Idaho Part 3: Dad's House

I think Tommy's favorite part of the trip was at my Dad's house.  For a 2 year old boy, not much can compete with tractors, horses, dogs, chickens, & a bouncy house!

Vic & I haven't rode horses together in years so it was fun to be able to do that again.

Vic is a pretty crazy rider & scares me with his lack of control, but he sure loves it!

Tommy got to go on his 1st ride & I think he could have done it all day long.  Every time my dad pulled him back to this area to tie the horse up Tommy would point back & say "more"!

Zoom in & you can see Tommy's giant smile riding the tractor with Grandpa!

Whitney didn't want anything to do with the animals, but she sure thought this bounce house was great.

My dad turned 60 this year so we did a little party for him in the park.  I did a book about why he's loved at age 60 & it was really fun to see everyone's answers & get to see more sides of my dad.  I gave my sister the assignment of finding a picture of my dad at each decade (age 10, 20, 30, etc.) and she not only found the pictures, but made this amazingly adorable banner!  I loved seeing how Dad aged every 10 years. 40 really is the prime before you really start noticing balding & wrinkles!

Here's a close up of the beads, buttons, ribbon, & stamp details!

We found stuff around Dad's house for centerpieces to make it truly all about him.

I assigned cupcakes to Katie & she knocked that out of the ballpark too!  They were not only cute, but super yummy!  The score cupcakes on the left have a rocking "K" just like my dad's brand.  In the middle is oreo cupcakes with a horseshoe, a horse you can only see the head of, & cowboy hats. To the right is raspberry lemon cupcakes, YUM!

I made fresh lemonade which I may never do again.  It was yummy, but I couldn't believe how many lemons are needed!  Needless to say, we ran out! 

 I always forget to take more pictures of people at the party.  I better start a group shot tradition after this!  here is Dad playing with the kids, but people in the background :)

 And a few more blurry, but people there!

 We played this silly game where you shoot the chickens out & people try to catch them in their pants. 

This party really was back-woods cowboy all the way, haha! 

 Tommy thought it was hilarious & chased the chickens all over.

 Lana found the perfect boot pinata for the adult one.  Dad wanted to show off his muscles & break his own pinata, but instead hit it so hard he broke the bat ...so we used a lug wrench!

Idaho Part 2: Yellowstone

Vic & I took a day to ourselves & toured all through both loops of Yellowstone.  I have been there several times, but never everywhere at once.  It took a long time, but it was worth it.  We were constantly amazed by all of the crazy variations of the earth all so close to where I grew up!

I was really excited to go see Grand Prismatic Spring as it is always on the front of calendars, postcards, etc.

So when this was all we could see, I was a bit disappointed! 

When the wind blew hard enough to get the steam away we did see little peeks of its gorgeous color. 

 This amazing pool was right next to it & the blue was gorgeous.  Made me really love Yellowstone!

Our family was pooped by time we got to Morning Glory Pool so I hiked up to it by myself & I am glad I did as it was my favorite one.

Nothing special about this picture, I just love Whitney's cheesy grin as she's just learning to smile for the camera :)

I really hate this picture, but we have to have proof for Whitney & Tommy that they have been to Old Faithful.

Whitney exploring the new Old Faithful visitor center.

We lucked out to get to see this geyser going off right by Old Faithful.  It is a much bigger geyser, but only goes off twice a day & once usually during the middle of the night.  We liked it a lot better as it really gushed out & we didn't have a million people all around us.

Tommy's favorite part was seeing animals, especially the buffalo because they were so close to the car!

 Little Tommy is so obsessed with beaches that he really whimpered when we had to leave Lake Yellowstone's "beach". 

 Tommy thought being right at the top of a gushing waterfall was pretty cool. We are thrilled he shares our love of waterfalls. (Vic & I are pretty obsessed)

 When we walked up to this canyon we felt like we were looking at a postcard.

 Here's a picture of us in front of it to prove we were really there!!!

 I don't know if I've ever been to Mammoth & we were getting pretty tired at the end of the day so I was tempted to cut this part out, but I was so glad we didn't.  Yellowstone is SO crazy & beautiful!

 Had to post this one of my little cheeser. Cracks me up every time :)

 Can you imagine being one of the 1st explorers to walk upon this place?!

 The back side of Mammoth was my favorite because there was this frozen looking waterfall with beautiful teal pools of water throughout it.  It really made me wish I had brought my nice camera along to capture its true beauty.  You can slightly see them if you look really close. 

 We loved it so much we decided that we needed to ask a stranger to get our entire family in front of it & this is what we got. Haha, can't even see it :)

 Our last picture of the day. I think my feet fell off right after this.

 It was a long day, but I loved every bit of it & can't wait to some day spend at least 3 or 4 days there hiking around more & being able to spend time relaxing at all of our favorite places.

Idaho Part 1: Island Park

For our August vacation we went to Idaho for 12 packed days of extended family time & driving all over southern Idaho.  We stopped back & forth a lot, but to simplify pictures I'll just do 4 parts.  For the first part we went up to my mom's cabin in Island Park.  This was our favorite part of the trip & definitely the most relaxing. Here is everyone for our "tropical getaway" themed weekend.

We did lots of playing in the water with the jetskis which NEVER gets old!

My sister Katie & I ended up being the main designated driver & flagger for everyone.

We did a decathlon & doing a back flip off the tube was one of the events.  Here is Katie & I pulling my brother Ben.  I thought he completed his, but this picture makes it look more like a head plunge! 

 My mom made lots of yummy food for us all.  Here she is making my favorite blueberry croissant breakfast.

Tommy & Evie enjoying Katie's homemade Wendy's chocolate frosty.  I couldn't believe how much it tasted like the real thing!

Katie, Becky (my s-i-l), & I playing Bingo. I was pretty lucky & won some great prizes :) 

 We attempted to do some family pictures, but the kids weren't too thrilled about it.  Here is our best shot.

Picture taken right afterward... proof that our kids love to smile.... just have to have mom or dad behind the camera!

 Vic was pretty excited that everyone joined in his geocaching hunt.  Here is Kara helping lead the way.  

 All the kids were pretty excited for the "treasure" to be opened up & to get to choose a new toy out of it.

 

 Another decathlon event: rifle & pistol shooting.  I was surprised how well I did. This picture shows off my 15 week baby bump... my excuse anyway! :)

 It was no surprise Vic did great.  He's always been a really good shot.

Here's another event, seeing how far we could hit the water ball.  It was WAY harder than it looked!

I wish I had a picture of the kids playing in the sand as Tommy & Whitney spent countless hours doing that.  Tommy loved "the beach".  When we were helping him say the prayer I said "thank you for Grandma" & he quickly changed that line to "thank you for the beach!", haha, we all got a good laugh out of that :)

Like I said... favorite part of the trip!  I could easily spend a month here.  

We both agree that next time we have to do this leg last so we come home refreshed instead of felling like we need a "vacation from our vacation".