Idaho

The kids and I spent a month in Idaho/Utah in June and July. It was jam packed with fun things, but I only took a handful of pictures. Mostly because our newest camera is on the fritz, but also because we were BUSY. We were there a full month and only had about 2 days that didn't have at least 1 or 2 things going on.  I spent the first week at Amy's in Springville, UT, among other things we took the kids to a princess festival at Thanksgiving point, hit up the splash park, and went to a children's museum in Salt Lake City. Somehow I don't have any pictures of that week...

Then we headed up to Mom and Dad's in Idaho Falls. The Monday before the 4th of July we woke up bright and early to go and see the balloon launch in Driggs. It was a pretty drive, but the balloon festival was a little anti-climatic. Only 5 balloons. I remember going up there as a kid and not only did they have a lot more balloons, it also seemed more magical. Probably because I was little.

After we watched the 5 balloons launch we still had the whole day ahead of us. Literally, it was only 8:30 a.m., so we decided to attend the breakfast that a local group was hosting and then drive down through swan valley and down to Palisades lake to check it out. We used to go camping and boating there all the time when I was little, so it was fun taking my kids there. Taylor and Evan had a great time playing in the water together. Sophie kept wanting to play Snow White or something like that with my Mom and Dad-apparently she is not that into the great outdoors. We did go back up to Palisades to go boating one day during our family reunion later on during our stay and had a really fun time. Today on the way to church Evan was talking about going on Grampa's boat and then playing in the water.

Luckily, Pat was able to come out for a week in the middle of our stay and hang out with us for the fourth of July. We decided to take the kids to Yellowstone National Park while we were there. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of driving. We should have stayed over night or something. We saw ALOT of animals, including buffalo, deer, coyote, a bear, and a moose. It got kind of annoying after a while though, because one little animal on the side of the road would cause a backup of cars for like 30-45 minutes. Take a quick picture from inside your car and move on people... Unfortunately , I had hurt my back a couple of days before our trip and could barely walk, didn't make much fun for the hikes for us. Luckily, Brittany has an awesome chiropracter that was able to get me in while I was down in Brigham City visiting her and I was soon as good as new.

We had a really fun family reunion while we were there. The kids had a good time playing with cousins, swimming at Heise, camping, and eating lots of good food.

Oh and don't forget all of the rain we had! It poured pretty much all weekend, which made for a huge mud puddle in the driveway of the cabin. Of course the puddle was like a kid magnet all weekend. Evan was also talking to me this morning about his cousin "Nater Tater is my friend. We like to play at Grandpa's house." These 2 are about a year apart, but they are going to be a handful in the years to come.

One of Evan's favorite things about Idaho-The doggies.

Oh, and a random 'Evan trying to eat my stamp pad picture'. He keeps me busy.