Rexburg Part 1

On Friday June 7th, as soon as Scott got home from work around 2:00pm, we loaded in the car and headed to IDAHO!  We weren't sure how far we would get or if  and when we would stop, we just at least wanted to get started.  At around 9 pm, the kids were starting to drift off to sleep and Scott whispered to me, "lets just drive through the night eh?" OK!  We got out the kids' pillows and helped them to be more comfortable, and got some energy drinks!  Scott drove until 3 am while I tried to sleep, and then I drank my first Red Bull (nasty stuff, but it did help), ate some sunflower seeds, while listening to my broadway playlist and drove from 3-8.  By then the kids were starting to wake up so we found a Denny's somewhere in Wyoming and ate breakfast and figured that we only had about 5 hours left!  I felt like a zombie, but Scott felt ok so he got back into the drivers seat. We made it to Rexburg in about 24 hours total!

 

Somewhere in Wyoming Scott had to pee, um BAD so he did it in front of the car!

When we got there Scott just had to take a nap, I stayed up until about 8:30pm with the help of some Excedrin! 

Madelyn giving Grandpa a makeover:

Grandma and Grandpa are so sweet, they put out a sandbox for their grandkids!

and Grandpa caught this weird butterfly/moth thing for observation

We went to the civil defense caves  with my dad, brothers and some nieces and nephews and ran into a herd of sheep, more like a couple hundred herds!

Scott took Rylan up to hike "R" mountain

We went to Warm River and fed some huge trout!

Ian was really excited to watch the fish!

Then we took a hike to Mesa Falls

Ahh now that is what we call Idaho!  You can't see a view like this in Chicago!

We stopped in Island Park to visit my nephew Jake who is working as a boatman at a resort along the river.  The kids just LOVE him.  I am pretty sure there was a fight between who got to sit by him.

Fry sauce!  Why is this just an Idaho/some parts of Utah thing?  It is so delicious!

The following day we went to Yellowstone.  Mom and dad have passes and took us to all the hot spots.  We saw a lot of bison,

and some spectacular views!

Had a picnic along a river,

but then it started to rain and there was thunder so we ran back to the car

and drove to some natural hot spots

good thing Grandma brought umbrellas and ponchos!

It cleared up just in time for Old Faithful
                                     

Waiting anxiously for it to begin . . .

 

Ian liked the "allcaino" (volcano), I guess geyser was harder to say?

  It was a great day!

 

Some more pictures from our visit:

we played tennis with Grandma who is a tennis star

 while Grandpa played at the park with Ian and Maddy

The kids also had a great time playing with uncle Ira on his trampoline

 Love this picture!

 My brother Jared invited us to go on a hike with him and his kids Grace and Carson, it was beautiful!

 Madelyn was so excited that she had found this huge dandelion! She also found a ton of rocks that she wanted to keep, one was about half the size of her head, I told her I wasn't going to carry it, but I found out when the hike was over her Uncle Ira kept it for her in his pocket! 

 We spotted some osprey and their nest they were circling around, we think they must have had some babies in there.

 This is my brother Ira, hiking in some crocs!

My parents live right by the Rexburg temple!

I was really good about being physically active while I was with my mom, one day it was really windy and it kept blowing her hat up and making us laugh hard!

                                                     

After Rexburg I took Scott to the SLC airport and stayed the week with my sisters. . .