POCATELLO — Using as many as it took, the late Lauren Neibaur, 13, had it on her bucket list to fasten balloons to herself and fly toward the heavens.

While a few of Lauren’s friends completed the bucket list in honor of their lost friend, the family of Neibaur and her brother, Eric, 15, both of Pocatello, who died in a fatal car crash last year, wanted to do something special in memory of both kids.

So the family has planned a balloon release to remember Eric and Lauren at the Mountain View Cemetery in Pocatello on June 18 at noon.

“I think it will be good for the kids, Lauren and Eric’s friends, to see that we’ve all made it through the year,” said Bobbi Neibaur, Lauren and Eric’s mother. “I want them to know that we are OK, and we’re going to make it.”

The Neibaur siblings and Nampa resident Jay Lanningham, 70, died on Father’s Day, June 18, 2017, in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 30 near McCammon.

The wreck occurred when Eric was driving westbound on Highway 30 in a red 1999 Chevrolet C1500 pickup truck with his sister as a passenger and drifted into the eastbound lanes, colliding head-on with an eastbound white 2011 Chevrolet Suburban driven by Lanningham. A juvenile passenger, Lannigham’s granddaughter, was critically injured but survived the crash.

“We think about the Lanningham family nonstop,” Bobbi said.

“We aren’t just celebrating Eric and Lauren, we are celebrating their family, too. I just wish that there was more we could do.”

Bobbi said she has done her best to cope with the loss of her two youngest children, with her two eldest, Brenden and Ashley, as well as her sister, Heather, and countless other family members doing their utmost to keep her in good spirits.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever fully recover,” Bobbi said. “There are still those days where I still wait for them to walk in the door or for one of them to call me even though I know they won’t.”

And while it wasn’t on Lauren’s bucket list, both teenagers constantly hounded their mother for a dog before they passed.

“They were always so busy, though,” Bobbi said about Eric, who was a member of the Century High School football team, and Lauren, who competed in competitive gymnastics the previous four years and had just successfully tried out for Century’s cheerleading squad.

Since the loss of her children, Bobbi has brought a dog into the family, a German Shepard and Siberian Husky mix — the type of dog Eric always wanted.

“It was something that I felt I didn’t get to fulfill for them,” Bobbi said. “It’s sad sometimes, but he has been a big help.”

While the new pup, Charlie, has helped ease the pain, Bobbi said she knows she will continue to move forward because of the incredibly caring community of Pocatello and Southeast Idaho.

“Everybody says how strong we are, but really we don’t have a choice,” Bobbi said. “I know that we get through this because the entire community still prays for us.”

Bobbi continued, “I joke that Lauren is up making funny faces to Jesus and Eric is playing trivia with Abe Lincoln but this whole community has just been amazing.”

A parent of one of Eric’s classmates recently approached Bobbi and told her how Eric befriended her daughter at a time when many other classmates were making fun of her.

“She told me that Eric protected her,” Bobbi said. “That he took her out to lunch and was nice to her when other kids would pick on her. To know my kids actually made a difference in people’s lives is one thing that makes me feel OK.”

Bobbi continued, “We’re just trying to make it day by day. Just hang onto your babies tight, because you just never know.”