hygiene program.  She will finish her first year in May. 

Maddy graduated last May.  She is living at home and is working in Idaho Falls.  She is engaged, and will be getting married to Eric Roisum in July.  He is a super nice guy, and we are excited to have him in the family. 

Nathan and I are excited to be empty nesters. We are officially done with sports.  All of our kids will be married this summer.  Our lives have been transitioning quickly, and we are enjoying all of our new adventures.

Love You All!

Shawn & Hilary

Shawn has been a deputy at the Sheriff’s office for 13 years now.  He continues to work patrol and has worked a lot of night shifts this year in order to accommodate his other activities.  He continues to work both road patrol and marine patrol.  He has a lot of fun stories to share of his different experiences.  He has a real talent to diffuse situations and is a great officer.    He was able to go on a few pack trips with his mules this year and loves to spend his time in the saddle with his friends and family.  He also was able to get a motorcycle this year and went on a couple of fun rides.  Shawn has been able to coach the kids in their basketball endeavors. He coached Hayden in a few tournaments over the summer, helped coach Hadley’s traveling team, was the assistant girls coach for Hadley’s team at the middle school again and takes all of the kids to his various practices to help them grow their talents.  Our kids are so lucky to have such an involved father who spends time and effort on them. 

Hilary is just trying to keep up with her kids and all of their activities.  She continues to work full time.  She is still an RN and working at Health West in the Quality department.  Her job lets her attend almost all of her kids activities and she is so thankful for that.   Shawn, Hilary and Tena will be going to Europe in March to visit Hilary’s father who is currently on a mission in Belgium.  She was released from her calling in Young Women this year.  She and Shawn were called to be Sunday School teachers for the 14-15-year old kids- this is Hayden’s class.   She was also recently called to be the ward girls camp director so will be busy with that this summer. 

Hayden turned 16 this year.  He is a sophomore in high school and started driving.  He played on the JV basketball team and had a successful year.  His team struggled at times during the regular season but went out on a high winning the JV High Country Conference Championship.  He had some medical problems during the year that affected his season but it doing well now.  Hayden went to his first concert this year with his mom.  They saw Hollywood Undead, which is his favorite band.  Don’t look it up if you haven’t heard them because you probably won’t like it and they swear a lot!  He loved it and Hilary learned not to hate their songs.  He enjoyed pack trips with his dad and just being a kid this year.  Hayden loves to tease and fight with his siblings.  He is a good brother and a good kid. 

Hadley will be 14 this year and is in the 8^th grade.  She played volleyball, a lot of basketball, and ran track.  She is the student body president at her school this year and is doing an amazing job at keeping her grades up.  Hadley’s traveling b-ball team went all over again this year.  We found ourselves in Utah several times, Reno, and Las Vegas.  Hadley loves basketball and has been a successful player.  Her school team had an undefeated year and Hadley was a big part of that.  Hadley is so much help at home.  She helps get her little siblings ready when mom has early morning meetings and has helped cook many meals this year. 

Hallie will be 11 this year and is in the 5^th grade.  She plays volleyball and basketball as well.  Hallie is our little social bug and loves to be with her friends.  She has been able to be the water girl for Shawn & Hadley’s school team and gets to attend and participate in their practices and she loves it!  Hallie is the shortest person in her class and on her teams but she does not let that stop her from being super successful.  Hallie is also a baby charmer.  At all of the many games we go to, she is almost always seen walking around with a baby on her hip.  Many of the mothers have told me how much they appreciate Hallie because with her help, they get to watch the game. Hallie does really well in school and takes pride in getting good grades.  She is also very helpful at home and keeps her little brother on track in the mornings.  

Hunter turned 8 this year and is in the 2^nd grade.  He will be baptized in April, he decided to wait for Hayden to turn 16 so that Hayden can baptize him.  He spends a lot of time in the gyms right now watching his brother and sisters play their various sports.  He also played Jazz basketball this year and loved it.  Hunter is a comedian and loves to make us all smile.  He does really well in school.  He loves basketball, Star Wars and Godzilla.  We are so blessed to have him and love him so much. 

Shane & Nicole

2017 was good to us! Shane started coaching the high school jv basketball team! Him and our boys had a blast! They had a great season finishing at 18-4

He has also stayed busy still running the massage school and serving in young men's.

Nash just turned 11 and is in 5th grade. He played tackle football again this year and had an undefeated season!! He has also been playing basketball and I have to say he reminds me more and more of Shane all the time. He has been so much fun to watch!!!

Sloane is 9 and in the 3rd grade. She played her first season of basketball this year and she did so good and had so much fun. She is also dancing!

Hayes is 5 and is in kindergarten this year. He played flag football this year and got a strip 6 he is pretty proud of. He is still making us laugh everyday!!

Jayde just turned 4. She got to be a part of a neighborhood joy school. We both had so much fun with that. She is so excited to go to school with the big kids. I'm glad we have one more year before she's too grown up!! Hope everyone doing good!!! – Shane & Nicole

Trae + Marley Pilster

 Year 2017

 We didn’t have much going on in the year 2017. It was our one year anniversary on May 13th! We spent a week in Tennessee exploring the Smoky Mountains, walking down broadway street, toured the Country Music Hall of Fame, and of course eating some delicious southern food. Marley has some family in Knoxville and went and spent some time with them. Marley loves Tennessee and wants us to live there someday. Trae has applied to a PA school in Knoxville Tennessee, Methodist University in North Carolina and Mercer in Georgia. 

Marley got into Dental Hygiene school at Idaho state university and started this last August. The Dental Hygiene program is a 2 year program so she will be graduating May of 2019. Trae will be graduating this Spring in May of 2018 with his Bachelors degree in Exercise Science. After that we will just be waiting to hear from schools to see where our life is going to take us next. 

Carter & Carley Pilster
Hello Everybody! This is Carter and Carley Pilster’s newsletter. This past year we graduated from Snake River High School. We dated our senior year of high school. Then we spent the summer working and attended BYU-I in the fall and winter. During our first semester we got engaged in October, and married December 16^th! We went to Cancun, Mexico for our honeymoon. We live in Rexburg, Idaho and are just finishing up our second semester of college. Hope everyone doing good!!!

Gerald & Tena 2016

Dear Family

The year 2016  was a interesting year to say the least. I will try and wrap it up in the fewest words

 possible.  Went on about 5 pretty nice horse rides.  One of the rides was a two night stay with Shawn and Shane up at the upper Palisade lake. Shane took his oldest boy Nash, and Shawn took his oldest boy Hayden. They are getting to be quite the cowboys.   A beautiful 7 mile ride with two beautiful lakes and a spectacular view on the trails.  A view that changes around every corner. The trail has about 7 bridges on it which makes the trail that much more fun.  The bridges proved to be a big challenge to us this time however.  Shane had just traded for a new mule for Nash.  This mule, his name is Scout will go anywhere and do anything for Nash.  He is very gentle and safe. Scout has one problem, he will not cross bridges.  I tried every trick I knew to get him across including blindfolding him.  This trick almost turned out to be a disaster. I will leave the rest of that story up to your imagination. Long story short, Shawn ended up dragging the mule across seven bridges with the mule hanging back and butt on the bridge.  Great trip with great family with great food.  We had two awesome rides into Union Falls.

Union falls is the second largest water fall in Yellowstone at 250 feet.  Spectacular view. It has a great hot springs swimming hole. On that trip we had all four of Shawn's kids riding there own mule.  Shawn is going through the mule stage right now. 

Tena and I have been very busy with our church jobs working with the young single adults. These kids grow on you.  Tena and I have also been to a lot of football and basketball games.  Trae finished his football career at Idaho State University and Madison finished her basketball career at college of Idaho. Hadley, Hayden, Hallie, Hunter and Nash are also heavy into Basketball.

Tena and Linda had a very fun trip to St, George where Carol, Blair and NaDean showed them a very good time.  I am going to get her back on a horse for at least one ride this summer.

She proved to be a very good nurse helping me through my knees being replaced.   I could not have made it without her help.  I want to thank her for that from the bottom of my heart.

Ok so far this letter has been my life for the last several years. The rest of the letter is going to be a little different. 

By no way am I looking for pity or sympathy but this is a newsletter and I am about to report the news.

This Story started on April 1^st.  I was riding horses with Shawn and Shane on the Rexburg sand dunes. I was on a big black mule.  We were looking for elk and deer sheds.  I wandered off about 100 yards from the rest of the group.  As I was coming down a really steep hill the saddle slid forward and caused the mule to buck.  I had no chance on the steep hill and got thrown off.  It was a long way to the ground as you can imagine being on such a steep hill.  I landed on my side onto a 4 inch branch. Long story short I came out of the sand dunes on a dune buggy not a mule.  I broke 3 ribs and had a partially collapsed lung. This laid me up for a few weeks.  If anyone reads this in the near or distance future please note there is a lesson to be learned.   Don’t wander off on a green mule. Ride with a cropper, and walk  your horse down steep hills.  This mule had never bucked before.  It was human error not mule error.  Most of the wrecks I have had with horses could have been avoided, had I used better judgment, more caution and not over estimating myself.  No one is bullet proof.  I am not a spring chicken anymore.  We have to use better judgment as we get older.  Such it is in life.  Most of the wrecks we encounter  could be avoided if we stop, think and use some common sense.

This mule experience seemed to start a chain of events to the Doctors office.  Later on about August I

had another kidney stone.  I have had over 20 kidney stones in my life, some of them are not painful but many of them are very painful.  One cannot describe a kidney stone  experience, you have to have had a bad one in order to know what I am talking about. I know that many in the family have had one. 

In October I decided I had had enough knee pain so decided to get a double knee replacement. This seems to be turning out alright. Hopefully when a year has gone by I will be glad for this decision.  On December 28 I had a 'turp' procedure done on my prostrate.  This procedure might be more commonly know as a router rooter.  I am hoping all these events will pay off for the the year 2017 and years to come.

I am feeling fine and have been back on my horse one time. 

About now, after reading this letter you must be saying to your family that Gerald is on drugs. Nay not so says I. I have not had a pain killer for 6 weeks or so.  Maybe my mind will get back to normal again as well.

Dad would say “such is life”. I know we have all had various challenges in life big and small.  I hope and pray we all come out on the other side of our individual adversities, a better and stronger person.  May you all be abundantly blessed through 2017 and the years to come.

Love you all

Gerald and Tena Humpherys

Linda & Nathan 2016

Nathan and Linda Pilster Family 

Madison will be graduating from college in May.  Four years have flown by so fast.  She had agreat year with basketball and does really well in school.  She made the All Academic Team 

this year, which is very difficult to do at the College of Idaho.  She is trying to decide what to 

do next.  She is thinking about continuing to get her education by getting into a medical 

program or get a masters degree.  

Carter will also be graduating this year.  He has applied to BYUI and hopes to start in 

September.  He had a great football season this year.  He made the second team 

all-conference team as a running back.  He is such a fun and good kid to be around.  He 

makes me laugh all the time.  He loves being the only kid left at home, but he loves it when 

everyone comes home to visit.  He is doing track right now and he is enjoying his senior year.  

Nathan is still at Union Pacific and I am teaching 4th grade.  This is my twelfth year.  I am 

starting my masters program soon in Education Leadership.  Not really looking forward to 

school, but it will be worth it when I’m done.  We have enjoyed going to games and concertstogether.  

Trae and Marley are doing great.  I won’t say much because I know Marley is writing a 

newsletter for them.  

I love all of you very much, and I always look forward to our reunion when I get to see all of 

you. 

Trae & Marley 2016

Trae and Marley’s Run Down of the Year—

Where to start with such a crazy/fun year…….

Trae had is last season of Football this year. Starting off at Wide Receiver, then finished off the season at QB.  He started at QB against Eastern Washington and had some great TD passes. He still has about a year of School left hoping to take summer school classes so that he can graduate this Winter with his Exercise Science Degree and than applying to PA school next Fall. Currently Working at State Hospital South.

Marley had a little scare in August when a sneeze led her to the Hospital. She was having major Migraines after she sneezed, and a couple days later one side of her face started to go numb. We Took her up to the hospital and they did a CT scan and it showed that she had a blood clot in her brain. The 5 days in the hospital consisted of: watching the Olympics, eating lots of Ice cream, and taking a lot of blood thinners.  The blood clot is now gone and everything is back to normal. Marley has been working for a Psychiatrist in Pocatello and just applied to the Dental Hygiene Program at Idaho State and just waiting to hear back if she got in or not.

We have been married for 10 months and will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary on May 13th. 

Shawn & Hilary 2016

Hey Humpherys family things are great here in the Shawn Humpherys family. Kids are doing great. We have been busy with basketball this year. All four of my kids have played this year so sometimes we have had 5 or 6 games a week. I was able to coach Hadley's 8th grade school team this year. Hadley is only a 7th grader but plays on the 8th grade team. We won the conference championship this year. The Blackfoot 8th grade girls haven't won a championship in many years I think the last time they won was when my dad started out his carrier coaching them many years ago. We are going to travel alot this summer for basketball going to Vegas twice, Reno, and Oregon.  It is a lot of basketball but we love every minute of it. 

Hunter is in 1st grade still loves to make people laugh and will do almost anything to get them to. As all of you who knows Hunter he has such a soft little heart and is so nice to all the other little kids at school no matter who they are. Hunter loves playing at his grandma's house almost everyday when he gets home from school the first question that he asks is can I go to Grandma house and as you all know my mother you know why he loves being over there so much. Hunter loves riding horses and went on his first long ride with me to Union Falls in Yellowstone National Park. He rode his own mule all the way out 8 Miles and he loved it.  

Hallie is in 4th grade and is as girly as ever loves to do her hair and pick out everybody's clothing and is sure to let us know if we match or not.  She loves little kids, at basketball games we can always count on seeing her over in the corner toting around one of our friends babies on her hip. Hallie did find an aggressive streak that we have not seen before in basketball this year she loves to rebound and play tough defence. She has become quite the little point guard. Hallie also loves to ride horses her first long ride was also to Union Falls with me she rode the mule in and traded Hunter and let him ride out. When they were not riding by them selves they were riding double with Hayden.

Hadley is in 7th grade this year and absolutely loves to play sports. Hadley lives for basketball, but is doing track and Volleyball as well, she made the 8th grade volleyball team as a 7th grader this year as well as the basketball team. In the last two games of the season which would be the semi-final game and the final game of the basketball tournament. Hadley played two of the best games I have ever seen her play. She scored 17 points in each of them and had at least that many rebounds as well she is a beast.  Hadley is a favorite in our Ward as a babysitter and frequently baby sits in the evenings for other Ward members I can't believe she's getting that old.

Hayden is in 9th grade this year and is becoming a little man. Hayden also lives for basketball and loves playing. Hayden has got his driving permit which scares me to death. He still has to drive with a parent for now. I let him drive home from Brigham City Utah the other day which was a very interesting experience I think I saw my life flash before my eyes a few times. As Hayden is getting older he is becoming more and more interested in horses and loves to ride with me. Our plan is to go on several pack trips to the mountains this summer. Hayden is taking his transition into a young man with stride he is a leader within the young men in our church and is a great influence to the people that look up to him.

Me and Hilary are doing great. Hilary still works for a place called Health West and is executive director of quality and Improvement in the company. Hilary does good working and trying to wrangle our kids everywhere they need to go and making it to all the games and doing everything that a mother should do. I am still working for the Sheriff's Office my job gets more and more interesting in these times. 

Shane and I were able to go on a hunting trip for Elk in the headwaters of the Yellowstone 30 miles back in the Wyoming wilderness this last year. It was one of the greatest experiences. I cannot even put into words the beauty and wildness of that country. Our hunt was very successful but very hard as well it was definitely a test of our wills. 

Another highlight of this last summer that I talked about a little bit earlier was taking my four kids and my dad to Union Falls in Yellowstone National Park. Union Falls is the second highest waterfall in Yellowstone but is only accessible by hiking or horseback with a 16 mile round trip.  Within a half of mile of Union Falls is a River that is bathtub warm because of all the hot springs that run into it. In that River is a place called Scout pool that you can swim in and jump off the cliffs into it. It was a lot of fun for my kids and we plan on doing it again this summer.

Love you Humpherys family and look forward to seeing you.