Week 32

{August 8 - 14}

Monday was another one of our best days of this summer. Josh went to work early in the morning for a few hours while the younger boys and I stayed home and packed to get ready to head to Lava Hot Springs. It was totally a last-minute planned vacation, as we were supposed to be going to Great Falls and Fairmont on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, but then Grandma and Grandpa Parsons both were sick, so we changed our plans to just go to Lava Hot Springs on Monday and Tuesday instead. Kanyon had his first day of CrossFit Camp that morning at 10:30, so I ran him into town to drop him off just as Josh and Ammon were coming home from work. I hurried back home, we got the car all packed, and we picked him up about 11:15 (right when it ended), and headed out of town. Josh and the boys have never been to Lava before, and I hadn't been in nearly 30 years. We arrived around 3:00, checked into our hotel, then the 3 younger boys and I went to their outdoor water park as Josh and Ammon went golfing at a nearby 9-hole golf course. It wasn't super busy on a Monday afternoon, and we had a great time swimming, sliding, and soaking in the sun! Josh and Ammon joined us at 6:00 for the last two hours, and by then the place was practically empty. It was awesome! Absolutely no lines for the slides or the climbing wall! We even had Jonah and Micah take their swimming test (because it didn't get done at scout camp) in the lap lane at the pool, which was fantastic. When the park was closing, we headed back to our hotel room a few blocks away, changed clothes, then walked down main street to have dinner at Chuck Wagon, a nice restaurant with delicious food! We all enjoyed the meal immensely. Kanyon didn't realize how full he was after his 3-course meal and a root beer float, because after we left the restaurant, we walked down the block and into a souvenir shop, and he asked the man behind the counter if there was a bathroom, which there wasn't, so I started walking back outside with Kanyon (thinking he had to go pee or poo so we needed to walk back to the hotel), and he started throwing up INSIDE the store before we made it to the street. Then he puked some more on the sidewalk and then more in the street. It was awful. Jonah and Micah got some paper towels from the man and cleaned up the mess inside the store (thankfully it was a tiled walkway), and I cleaned up Kanyon's hands (which he'd tried to cover his mouth with to prevent more throw up from coming out as we were walking out of the store). We walked back the few blocks to our hotel, I got a giant bowl full of water, and walked back down to the place we'd just been to try and wash off the sidewalk. After the swimming and the meal and the puke clean-up, I was pretty tired, so I laid in bed and watched the Olympics in our room while Josh watched it from the couch in the living room. Ammon and the boys went walking around Lava that night playing Pokemon Go on Ammon's iPhone. We've never been to a city where I felt comfortable having the kids leave our hotel to roam around the streets alone at night--but I loved this small town, and I loved that the boys felt free to go and that I didn't worry about them. I also loved our hotel room--it had a bedroom in it with a king-size bed and a bunk bed with a double on bottom and single on top, there was also a connecting bathroom with the biggest bathtub I've ever seen, a full-service kitchen, and a small living room with a couch and another TV. Ammon slept on the couch, Kanyon on the top bunk (but he moved to the floor in the night), and the twins on the bottom bunk. Usually we don't sleep well in hotels with our kids in the same room with us, because of their rustling noises, but I turned on the fan all night, and that prevented us from hearing their individual sounds, and we slept great!

Kanyon on the open slide

Jonah finishing his run on the open slide

Micah coming down the open slide--they all said they liked
the dark, closed slide better. Not me, though! The other
one made me dizzy and I only went on it once. 

Kanyon on the yellow speed slide

Jonah's on the yellow slide, and Micah is on the white one

There was two fun little slides leading into the pool.
The boys thought they'd try them out, too: here's Jonah

Micah's face cracks me up!

Kanyon loved this slide and went on it several times. The other slide was
tiny, and he's the only one who really fit on it in our family. When Ammon
sat on the tiny slide, his body took up the whole thing! It was a ridiculous sight.

When we had gone on all the slides, Kanyon
was content to just swim by himself for quite a while

The twins wanted to try jumping from the different diving
boards & platforms.  

Maybe someday they'll be synchronized divers!! ;)

Micah jumped from the middle platform here--
they never did jump from the top one.
I was impressed they went up as far as they did! I never even
liked jumping from the high dive springboard!

Jonah and Micah climbing on the indoor climbing wall

After several attempts, Kanyon finally made it to the top!

When Josh and Ammon came, the park was practically void of people!
It was perfect timing for them! I loved how the speed slides begin above the
entrance road to Lava--you drive under them and the sign that says Lava Hot Springs. 

Josh's turn down the white speed slide

Ammon on the yellow one. I only ever went on the yellow
one (twice)--I never did try the straight white one, though. 

Micah taking the swim test first, Jonah did it next.
They both passed!

I love this picture of my boys!

They kept seeing how high they could go!
Jonah touched the very top here!

Micah jumped to touch the top!

Josh had to try several times (like Kanyon) to reach the top.
He kept falling--and no wonder with those huge feet on the
tiny holds!

Finally he was successful! This was his jump that reached
the top.

Jonah's jump from the second platform. So high!

Jonah (from the 1st platform) and Ammon (from the high dive)

All the boys went down the speed slides twice more right before we left, since there were no lines:

Ammon

Kanyon

Micah

Jonah

What a fun place to be on a beautiful evening!

Josh and the boys watching Olympics in our hotel room

Dinner at Chuck Wagon. I wish the picture wasn't so fuzzy; I asked our waitress
to take our picture, and this was as good as she could do. Kanyon got the hamburger
steak, a salad, a scone, and a root beer float--he had the biggest meal of all of us!
Ammon ordered the burger with deep-fried pickles!!

He was so full that he didn't finish his steak,
and he only took two bites of his scone. 

On Tuesday morning, we slept in, ate breakfast (that we'd brought since there was no continental breakfast), packed most of our stuff up, and then rented tubes for an hour to float the nearby portion of the Portneuf River. It was SOOO fun!!! We were able to make the run twice in an hour. Josh floated the first time while I drove the car, and I floated the second time as he took the car. I'm glad he went first, because there was a waterfall that he tipped over on and it scratched up his back and he warned me about it and told me where it was, so I knew it was coming and was able to paddle to the other side of the waterfall that was less steep to avoid tipping over. It was pretty shallow, but had lots of white water, and it was a fun little run! In order to get the tubes back to the starting point, we put the 4-man one above the suburban, and Ammon stood on the back bumper holding it, while Josh rolled down the back window and sat on the window frame to hold on to it from the side. Jonah held onto the other tube by rolling down the other back window and resting the tube on his outstretched arm. We wished we'd had time to do another run, but we needed to check out of the hotel and turn them in. So, we changed our clothes and packed up the car, checked out of the hotel, returned the tubes, tried a little bit of miniature golf (the course needed some repairs, so it was free), and walked down main street to get some souvenirs and eat at an ice cream shoppe. We stopped at Taco Time in McCammon for lunch and gas on the way home. The boys watched "Overboard" on the DVD player as we drove home (sometimes I like to show them old school movies), and they liked it! We got to Salmon just barely in time for Josh and Ammon to turn around and head back into town for Men's Golf League. It wouldn't have been as bad if we hadn't been stopped for 20 minutes for construction on the highway between town and our house as they were resurfacing the road. It was a short, whirlwind of a vacation, but we all had an excellent time!!!

First run down the river

About 25 feet ahead is the waterfall--but it's not visible from the bridge
where I was standing

Second run down the river--there were some boys standing on the edge with water guns
that they shot at the boys (but thankfully not at me!)

there were some steep steps leading to a park at the getting out spot

This was our hotel--the boys walked the tubes back
to the rental just down the street

Ummm...yes!!! That is my sweet stuff right there!
And apparently I can't take a non-blurry picture either! ;)

On Wednesday, Kanyon had his second crossfit class. Thankfully our neighbor (and his friend Abby) was in the same class, because everyone else in the class was older. He really liked going to it, and it was a nice change from the computer and xbox games he's been playing a lot recently. I took Ammon to get his sports physical at the clinic that afternoon. I really like how they have appointment times for it now; it's so much better than the old system when you showed up and had to wait HOURS to get in. We walked right in and back to the exam room! It was awesome! We also went and got his drug consent form notarized at the credit union and then we picked up Hannah afterwards (she'd gotten her physical done that afternoon and was in town as well) and brought her home with us. The kids watched Olympics and ate dinner until they left for summer running that night.

On Thursday evening, I went to the Shakespeare in the Park's performance of "Comedy of Errors". It was hilarious! I went with Darcy, and her daughter Emmy and friends. We had a great time snacking, chatting, laughing, and watching the fabulous performance together! The boys had their first official XC practice of the season that night at midnight! They stayed up late watching Olympics until it was time to go. Jonah is running this year instead of playing football, so all 3 of them went in. Thankfully, Ammon is old enough so he drove them in and I got to sleep! They did exercises on the lit-up football field and watched the Perseid Meteor Shower as they ran around, too.

The double twins mistaken identity reminded me of the movie "Big Business".
I'd never seen this play before, but I loved it! 

Friday was the ward campout at Twin Creeks campground just north of Gibbonsville. We decided to not spend the night since the boys had early morning XC practice the next day. We went up for dinner. It was delicious! There was lots of yummy salads and desserts and the main dish was freshly killed and roasted pork. It was divine! We ate and talked and the boys ran around with their friends. Surprisingly, there wasn't a program around the fire (like usual), so after dinner when the mosquitoes were out, we left to drive back home. The Perseid Meteor Shower was occurring again that night, so the twins, Kanyon, and I laid on the trampoline for an hour or so to watch it. Kanyon had gotten some glow-in-the-dark bracelets at the ward campout, and he was happy to have a reason to wear them outside! The animals climbed on to the trampoline with us, which made for a noisy, bumpy time (Kanyon produced the noise, and the animals wouldn't stop moving around). Finally, after all the boys saw one, they went to bed. I saw 5 myself, so altogether we saw 8 before going in for the night.

On Saturday afternoon, Josh took me on a motorbike ride to McDevitt Creek and to the Amish Store in Baker. We saw Tom & Ann's cabin while we were up the creek, and had a nice visit with them. They showed us around the cabin where they live on the weekends and host reunions every summer. Someday when I win the lottery, I want to build a reunion cabin for family get-togethers (similar to the one we stayed at in St. Anthony years ago). On the way back, at the Amish store, I got a couple of strawberry-rhubarb fry pies for myself (they're the best!) and we stocked up on some of their delicious cheeses, too. That night, Josh had a surprise date all planned for me. I had no idea what to expect, and I loved that he planned it all! He took me to dinner at the 28 Club with Phil and Darcy. We played Settlers at the Jackson's house afterwards, and Darcy made me a delicious French pastry strawberry pie. Oh my goodness, it was to die for! We watched the movie "Sisters" together, too. We had such a fun night and I loved every minute of it!

They lit a candle in my piece of pie and sang to me!

Church on Sunday was interesting--I'd been subbing for Leslie as the music conductor both last week and this week. Last week there was a small error in the hymn numbers I put up on the wall, which was not a big deal, but this week I felt like I made a mockery of church music. The opening song was one I didn't know, and the organist struggled with it, too. I practiced it several times that morning to make sure I could sing it and felt pretty comfortable with it by the time I got to church. But at the end of each verse, the organist kept playing the wrong pick-up notes to the phrase, and I stopped singing the last phrase of each verse because I could never find the right note. I stopped leading my arm for a measure, too, because I felt so lost. It was so embarrassing. The sacrament hymn was short, so after we were done singing, and the organist kept playing, I decided to walk down and sit by Josh during the remainder of the program until it was time for the last song at the end of the program. But the people who were supposed to play the special song in the middle of the program never showed up, so after the first speaker, Myron got up and stared at me in the audience and asked me to please come up to the front. I was in the middle of the bench, so I tripped over the boys getting out (they sat down after me because they were performing the sacrament ordinances). I walked up to the front, turned to the song that had just been announced from the pulpit, and was unsure if I was supposed to ask everyone to stand, because the song wasn't really a "get-up-and-stand" song. I signalled to Josh if he thought we were supposed to stand, and he shrugged his shoulders, so then the Bishop, noticing what I was doing, stood up, and asked the congregation to stand. It was a hot mess, and I felt like I was making the sacred Sacrament meeting into a circus. Anyway, I won't be agreeing to sub for her for a while, because I first need to forget how humiliated I felt!! After church, we ate my favorite birthday meal of ham and au gratin potatoes at our house. Josh was so nice to put it all together for me! We had Edward, Tim, and Barb join us for the meal (Kathy was out of town). The boys gave me gifts that afternoon in the form of a treasure hunt (which I'd requested). Ammon was gone to a friend's house, so the 3 younger boys wrote the clues and hid the gifts. I had to think really hard about the 2nd clue before I figured out that it was probably on Josh's street motorbike!! ;) The boys had shopped for me the previous day, and had gotten several of the things I love to eat (cracklin oat bran cereal, sun chips, strawberry nesquik, and strawberry rhubarb noosa yogurt). My mom also got me a few gifts: colorful socks, serving spoons, a new tote bag, and a geode clock. Tim brought down some yummy Lindt balls that morning, and Edward and Kathy gifted me some cash. Josh's gifts were a ticket to see Coldplay in concert in a few weeks, new earrings, and the fun date the previous night! It was a happy birthday, indeed!!!

Best clue EVER!!! ;)