Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend we enjoyed a much needed break from school and were able to have a lot of fun. On Sunday we had a get-together after church at my parent's house. Grandma, Uncle Paul and Uncle Fred and their families joined us for lunch and then we all headed to see some of the grave stones in this area. Although we weren't able to go because Isaiah was still taking his much needed nap. (He always has a hard time recovering from church since it throws him way off schedule.) Then that night Hannah and Mary came over and stayed the night at our apartment. We made evel-skeevers and got ready to go camping early the next morning. We stayed up too late, but it was lots of fun!
Then Monday morning bright and early we (my parents, Pete, Beck, Sarah, Hannah, Mary, Me, Casey and Zaya) all headed about an hour and a half west of Rexburg. We were planning on going to Meadow Lake. As we drove up the mountain and reached higher elevation the dirt road was so deep with snow that we couldn't go any further. A few minutes later a park ranger showed up and made sure we weren't stuck. He saw us going up the mountain and knew we wouldn't make it! He must have thought we were crazy. He told us there was still 4 feet of snow on the lake and they don't plow the roads until around the 4th of July. So we turned around and headed back down the mountain. On our way back down we stopped at an old ghost mine town which we passed on the way up. It was pretty neat seeing all the old buildings and looking down the mine shaft. Since we couldn't go to the lake we went to Birch Creek which we had passed on our way up.
We set up a tent there to relax in and for Zaya to get his nap. We made dutch oven potatoes, fried chicken, green salad, and cherry/blueberry cobler! It was so delicious. While we cooked the food, Casey and Pete went fishing. Casey caught three little fish, but didn't have a whole lot of luck. After lunch was over we packed up all of our things and went about five minutes down the road to Skull Canyon. There we hiked the mountain and looked for petroglyphs in the old indian caves. We didn't find any, but Mary found part of an indian arrow head and we found some really cool fossils. It was lots of fun exploring.
After that we drove back towards home and stopped at Mud Lake becuase we didn't want to come all that way and not use the canoe. So Dad and Casey went canoeing while the rest of us slept in the cars. We were all exausted. Then Hannah, Mary, Pete, and Casey all crammed in the canoe and went around the lake. They had fun but had no luck catching any fish there. It was a really fun trip and it was fun to just spend time together enjoying the beautiful outdoors and not worrying about school at all! I was surprised how well Isaiah did being outdoors for so long. What a good little trooper!

Beautiful scenery

Some of the deserted buildings from the old mine town.

Me in the mining shaft entrance

Mary in the mining shaft entrance

Zaya and I at Birch Creek

Mary in one of the old Indian caves

Casey and Dad in the canoe at Mud Lake

Juvenile Rainbow that Casey caught at Birch Creek

After all that fun Casey still hadn't had enough fishing so today, Tuesday, he went fishing here in town for a few minutes and caught this ugly sucker. It scared him when it came out of the water because he has never caught a fish as ugly as this before! If you are interested in all of Casey's fishing adventures you can check out the "Fishing Report" on our blog. He has had fishing fever all semester and all of the fish are on that blog. Otherwise you would all get sick of reading about all the fish! :) I don't think he will ever tire of fishing.