Snakes, parties, parades: Pocatello family to host several fun, family-friendly events in coming months
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POCATELLO — Snake River Doodles’ “Southeast Idaho Days” will offer a parade, live music, bounce houses, and so much more. It’s just one of the numerous events Nikki and Frank Jorgenson will host this spring and summer.
Southeast Idaho Days is an amalgamation of several events the Jorgensons host yearly — like Pocatello Kids’ Day and Thrills ‘N Chills. As they continue to add new events, Nikki explained, it has become difficult to keep up. So, this year, they took some of their favorite activities from separate events and put them together in one two-day festival.
All the events the Jorgensons — who run PocatelloEvents.com — host are either free or low-cost admission. Many of them offer some educational or informational aspect.
“We have five kids,” Nikki said, “and now we’ve got a fourth grandkid on the way. When we raised our kids here, there weren’t a whole lot of things to do in Pocatello that were free, interesting and educational. So, we wanted to bring some of that.”
Southeast Idaho Days will offer local families a weekend of fun the first weekend of May. It begins Friday at 5 p.m. — with the first 100 attendees getting free access to a baked potato bar.
Throughout May 3 and 4, the event — held at the Bannock County Event Center — will offer food trucks, craft vendors and fun for kids, including bounce houses and face painting.
Friday’s festivities conclude at 8 p.m. but pick right back up at 10 a.m. Saturday, when attendees will be treated to a parade, followed by a free petting zoo, free horse-drawn wagon rides, a Power Wheels race and more.
The event will also include live music.
The Jorgensons are hoping to include a car show — which they have in the past — but signups are down this year, so the show may be nixed, Frank said. Anyone interested in showing off their ride can still sign — here.
Other events from the Jorgensons
The Jorgensons, who run the Snake River Doodles’ traveling petting zoo, will also host a pair of interactive reptile experiences. The Wild Reptile Adventure will make stops at The Heart Event Center in Idaho Falls on April 25 and Jungle ReTreat Ice Cream on April 27.
Attendees will be able to interact with at least seven species of reptiles — from boa constrictors and pythons to box turtles and leopard geckos.
They will learn fun facts about those animals as well as how to safely and respectfully enjoy the reptiles indigenous to southeastern Idaho.
The Idaho Falls event requires a $10 admission fee.
Thills ‘N Chills, another event the Jorgensons have scheduled for the coming months, brings the fun of Halloween and spooky season to the summer.
On June 21 and 22, Nikki explained, many of the region’s popular haunted house groups will gather at the Bannock County Event Center, along with food trucks and vendors selling what Nikki referred to as “oddities.”
Frank, who passionately spearheads the couple’s SRD’s Haunt — a haunted house at the Bannock County Event Center — has found a way to take on his chainsaw-wielding clown to months outside of October with the SRD Haunted Trial.
Thrills ‘N Chills includes the petting zoo, reptile adventure, fire performances, camping and more.
As Nikki told EastIdahoNews.com, she and her husband like to “pack in the fun” whenever possible.
For more information about these events and others, visit the Pocatello Events website — here — or Facebook page — here.