Our Trip to Idaho-Mount Rushmore

We finally headed home. We decided to take the long way up through northern Yellowstone in hopes to see more wildlife. That's where we saw the sheep, but no luck with anything else--like a bear. Oh well, we see bears at the zoo.

We decided to visit my Aunt Lani in Sheriden on the way back. (Ok, so technically we just used her for her house and cinnamon rolls, but it was still nice to see them for one night.) This is what the road looked like going to her house. Fun, huh?

And since we didn't already have enough driving we decided to take a little detour and see Mount Rushmore. We were surprised to find out that Parker knew who all the presidents were except one. Smart kid! Brenner wasn't too sure what all the excitement was about.
A moment of brotherly love.

We didn't stay long, but enjoyed the stop. There's a lot of stuff around Mt. Rushmore and we decided it might be fun to go back sometime.

All things considered the boys were EXCELLENT on this long trip. (Thank goodness for car DVDs.) Even Brenner hung in there until the end.

Our driver, asleep at the wheel.

It was nice to have some time as a family away from everything, but we were all ready to get back home. That's the way to end a trip, right?

Our Trip to Idaho-My family, Island Park/Yellowstone

After our quick visit with Bob and Amy, we went up to Island Park to a cabin to stay with my family for a few days. On our way up we stopped in Rexburg to see how it had grown and to see the new temple. It's really beautiful and you can see it from all around.

The plan at the cabin was to use the cabin for sleeping, but spend the day(s) in Yellowstone. It made for A LOT of driving. Here are some highlights:

The grandsons (not real thrilled with being photographed). From left: Lucas (Bryonny's), Graham (Aaron's), Aiden, Brenner, Parker (all mine), and Cameron holding Owen (Aaron's).

We saw a lot of bison some on the side of the road; some in the middle of the road.

We saw elk , prairie dogs ,

a big horn mountain sheep , and a coyote (far away).

We watched Old Faithful erupt , and a lot of other geysers too. This one is called The Abyss. This is it erupting and when it's done all the water disappears into this hole. Very cool.

And here is the Morning Glory spring. The geysers and springs were probably my favorite part of the park. Who says you need a double stroller?

This is called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The falls in this area were cool too.

Mammoth Hot Springs. While we were there we came upon a Ranger giving a lesson about the bears in Yellowstone. It was very interesting. Grandma with Brenner and Lucas.

We celebrated Lucas's 2nd birthday one night.

We also built a fire in the fire pit and roasted marshmallows for S'mores. Yummm!

It was fun to see all the sights, but I have no desire to do it again anytime soon. We felt like we were living out of our van. But we're grateful to Aaron and Heather and Heather's family for letting us use their cabin. Thanks!!

Our trip to Idaho-Bob, Amy & Family

After Firth, we headed to Idaho Falls for about a day and a half to visit some good friends there. Unfortunately we didn't really get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked. (You'll notice the lack of pictures.) But we really enjoyed being able to see them.

The boys had fun rocking out in the music room
We watched their dogs swim in the canal.Brenner got his head stuck while watching the dogs.
The boys crossing the bridge over the canal.We let the kids have a break from all the traveling around by going to a park for a little while one day.
Brenner was mimicking what Parker was doing while they were walking back to the car. It was cute.

Our trip to Idaho-Brent, Maddie, & Family

We took a 10 day trip out to Idaho to visit some very good friends and my family. We drove all night (through two HUGE thunderstorms--one of which produced a tornado!) to get to our first stop: Firth, Idaho. Wayne's best friend Brent is from Firth and now he and his family live in British Columbia, Canada. Since they were coming down to visit his family we decided to impose and visit them too. Wayne is very close with Brent's family, so we were able to stay with Brent's parents. (BTW--Brent's nickname is Brenter, which is where our Brenner got his name.) We stayed with them 3 days.
Here are some pictures:

The drive out (it wasn't sundown yet, the darkness is from the storm clouds).

Fun on the trampoline. ( The little girl is Brent and Maddie's daughter Savannah)


The kids liked seeing the swather cut the hay in the field.


Brent's parents' farm was just down the road so we took a trip to see the cows. When we saw this picture we thought it was cute because they almost posed for, "Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil." Playing on the hay.

Brent let all the kids drive the loader.ParkerAiden.
They also got rides on the 4 wheeler. Parker and Savannah
Aiden and David (and Brent)
Parker and Savannah walked back hand in hand from the farm. Of course we made future plans to unite our two families forever. ;-)
And here's a cute picture of the baby. On Saturday Brent's family had a reunion and graciously invited us as well. Parker said it was the best day of his life. Aiden and Savannah playing games. Having fun on the slip 'n' slide. Brenner stood like this in the sprinklers for close to 10 minutes. We were all getting a kick out of him. And he looks so studly with his shirt off.

Then we headed up to the mountains and hiked up a steep hill to this big cave.
Mommy and Brenner in the cave.
A spotted family picture.

We headed out the next morning. It was a really good visit.
'Till next time.