Eastern Idaho

 After leaving Grandpa and Grandma Cows house, we spent two nights back at Grandpa and Grandma Chicken's house. This is the location of Ben's first-ever speeding ticket. It was totally lame, the cop was being a real grouch, you can't contest tickets in court when you're going to be  900 miles away on the appearance date, yada-yada. A friend later told us cops sometimes target out of state plates for that reason. More lameness. Onto the pictures!

Petting Grandma's "Pauline" before hitting the road. My kids love these chickens. It's their hobby when we visit. 

Ben had me drive the leg to Eastern Idaho. This is different, he usually likes to do all the driving. I didn't mind, it meant he had to take care of the kids. :)

 We got to my Grandpa and Grandma Hill's house, and after unpacking the car, headed over to my Uncle Kelly's place. This is a classic Gordon position when he's snuggling up on some pillowed surface.

 Uncle Kelly had a combine and that was very exciting.

 Learning how to greet and pet a horse.

 Kelly and his daughter Jocelyn (my cousin), were nice enough to saddle up Sisco for my kids to ride. This picture of Evelyn absolutely cracks me up. She needs sweeping background music to go with her wind-blown hair and the look of complete fulfillment on her face. I can't get over how funny it is.

 Jocelyn and Gordon on Sisco.

 Jilly really enjoyed her horse ride too, she wanted Jocelyn to make Sisco "run." This kitty was cute and playful too, and she loved petting and chasing him around the yard.

Grandma, Grandpa, me and Uncle Kelly

 After leaving my uncle's, Grandpa drove us over to the head-gates. This is where the main irrigation channel splits into smaller canals to irrigate the area. Lots of water here. 

 Lots of fast-flowing water and rocks to make me nervous. I had a hold of Gordon's shirt collar the whole time, which he didn't like, but that boy was not afraid of getting right up close. The girls were much more aware of the dangers, thankfully.

   My Grandpa told me this area near the head-gates was a place my mom and uncle spent a lot of time playing when they were growing up, making tree-houses and forts. I remember picnics in the area, with home-made fried chicken, scones, and home-made root beer.

On another day, we headed up to Rexburg to check out the new and mostly completed construction at BYU-Idaho. We found the only unlocked door into the conference center that looks just like the one in Salt Lake, and admired all the art they have on the walls there. It's hard to believe the amount of stuff that's been built or re-done since Ben and I were there nearly 10 years ago. (It's been that long?!) It was hot here, like everywhere else we went on vacation, and we attempted to try out the water park. It was so packed though, and they were going to make Gordon wear a swim diaper and plastic pants (which I knew he would not do and I was not going to make him, he's been potty-trained for over a year now) that we decided to try Porter Park instead and a new splash-pad there kept me honest in front of my kids. (I had told the girls if we didn't go to the water park we'd find somewhere else to swim. Lucky me!)

 Gordon was still kind of freaked out at first, and actually had a meltdown when he went up the yellow stairs and got soaked by the fountain you see in the picture below. A nice Dad up on the platform had to hand Gordon down to Ben because Evelyn couldn't convince Gordon that going down the slide was a much better option to getting off the platform of drowning fountains.

 The girls got brave enough toward the end to brave the drowning fountain and took on this fun slide.

 One of the nights here, I was trying to get the kids all ready for bed and they kept running in different directions, or I kept getting distracted (or both), and I found all of them eventually out on the front porch with my Grandpa, who had given them all a popsicle. I was waiting for them to finish and hurriedly get them off to bed, but Ben gave me perspective on the moment when he said, "How many kids get to sit on the front porch with their Great-Grandpa and talk about dogs and eat popsicles? I never did." This is one of the reasons I love my husband - he gives me perspective.

We let them sit until the sun had set and the mosquitoes were making their mark.

   

Feeding the ducks and geese across from the Idaho Falls Temple. 

Four wheeler rides with a bunch of alfalfa-chewing,wanna-be farm kids.  

Dress-up, Three Musketeer style. Thanks Brad and Bryson! We didn't break anything! (I don't think we did...)

Evelyn loved Grandpa's dog 'Spot.' He was really good with the kids. She was actually sniffling a bit when we had to leave because she'd liked him so much.

It was such a good visit with my grandparents. They're both in their seventies and in good health. I want to be in that kind of shape when I hit my seventies. It warms my heart to know that they may be around for several years to come for my kids to visit and have a relationship with.

Washington

 In Washington we visit Grandma and Grandpa Cows. It's summer, and that means farm work, all day, and almost everyday. 

We also saw a lot of the newest nephew to our family. Evelyn loves to try and pick the little kids up and carry them around. It's usually a little more than she can handle. :)

 Riding Grandpa's new tractor with Uncle Ryan. It's one of those giant ones, and the first John Deere tractor on the farm that I can remember. 

 Ben rode his bike here a lot as well. He enjoyed long stretches of road without any stoplights, just like Idaho. 

 Our whole family decided to take a short two-day trip to Mt. Rainier. When we finally got up to the Paradise viewpoint, this is all we saw. Fog. It was so cold up there. That's the second coldest we've been since we moved to California, behind our Christmas trip to St. George. It should have started snowing, just for effect. All we had were sandals and light jackets. I was smart enough to pack jeans, thankfully. 

 And there was still plenty of snow on the ground, in fact. So much that unless you were equipped for the snow, you couldn't really explore the trails at all. There was lots of water, and lots of mud. Evelyn had thawed out enough at this point to declare she was hot and didn't need her jacket anymore. I think it was just peer pressure. My nephews are a lot tougher when it comes to temperature. They rebuilt the Visitor's Center here since I last visited, and it was cool. Not as cool as the old one though. It was a place to get warm at least!

We headed down off the mountain and to our campground. Now, it wasn't too cold down here. Just raining/misting on us. We were kind of not prepared for this. It didn't rain a lot though, and we all hoped the weather would be more cooperative the next day. 

 This is only the second time our kids have been camping, and I daresay, it was far more successful this time around. The kids loved it. 

Gordon and Clayton had a fabulous time beating this dead tree with sticks, climbing all over it, and jumping off of it. There was no running off of children, and no mosquitoes or hornets. I thank the cool, rainy weather for that. 

The next morning, we broke camp and found the rain had gone overnight. We headed down to the old ranger station at Longmire, which was crawling with people. We crossed the suspension bridge, where we finally found parking and the kids enjoyed throwing rocks into the river there. We noticed after a while the clouds were breaking up, so we headed back to the cars to drive up to Paradise to see if we'd get lucky and view Mt. Rainier. 

Success! Ev was happy to be here, even if she didn't look it, and Gordon is doing some cool guy hand motion and sound effect. Such a goofy kid. 

I was going to put a picture of Tyler and Nicole here, but I then I remembered her 8 month old pregnant belly, and thought better of it. Even though she isn't huge. 

 We drove down to the Grove of the Patriarchs, a section of old-growth cedar trees. They're 200 to 300 feet tall. Gizmo had to ride in the back pack because he wasn't allowed on the trail. There was a suspension bridge to cross here, and lots of mosquitoes. The kids enjoyed running around and the picnic lunch we had. 

 The last stop on the route was Sunrise, a viewpoint at 6400 ft. It was cool here too, but the trails weren't quite as snowed over here, so we could walk around a little and see some hikers tackling Mt. Rainier. The kids liked playing in the mud puddles and throwing rocks into them here as well. There was a good visitor's center to walk though, and my girls liked hearing about how Mt. Rainier is a volcano. They didn't quite believe me at first when I told them it was, because they didn't see any lava. 

Ah, cousins. My kids miss their cousins. Hopefully at some point we will not live so far away. 

 "Someday we will all be buff like Uncle Ryan!"

Other things we did: Trampoline jumping, tire swinging, sewing (mostly skirts), playing with the dogs, feeding cows, digging in the dirt, and watching movies the kids hadn't seen before. We just chilled, which is always nice coming from our busy life in California. 

Grandma Chickens House

 We made it to Idaho after an 11 hour drive through the middle of nowhere Nevada. It wasn't a bad drive, and only one mishap of Gordon peeing on his car seat toward the end. Thunderstorms helped break up the endless expanse of desert. 

 A favorite story book Grandma keeps at her house. 

 It was around 100 degrees most of the time we were here, with Ben venturing out in the heat of the day. On this particular ride, he didn't make it far. It was just way too hot. 

 Trying out Grandpa's guitar. 

 Thank goodness Grandpa and Grandma bought this pool for everyone to play in. The kids were in it almost everyday. It was as good as swimming lessons, considering how comfortable all the kids got in the water. The girls were going underwater, and Evelyn is doing a pretty good doggie-paddle. 

 Grandma found some flashy fabric scraps and the girls created their own dresses with them. 

 Grandma bought tickets for us all to attend the Starlight Mountain Theater, where we saw a production of Roger and Hammertstein's "Cinderella." Here's the Fairy Godmother. 

 Here is Cinderella. During the intermission, you could pay a small fee and have a ride in Cinderella's pumpkin carriage. The girls were in awe when meeting the actors. Jilly's favorite actress was one of the stepsisters. We all had a good time, and didn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes. One memorable moment of the outdoor play was a bald eagle flying over the stage with a small sparrow or other fierce little bird chasing the eagle off. Gordon's favorite parts were the musical portions with lots of actors moving across the stage. Otherwise, we had to keep re-directing his attention. 

 Evelyn's birthday occurred during our stay, and she requested a Brazilian dinner of feijoada (black beans and rice) and pao de queijo (cheesebread). 

 She also wanted eclair torte for her cake. 

Evelyn asked for science/chemistry kits for her birthday, and was excited to see this one. 

 While I was putting Gordon to bed, the girls thought they'd take care of the last piece of eclair torte. I guess it's more fun sucking the pudding off the base and eating with your fingers. 

 Grandpa Chickens likes making homemade soap, so that's what we did the last few days of our stay. It was a cool process. I chose a citrus blend for my soap, and it turned out really well. 

 Smoothing out the soap mold. 

 We visited some old friends who live in the mountains north of Grandma and Grandpa, around Lake Cascade. It was hot enough to do some swimming. 

 There were little minnows swimming in schools near the shore, and Gordon and Jilly had fun chasing them. The bigger kids headed out to the edge of the marked swim area. 

Jilly's my sunbather. 

Gordon was in heaven with all the dress-up stuff 'Tank' had. 

Thanks for letting us crash your afternoon! 

Other memories: The kids gathering the eggs out of the chicken house every day and feeding the chickens food scraps, eating dinner with the Gurneys (why did I not take a picture?), and hanging out with Uncle Nate, Aunt Chelle, and their chihuahuas. We also spent time helping get the garage cleared out.