friday flashback 08.27.10

Wow, it's been a while since I've looked for a picture to put here for friday's flashback. Came across this one in the hunt. It actually doesn't look that old, but it's from late February, 2009. So about a year and a half ago.

Looks like we're having fun.

The other reason I probably chose it is because it feels like it's been sooooo long since we were at Disneyland and Ca. Adv. I really wanted to take the kids this week, but there were enough good reasons not to, that I didn't. The biggest reason was, it was just too dang HOT! I wasn't in the mood to have to deal with all that would come with the heat and the kids combined. I wanted to go on Wednesday when Kelly and Danny and other family members were going, that way I would have help with the kids, since Anna's already back in school, but Duncan had cub scouts that night, and they were playing water games, and Duncan REALLY didn't want to miss it. So anyway, I chose the easy route and just stayed home with the kids. Hopefully we can go next week sometime.

Duncan stuff

Before we left on our vacation, there were a few things that Duncan did that I didn't have time to share here on the good ol' blog.

I'll go ahead and do some of that now...


Here's Duncan with the boys in his Wolf den preforming a skit during pack meeting.



Here he is receiving some of the things he's been working on- some ribbons for his BSA 100th Anniversary patch, and the "marbles" belt loop. We're working to get his "Wolf" rank finished up in time for the next pack meeting in Sept.

One of the last things Duncan had to do before the end of the track (or was it 2nd grade?), was a big solar system project. He had to create a model. Anna was all over this project with him. The kit they bought was very basic... it only had the planets! (Go figure.) So Anna bought a bunch of other styrofoam balls and skewers so Duncan could also make the asteroid belts. This is what it looked like when it was done.

Duncan was very happy with his project, as was his teacher. Anna too.

So yeah, those were the things Duncan had going on before our family trip/summer vacation.

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!

Family Vacation part 2- Utah

The second leg of our family vacation was spent in Utah. We spent time in Springville (not Provo), Lehi, West Jordan, and SLC. A H U G E thank you to Danny and Kelly for letting invade their home for four days and five nights! We had a great time!

We got to Springville Tuesday evening. We wanted to eat somewhere unique to the area, and after some time, we ended up at the BYU creamery. The burgers I shared with Anna were pretty good, and the ice cream was quite good too (Anna and I picked at the kids' ice cream). The most notable thing was how busy they were the whole time we were there. The line for ice cream was continuously long.


Once we were done at the creamery, we headed over to a little hole in the wall named Sammy's for Pie Shakes. Sara and Josh swear by these, so how could we resist try some our selves? Anna got the banana cream pie shake. I had the mint oreo pie shake. Kelly and Danny got the pumpkin and coconut ones. They were nice enough to share some bites. They were all very good. And if you're wondering what I "pie shake" is... They put a slice of pie into the shake and blend it all up with the ice cream and milk. It sounds crazy, but it works.

Wednesday, we met my good friend Ginell at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. There's a VERY cool dinosaur museum there. The kids had a blast with all the hands on stuff there is to do there.

Here we are at a build your own dinosaur area.

They got to play Paleontologists.

Also at Thanksgiving Point, there are shops and eateries, garden and farm areas, and this very cool interactive water sculpture. The kids played there for about an hour, and loved every minute of it. It was great fun to watch them try and wet each other.

Tegan preferred to play with the tiny dinosaur toys we bought at the museum.

The ice cream counter had amazing deals! Small kid cones for 25 cents! That's what Jennan and Tegan are enjoying in this picture. The 50 cent cone was quite large, and the dollar cone was even bigger! (Anna and I got the dollar sized ones.)

That night we went to Tucano's for some delicious Brazilian style BBQ. SOOOO good! We stuffed ourselves. The grilled fresh pineapple was awesome.

Thursday we hung out a bit more with Ginell, and also went to dinner with some of the other friends we have out in Utah that are from the old group I ran around with before my mission. Jared came with his two little boys. Kara came with her 4 kids. Even Ginell and Kara's parents were in town, so they came too. It was great to see them all and have a chance to hang out. It just wasn't enough time. Next time we need to spend more of the day all together. A big thank you to Ginell for making the arrangements.

Friday we went to Cabela's to see the "dead animal zoo" as Anna put it. There are tons of taxidermied game animals there. Plus lots and lots of cool outdoor and camping stuff, all under one roof. We met up with my old friend Danny there with his family.

Cabela's is across the 15 fwy from Thanksgiving Point. We went back there to go play in a children's garden we heard about, that had an area where the kids could play in the water. Again, the kids had a great time. After here, we went back to the water sculpture for more water play... and ice cream!

We decided to stay an extra day and go to Temple Square on Saturday. Kelly went with us. (She was with us all day Friday, too.) She was a good guide. Here we are with the Christus in the north visitor's center. There were a lot of things to see at the visitor's center.

We also went to the top of the church office building to look out it's observation deck on the 24th? or 26th? floor (one of those). The elevator gets you up there in 22 seconds! We also saw the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith building. The movie is very well done.


Here are the kids in front of the Salt Lake Temple.

After some lunch, we made it into the conference center. Here is one of the water fountains in one of the lobbies. We got to inside and see how truly HUGE it is, even from the inside! Duncan recognised it as the place we watch church on tv. It was a good teaching opportunity.

We also made our way out to Bridal Veil Falls. Tegan was tuckered out.

Anna and the rest of the kids made it to the base of the falls to check it out. There were a lot of people there. We didn't stay very long. But we were glad to see it.

That next morning we started our (long) drive home. Traffic was HORRIBLE. But we made it home without any problems.

We had such a good time. We already have a list of things to do next time.