Idaho Part 3

If you read in reverse, congratulations! You made it to part 3 which is the last leg of our awesome 3 day adventure. The weather in Island Park had been cool and rainy Friday and Saturday. Thankfully, the sun found its' way through the clouds and gave us some beautiful weather for our last day there.
We put on our swimsuits and headed up the river to the boat docking area with a raft and 2 tubs. Mark and I planned to raft down. Turns out the water wasn't TOO cold so I ended up tubing down most of the river after my arms got too tired of rowing with Mark.
When we got there, we realized we forgot the  nozzle for the pump to blow up the raft extra. So while "Grandpa" Rao went back, we had some fun.
This is Mark getting really into his rowing...never mind the rocks that are under him rather than water. He was just getting hyped for the trip.

 Breanne and Ian had to get in on the tough posing pictures as well. Although it's a good thing they weren't in the water at this point...Ian may have fallen out of the boat with as far as he was leaning! 

 Then they convinced me to get in on the action. So I stuck a pose...

 After rafting through the bridge posts we were finally floating down the river. For some reason, we all had a song from Pocahontas come to mind as the river bended in all sorts of ways. 

 I believe this was right before they caught up to us and started hanging onto the raft while Mark and I worked hard to paddle. Moochers!

 This picture was actually taken while Bre was in her tube. Notice the ziploc bag I was praying my camera would safely return to after this picture was taken.

 Ian and Mark ended up rowing the raft most of time...well technically Ian. Somehow Mark convinced him he needed to focus on watching for icebergs/practicing his mermaid pose frequently found on the front of ships. Silly husband!

 So off we went, tubing and rafting down this river. When I got tired of rafting, Ian and I swapped places and  began my first tubing experience. Thinking of a great pose to strike, we caught up with the boys and tried to pose trying to show how relaxed we were on the slow moving river...but of course I lost my balance right as Ian snapped the photo.

 This was more how I imagined. Yes, I'm wearing a life vest. Being 5'2" you can't always take a 6' tall person's opinion when they say the river isn't "that" deep. Here we are, 2 beauty queens relaxing on the river...this was about 2 hours before we realized that no sunblock was a bad idea. 

Floating down the river was much more exhausting than we thought. And since some of us * cough myself * stayed up late, we caught a quick snooze before getting on the road. Of course before we could go, Ian's Grandpa had to make us one more delectable meal. He didn't just make us waffles, but also set the table with at least 5 different topping options and demanded we have more than just 2 pathetic toppings on a waffle. Such a funny man!

On the way back, we stopped in Rexburg to say goodbye to Alyssa and Stephen who left Saturday night (well Sunday morning at 2) for early morning church commitments. Ian, who was driving, was nice enough to make a stop by the temple and let me bask in the memories that flooded back from living there nearly 5 years ago. This temple was finished my last year there. I am in love with it. 

 The semester before I left I took a picture of this temple on a freezing sunny morning. I didn't really believe I'd  be taking a picture with Mark who was then on a mission 4 years later happily married. Although it was a quick stop, it was great for Mark to see a small part of my life. One day we'll go up for a real visit!

Getting home was a bit painful. We were all tired, we left late and we were all trying to comfortably travel while feeling those first effects of sunburn. But despite the late night it was coming home, and the sunburns that all of us still have from the weekend, it was totally worth it. A weekend road trip with friends is just what we all needed before the end of summer. Especially for us as our lives will become a bit hectic in the weeks to follow. Stay tuned! 

Idaho Part 2

Saturday morning, bright and early (okay 7:30am), we left for Yellowstone. Neither Mark or myself have been to Yellowstone so we were excited to see some...nature. We arrived around 9AM, early enough that there was no line for the car entrance. According to our friends, that was a very positive indication of how the crowds would be.

 I really don't remember where we were exactly when I took the pictures, but here are the sites we visited in our day: 

1. Norris
2. Old Faithful
3. Inspiration Point 
4. Upper Falls
5. Lower Falls
6. Steamboat Geyser 

It definitely was smelly. It was raining off and on that day so at some points we couldn't tell if it was misting rain or sulfer water. Either way, we tried not to inhale while walking as long as possible through the mist.

 This was on one of the boardwalks looking out. Talk about looking like the land of desolation!

This geyser we stopped at to get a picture in front of us stopped erupting as soon as we posed for the picture. Go figure....

 The crowd of people waiting for old faithful. It erupts every 45 minutes to an hour. We were lucky enough to get there just 10 minutes before it went off. It looks like it erupts pretty high, but there is actually another geyser in the park that goes twice as high when it erupts...but that only happens once every few years.

At upper falls, we took a 3/4 mile hike of switchbacks down to get to the waterfall. The views were breathtaking. Looking down did the same when you realized that the waterfall drops down at least 200 yards. The water has some pretty rough rapids as well. 

There were a lot of people at this spot taking pictures. Obviously since it is prime location. But the entertaining part was that a lot of people were carrying around Ipads in the park. Now I'm all for technology and having high quality. But isn't a camera that you can hook onto your wrist or neck more convenient than an Ipad? It made us laugh a bit. 

I forgot to mention the other two wives in the group are girls I went to Romania with 3 years ago. We may or may not have stayed up until 2 AM that night talking about our memories from that crazy summer. 

We made our boys take a picture together. On the left is Ian, the right is Stephen, Alyssa's husband. We picked them up in Rexburg and they followed us up to the cabin. They don't look as thrilled for a picture but they stood there looking manly together. 

 Whatever you do...don't look down!! Too late.....This was Inspiration Point. I'm not sure what inspiration could come from looking down into this but as you can see from the next picture, it definitely had some breathtaking views. 

 Just to our right, there was a telescope provided by the local ranger station focused on an Ospreen bird's nest. The telescope focused in so closely you felt like you were in the nest with the bird. It was a pretty cool experience!

Afterwards we visited a few more geysers including steamboat which hasn't erupted in several months. Apparently when it erupts, nearby campers can hear it. The ranger said if the wind is just right when it erupts, the mist can land on cars in the parkinglot nearby. Because some of the erupted material is what glass is made out of, it can ruin your windshield and you'd have to replace it. We were glad there was no eruption that day because there was definitely plenty of wind. 

 It's pretty windy in the park (at least that day). Many lost hats can be seen in the springs and geyser areas. They tell you not to walk off of the boardwalk because you could sink in. We joked every time we saw a hat that the person must have sunken into the earth and the hat was all that they left behind.

 For a park called "Yellowstone" this was about all the yellow stone we saw...and from what others said, this is actually bacteria that grows from the constant but low stream of icky water that runs through.

 These two little hot pots were sitting right next to each other. The one on the left was bubbling like crazy. The one on the right was trying hard but just didn't have enough power to create much gas. We gave it an A for effort at least.

 It wasn't until we were out of the park that we actually took pictures with the Yellowstone sign. It had been a long day of rain and wind, but fortunately at this point, I think it's safe to say we all still looked decent. I didn't have my camera at the time but while we were driving between spots, we passed a bison who was cruising down the side of the road. We pulled over and Alyssa got a picture as he walked past. Seriously he was so close I could have reached out and touched him. But since he could easily crush our car with little effort, I decided to sit back and watch as he slowly meandered past the car looking less than enthused about life.

Although we only spent a day there, I think in our 8 hours spent there we saw quite a bit and probably most of what Yellowstone has to offer. An oddity of Yellowstone is that it is totally acceptable to slow traffic down if you see something off in the distance. Often, we couldn't tell what the crowds of people were looking at. We joked it would be funny to get out at an empty area and start pointing excitedly off in the distance. Then when a few people had parked, leave and let them wonder what "awesome sight" we had spotted. Next time maybe.... 

Idaho Part 1

You guessed it. We went to Idaho for a weekend! Our good friends Breanne and Ian invited us to road trip it up to Island Park, ID and stay in Ian's grandparents' cabin and see Yellowstone. Somehow we all managed to get time off work and find a weekend that worked for everyone. So we packed up the car with snacks, and headed northbound to escape the near 100 degree temperatures that were definitely outstaying their welcome in Utah.
The ride to Idaho is not really that exciting once you get north of Salt Lake. Once you pass Ogden, you could blink and miss cute little cities like Brigham City, Tremonton etc. Here are some views of what it looks like on the 5 hour drive:

Sometimes, you see these kinds of things...

 But most of the time it's more of this......

 After you break off of the I-15 and start up the 20, it begins to look like this once you pass Rexburg, St. Anthony, and Ashton. (Look! Our friends like rubber ducks too!) 

When we got to Ian's grandparents "cabin", we quickly realized that what they were saying all along was right. This "cabin" in the woods was not just a cabin, but their actual house for a good portion of the year. We kept asking if they had certain items or if we needed to pillows, blankets, dishes etc. I just didn't realize it was a house rather than a temporary vacation home. For planning a "camping" trip. It was the furthest thing from roughing it. But definitely enjoyable.
The grandparents were there at the house and were really fun to get to know and talk to. We found out they were actually hall advisors at BYU over 50 years ago. It was definitely fun to hear their stories about what BYU housing was like then. They spoiled us for sure. Ian's grandpa used to teach college so from what they said, we are some of his favorite people to interact with. They didn't even seem to mind how late we stayed up. For a couple in their 80s being married for over 50 years, it was so fun to see them interact and tease each other.
The house and it's views were breathtaking. He bought the land back in the 70's for $3,000. The money it cost to build the house was provided through his candle making business he started. (Oh if only that were doable today!) In their "neighborhood" each house is unique but theirs is definitely my favorite.

 This is the view from their front door. It's so quiet, you wouldn't know 5 minutes out is a busy highway. 

 This is the view from their front door. It's so quiet, you wouldn't know 5 minutes out is a busy highway. 

Backyard view. The river runs right up against the hill in their backyard. There used t be a small dock but it's been covered up by water now. 

 The north side of the river where we floated down from on Sunday. 

The house has 3 levels. This is the basement view where we slept. This house had to be a grandparents' dream house. They could fit 8 people in beds alone, and on their top floor/loft area, they had tons of extra sleeping bags and blankets. 

  The view from the river of their house. Apparently some people are complaining about it becoming too crowded in their "neighborhood". I myself couldn't complain about the breathtaking views and peace!

Upon our arrival Friday night we were served a delicious meal of lasagna with homemade bread. Both were delicious. Afterwards we learned how to play a card game called "Oh 'Heck'". It's sort of a gambling card game. I am proud to say I lost horribly on the first round, but rose to the top in our second round of games. It was definitely fun to play since each couple was pretty competitive. 

A Trip to Lagoon

We were able to cross another thing off of our bucket list for this summer: Lagoon. It is an amusement park about 20 minutes north of Salt Lake City. It's pretty small if you're used to Disneyland and Magic Mountain. But it still can help if you've got a roller coaster love you need to fill. Mark and I never managed to get any photos together that day. But at least we got some of each other.
Originally, my sister Shelene had asked me to go to help her as she was surprising her 2 older kids with some mom time. Mark started his summer classes this week and so we thought it would be a perfect way to spend my day off since he wouldn't be home until 7 or 8. Well, his class for Wednesday ended up being cancelled. So at the last minute, he asked his awesome boss for the day off and he said okay! Driving up, we were teasing the kids and asking them where they thought we were going. They had all sorts of ideas, but since they had never been to Lagoon, it didn't even cross their minds. At one point, "Uncle Mark" told them he was pretty sure they were going to Red Lobster. I think the kids actually believed him for a bit. Our mystery conversation that went right over the kids' heads went like this: (keep in mind Red Lobster=Lagoon)
Shelene: Mark have you ever been to red lobster?
Mark: No I have not.
Shelene: Do you like...big lobsters?
Mark: Not really. They are kind of scary. I prefer smaller lobsters.
We were dying of laughter. The kids however looked really confused.

Once we go there though, the kids were excited. My nephew Spencer isn't the bravest kid, so we had to push him to go on a few of the rides. One of my favorite moments with him from the day was on a kiddie coaster as he yelled "this is the best ride ever!!!!" We got him to go on all of the rides with us by telling him it was okay to scream. The funny thing was that he would start screaming as soon as the ride took off....well I guess he screamed when he was scared which was what we told him to do.

The first ride we chose to start off was the carousel. Alexis and Spencer picked giraffes and chickens. Sadly, they didn't know that those animals didn't move up and down as we went around like the horses did. I think they still liked the novelty. We went on a few rides before lunch, slowly working up to the bigger coasters.

After lunch we decided to hit the water rides. We did a ride that is similar to "Log Jammer" at Magic Mountain. You sit in this hollow log, go down a "stream" and then at the end you go down a huge hill. If you're imagining all 5 of us in a log getting soaked, that's exactly what happened. Apparently we weren't wet enough because then we headed for Rattlesnake Rapids.

 This is us waiting in line and seeing the big waterfall we ultimately knew some of us would get stuck under. Oh boy! It was certainly an adventure!

This was us after the rides. We don't look wet, but the dry patch on my shirt shows just how wet we were. We might as well have gone swimming practically! But we had a blast laughing and the kids thought it was funny walking around soaking wet.

When we were about 90% dry, Shelene found a water slide/raft ride for us to try. Of course no one she saw come down had gotten very wet. Our first time down, the back of my pants got wet. Unfortunately, Shelene and Alexis' 2nd time down wasn't so fortunate. They got hit by a wave of water while in the tunnel and once again, their clothes were soaked. We still had a handful of rides we wanted to go on. So we dried off on spinning rides like the tilt-a-wheel. (Uncle Mark took pictures since he's not a big fan of spinning rides)

While riding a "ski lift", Mark discovered on the other end of the park was a race car track. When we got off, he checked it out. Unfortunately Alexis and Spencer were too small to drive. I figured that was the end of that idea. But the next thing I know, he bought passes for me to drive with Alexis and him with Spencer. Shelene stood on the sidelines and took some pictures with her camera. Even though the kids couldn't drive themselves, Alexis loved it and Mark said Spencer giggled the whole time. Especially since they "beat us". But come on, everyone knows those tracks were not made for passing other cars. I would have won if there was more room to pass (...okay may be not really). 

We had a great day. Since it as Wednesday, the lines were hardly existant which is probably why we actually went on a few rides twice. We were all pretty exhausted by the time we headed for the parking lot. The kids had been so well-behaved all day. It was fun to spend some time with just them and their Mom without their little sisters around. Thanks Shelene for sharing your kids and a fun adventure with us! 

Our 2nd Anniversary

June 12th we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. It's amazing how much faster, and more enjoyable 2 years of marriage seems compared to the 2 years I lived while Mark was on his mission! With our cruise in May, I didn't have anything fancy in mind. I wasn't sure what I would get Mark. Thankfully, the day before, he came home and told me he figured something out, but I couldn't buy anything for him because we were going to go somewhere that was really expensive.
Our anniversary was on a Tuesday which meant from 5-7 I could go out but I had to be back by 7 for work.  Mark had worked through lunch on this secret project for me and then another half hour after work as well. When he came home he surprised me with these beautiful flowers. He does try to be a little more creative for our anniversary since Christmas and my birthday are 4 months apart. By the time our anniversary hits, he's used all of his genius ideas. (Last year he made me a coupon book.)

So off we went once he was home to this mystery place. He said he needed the GPS. I knew we couldn't go that far since we had to be back in an hour, but I was clueless. His GPS is older and sometimes takes a while to turn on. We were getting close to the freeway when I said "It's still not turning on". Mark says to me "No big deal, let's just pull in here and figure it out." So we happen to pull into a Best Buy and sit there for a minute while I'm trying to figure out where my husband is trying to take me. Then he says "Welp, since we're here, let's just go in and buy a Wii". I was ecstatic. We'd been talking about buying one for a while, but I didn't think we'd actually buy one until the end of summer.  

I think Mark was feeling pretty lucky he was married to a girl who was actually excited to get a gaming system as an anniversary present. The Wii came with Mario Brothers (up to 4 person can play interactively), and we bought Mario Kart as well. So far we’ve had a lot of fun with it. This is the first time we’ve announced ownership of it publicly, so we’re assuming we’ll now obtain tons of friends mainly just for the usage of the Wii.

After a few very expensive purchases that evening, we went home for a quiet and quick dinner. I then spent the rest of the evening romantically working. Oh the joys of adult life! I am at least grateful our anniversary is in the summer. That way one day when we have kids, they will hopefully be out of school and finding a babysitter to get away won’t be a hassle.

Happy 2^nd anniversary sweetheart!