Family Vacation! Part one- Idaho

Seems like it took forever for the week or our family vacation to come. We had started months and months earlier to plan and make arrangements. And it was finally here!

We planned to go to Idaho and visit Mike and Becky and family- something we had talked about doing for years. And to visit Danny and Kelly, the only ones in the family we had yet to visit. Plus, I had some friends I hadn't seen or visited in a long time in Utah as well. Anna and I were eager to give the kids some memorable experiences in a family road trip vacation setting.

We were offered the use of Anna's mom's van. A Toyota Sienna. It was newer than our van, and would probably fair better. (It did.) It was roomier too. We packed up everything and headed out very early Saturday morning.

Here's my glasses girl! Last time we made a drive like this, Anna was still needing contacts and glasses. Now she's all laser-eye fixed, so this is my new sun-glasses girl. It's about 5am.
Anna's a morning person, so she took the first shift in driving so I could try and sleep a bit more during the first half of the drive. The drive was so easy on us, that Anna ended up driving the whole way up to Idaho.


The evening we arrived in Idaho. We went to go get some ice cream at a local dairy/creamery named Reed's Creamery. Their nationally ranked ice cream was quite good! The kids really liked it, too.

After ice cream, Mike took us over to the falls of Idaho Falls, and to view the temple across the river. It was all very cool.

Each morning, the kids would run out the door and jump on the trampoline in the back yard, before and usually after breakfast. In looking through our pictures, it turns out there are no pictures of all the kids on it at the same time, and none with the girls jumping. Oops.

After church on Sunday, we all went to see the Teton mountains in Wyoming. Here the kids are playing in a a stream that runs through the resort there at the base of the mountains. One of my favorite tourist shirts read, "I like big Tetons", and it had a picture of the Tetons. Funny stuff. It was a cool visit.

After seeing the Tetons, we went a little further and went to Jackson Hole, WY. Here we are in front of one of the famous elk antler arches in the middle of town. We had a fun time window shopping and walking around.

On monday we headed out to Yellowstone. We hadn't specifically planned on going there, but we are so glad we did! We took a LOT of pictures while at Yellowstone. There are a lot of them here, but we have a ton more. Here's some of us in front of a very hot hot spring.

Talking about how and why the water is hot and steamy... and stinky.

Here we are with some very cool mud pots, or mud volcanoes.

Yep, it's a bit stinky.

A mountain fumeral.

The Mammoth Springs Terraces. One of the most colorful, non plant life areas, in Yellowstone.

There's no way for me to describe how happy and excited Anna was to be there, as in Yellowstone, and to be seeing all that we saw. It was sprinkling on us when we were there.

One of my most favorite shots from our time there.

Still at the terraces, but a cool shot of all the steam and the kids walking with Mike.

I can't remember the name of this waterfall, but it's huge.

When we got to some flatter land inside the park, we began to see animals. We saw some female elk, and a lot of bison. Here's the first one we saw. It was very cool.

Not far from that bull was this big bull. I really like this picture too.

We started seeing more and more bison. Some were farther off in the meadows, and some were right by the road, like these.

After a long day of seeing so many cool geological, animal, and forrest sights, we finally made it over to Old Faithful! It was dusk, so it was getting dark fast. As we were waiting, and looking through the gift shop, Mike and Becky offered to watch the kids so Anna and I could walk around the trails in the area. We accepted.

That's what Old Faithful looks like when it's not erupting. It kind of spits out these steam plumes.

Turns out Old Faithful isn't as timely as we thought. It goes off anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour and a half. It chose to take longer while we were waiting. The resort is pretty good at determining when it's going to go, so we were able to plan accordingly. Here's a picture of us waiting for it to blow. It was rainy that day, and it got really cold. But the kids were troopers.

This is how we saw it. Mostly a silhouette. But still very cool. This is as it's just starting. It got quite a bit bigger. The kids were impressed.

The next day was our last day in Idaho. That morning Sammy took each of the kids for a ride on one of the quads. We walked to the canal behind their property and watch their dog Squishy, fetch sticks out of the canal. The kids had a fun time throwing rocks in the water, too.

On our way out, Mike and Sammy took us by a place called, "Pickett's Bambino". It's a fast food place that sells basically a hot-pocket. It's across between a calzone and an empinada. The crust is flaky, and there's pizza topping inside. They also sell dessert ones too. The chocolate-caramel one was really good.

Then one last stop in at Reed's Creamery for some ice cream. This time we went by the calves to pet them and have them suck on the kids' fingers. I don't think any of the kids were brave enough for that, but one calf did try to suck on Duncan's pant leg.

We also stopped back by the temple in Idaho Falls. They have an exhibit with pictures of space from the Hubble telescope, coupled with scriptures. Anna was very touched by the pairings, and wanted to make sure the kids got a chance to see them as well. Anna also wanted a picture of the kids with the Christus there.

Also a picture of the kids in front of the temple as well.

After that, we got on the road and headed down to Utah, for the second half of our family road trip vacation.

We had SUCH a good time in Idaho. The Tetons and Yellowstone were great to go visit. Going to each of those added to the states we drove through. Both places were in Wyoming, and we drove through a small part of Montana to get to Yellowstone. The kids had a fun time keeping track of which states were "visited".

The kids repeatedly declared how much they liked Idaho, and said they want to come back. Anna said she would really like to plan another trip out to Yellowstone to see more of what we had to skip over to make it to Old Faithful.

Mike, Becky, Sammy, and Jacob were all great and helpful with the kids. A huge thank you for letting us crash out at your house for a bunch of days, and for taking us out to some awesome sights.

Oh yeah, I bought a bottle of chocolate milk at Reed's, and snuck it into the van from the kids, so Anna and I could share it. Reed's thickens their chocolate milk with potato flakes... Yep, you read that right, potato flakes... Only in Idaho... but it's sooooo good!