Idaho Summer Vacation

Warning this is a really long post with tons of pictures. Hope you enjoy! :)

We were all excited for a much needed break from the heat of California, and were excited to take off almost two weeks from our normal schedules to go see family again! I think Casey was just as excited about the fishing though and for good reason...he caught several large fish while we were there! I was very proud of him and glad he was having such a fun time! And my parents were happy because they loved eating all the fish fillets Casey kept bringing back to the cabin for them to eat.

Casey with one of his big fish

On our way up we stopped in St. George as our half way stop. We got a hotel and had fun exploring the town and relaxing before our next long day. The temple wasn't far from the hotel so we went to check out the beautiful grounds! So glad we went to see it! It was beautiful and the kids enjoyed it even though Brooky's cheeks were as pink as her shirt by the time we were done because she was so hot!

The next day we headed up to Rexburg. We stopped for about an hour or so at mom and dad's house so the kids could recoop. Right before we got there Brooky had a melt down...come to find out she had a dirty diaper. Then later that night we headed up to Island Park for our family reunion in a cabin on Bill's Island. 

One of the days we were there we went to visit Yellowstone. Casey had never been, so Grandpa, Casey, Zaya, and I got into Grandpa's car and we went up to Yellowstone on Saturday. We were a little sad that no one else wanted to go. But we had fun with Grandpa. :) And were really grateful for Grandma and everyone else that watched Brooky for us so she wouldn't be cranky from missing her nap.

After driving into West Yellowstone you can see all of this steam rising from the ground! It was really neat.

We arrived at Old Faithful right as the geyser was just finishing erupting! So we waited for about an hour and explored the area while we waited for it to erupt again.

Zaya liked this big bear holding a fish.

I thought this was a cool picture of this huge raven or crow.

Yellowstone Inn

Inside Old Yellowstone Inn

We just happened to catch the Beehive Geyser as it erupted. It only goes off once a day. So we thought we were pretty lucky!

Then not too long after that we got to see Old Faithful erupt! It was so neat! I've seen it before, but it was clear back in the 6th grade!

After Old Faithful we went over to Grand Prismatic Springs. It was GORGEOUS! It was probably my favorite stop in Yellowstone, but everything we saw was really neat! I just wish we could have stayed longer to see more of the sites.

Here is a hot spring running down into the river! 

You can see the steam rising up from the heat.

The colors up here were gorgeous!

I loved this one! It was like a giant nature-made hot tub...but way too hot to actually swim in. You could actually see the water boiling huge bubbles up!

The color of the water is just gorgeous though!

This one was my favorite though, with the orange, yellow, green and blue all in one! The colors were so bright and vibrant!

A deep pool at Grand Prismatic Springs

And another more shallow pool.

A gorgeous river in the canyon.

Love this waterfall!

Saturday night my sisters and I threw a surprise baby shower for my little sister Hannah. She is having a baby boy the end of November. We didn't think we would all be together again anytime between now and then so we decided to throw this little shower for her. The theme was..."My little Peanut" We did little elephants and peanuts. The colors were light blue and orange. For the food we did blue and orange things...blueberries and cantalope, carrots, reeses pieces, peanuts, nutterbutters, and circus peanuts, along with a yummy resses peanut butter cup dessert than Jen made!

On Monday morning we were scheduled to go horse back riding. Isaiah had been so excited to go, but he woke up with a fever in the middle of the night. On Monday morning he seemed to be doing okay and he still wanted to go. So we packed some snacks and headed out. He was so excited to see all the horses and ride them too, but about 10 minutes down the trail he started to fuss. He was riding with Casey and I had the snacks. So I handed them the snacks. That helped for a minute, but then he was just really cranky. So he switched and got on my horse with me. Well he wouldn't stop crying and every branch from every tree that came our way he would just start screaming, because he thought they branches were going to get him! So after a few more minutes of that I just decided he was way to miserable and none of us were enjoying it. So we talked to our Guide and Casey, Zaya and I took our horses and headed back to the ranch. So Zaya only got a short ride. He must have loved it though because he is still talking about the horse he rode on named Rusty. So my cousin Jessy, Beck, Michael, Jacob, and Mary all went riding without us. :) Then Casey and I went riding on Tuesday instead. It ended up being much more enjoyable the second time around. 

For FHE on Monday night we acted out scripture stories. 

This is Jenny Wren and Mary as Ammon and his servant and Jen and Jamie as the Lamanites who were trying to scatter the sheep.

Coyote and Ike were the sheep I think.

We had a great time up at the cabin having fun together and spending time canoeing in the lake. Afterwards we headed back to mom and dad's house for a few days.

Here are my brothers and Casey singing and playing the song, "Down on the Corner." They had worked so hard practicing it so they could perform for all of us. :)

The grandkids had fun playing at the splash park!

Zaya loved steering the water wheel.

Cute cousin Zach

Brooky chilin' with dad.

She was happy even though she couldn't get in the water.

Ike and Zaya

Love this pic of Zach coming down the water slide!

Here is another good one of cousin Ike!

Zaya like riding the carousel too!

So after having a great time with my side of the family we headed over to Three Island State Park, in Glenn Ferry, Idaho to stay in cabins with Casey's siblings. On the way over Casey started getting the same fever that both of the kids got. So he was pretty much stuck inside the cabin the whole time we were there! I felt really bad for him because he didn't get to spend hardly any time with his siblings. Luckily he started feeling better by the time it was time to go home, or he would have been miserable the whole way home too. 

Here is Brooky and Zaya with all their cousins on the Davis side. (Aaron, Sunny, Zaya and Brooky, Nick, and Bailey.)

On the drive up to Idaho we found this little coon hat at a gas station and we were trying it on Brooky just for fun. Well she loved it so much that we decided to buy it for her! She looks super red-neck in it but it just cracks me up. We didn't get very many good pics of her in it. She just loves that hat though! Too funny!

My silly girl!

Zaya loved squirting people with the quirt guns that Aunt Yolanda and Uncle Jeff brought.

Here is the Snake River where we camped

Here is one of the little cabins. We didn't actually stay in this one, but they are all the same.

Here is the Oregon trail that comes down the mountain.

And here is where they would take the ferry across the river. It was really neat seeing this historical site and visiting the visitor center while we were here.

Overall, other than getting sick, we had a great vacation and were happy to see all of our family! It was beautiful weather the whole time we were gone!