Road Trip (3)

(July 16, 2011)

We start the day off with some serious bed head....go Mily! 

It's Saturday morning so my folks are out doing their watering....it's a huge ordeal.  I slept through most of it (it starts a some unearthly hour of like 5am or earlier!)  But then I went outside and hung out with dad while he finished "soaking" the front yard by hand.

Crazy looking hose huh?  Yeah, I was a big help that day, I walked around and gabbed and took pictures.   I should be better about helping them out when I'm up there (mental note!)

Then we went and raided their garden and took a huge zip lock baggie of peas home.  Darn it the Raspberries weren't quite ripe yet.  Other siblings who came after me apparently got buckets full of those treasured beauties!

We helped feed the Alpaca's (a must for the kids)

Swung on the swings

got a little b-ball action

(love the fact that Mily had actually missed the ball in this shot!  She's still learning.)

And the FAVORITE pass time of all, playing video games with Uncle Bear!

We said good-bye to our Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Bear and we got back into our car for another long day of driving.  This time we went West and headed for Twin Falls.  With the water level so high we thought the Shoshone falls would be really fun to see again.

...we were right!

Isn't that Snake River just amazing?

And this time we came better prepared, knowing that there was a lake just above the falls that the kids could play in, we let them get into their swim suits and they dove right in!

This year there was a cement barrier  between the two areas, in order to go past the barrier you had to have a swim test.  Joshie went and took the test and he PASSED!  Not because he can swim really well, it was between a front crawl and a doggie paddle, but the life guard said he passed because of his awesome treading skills.  His head never went below the surface of the water, the entire length of the test.    Good Job Josh (work on those front crawl strokes!!!)

They had not only brought in a cement barrier but they also added really nice sand the the kid side!  It was great!

A little kid said he was throwing this little bucket into the water by the handle and pulling it really quickly trying to catch a fish...and look what he caught!  Crazy huh!

Walking along the floating dock...it was a little un-nerving when it would start rocking around while we were over by the deep part!

I thought this rock formation looked cool.  We collected several rocks to have Uncle Richard analyze for us, he is sort of a rock expert.  One of the rocks Shawn is almost positive is a piece of concrete with little pebbles embedded in it, but I guess we will find out when Rich comes to visit...he may just have a good laugh at our rock collecting efforts!

This is the part I was most excited about.  Last time we didn't come this way because we were looking for that darn Cauldron Linn, but this time I made a point to see it!  I remember this bridge when I was really little and we were on our way to California for my Grandma S's funeral.  Our van ended up breaking down and so we had to cross this bridge to get into town (...we ended up buying a new van and hurrying on our way!)  I was both terrified and thrilled to go over it as a kid.   I had Shawn pull over and let the kids get a good look at the bridge before we were to cross it...they thought it was just as awesome as I did when I was younger.

They also have a pull out on either side of the bridge and a place where you can walk out and under the bridge, it was pretty cool!

...that is until were about in the middle of the bridge and three huge semi's passed us at the same time and the darn thing started shaking {shutter}.  but mostly it was fun!

It's a long way down!  We saw a base jumper land a few minutes after we got out there....how cool is that?

...and I can't get over the fact that my littlest boy was so comfortable right there on the edge (while Wes wouldn't even get close to the railing!)

It was a fun trip!  It was a pretty long drive home to SLC that night.  But no one cried or got terribly upset, I think they started to figure out how to handle driving long distances.

I love family vacations, such long lasting memories!