Impromptu Double Date and Nephew's Special Day

Josh and I went to Boise the first weekend in December. We left on Saturday morning to arrive in Boise by noon to attend his nephew Teddy's baptism. We encountered just a little rough patch of snow and fog past Carey on the drive, but otherwise, the roads were good. The baptism was nice! We arrived before the baptism, just as pictures were being taken of Teddy with different family members, but we weren't asked to be in any photos, so we don't have any pictures of the actual event or any of Teddy on his special day. 

That afternoon, we did some shopping and then headed to Malachi and Molly's house. It was the first time we'd been to their new house in Kuna. We visited with them and hung out with their cute boys for a couple of hours. Their kids are so adorable, and we had a good time catching up with them. On Saturday evening, we went on a date with Ryan & Heidi. We hadn't pre-planned the date; it was all very impromptu, but it ended up being our favorite experience of the weekend! We went to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner, then to go look at some Christmas lights afterwards. We walked around the Scentsy headquarters, which was decorated with lots of lights, and it was so pretty! Then we went to The Village at Meridian, and walked around a cool rock & fossil store then watched an outdoor water fountain/musical show in the center of some shoppes. We had an absolutely wonderful time with them! It had been a long time since we went on a double date with them, and we enjoyed our time together immensely. We spent the night back at Malachi and Molly's house. They were gracious enough to let us sleep in their upstairs loft, which was so generous! 

On Sunday morning, we went back to Boise to go to Gideon & Alyssa's ward because it was their youngest son Charlie's baby blessing. Their Sacrament meeting was nice; there was one testimony that really resounded with me given by a young lady and her sincere testimony of our Savior. I also thought it was hilarious that after Alyssa left to go feed the baby during the meeting, Teddy got annoyed that one of his sisters was touching his Harry Potter book, so he took it from her and told her not to touch it, and she screamed out very loudly "You're the worst brother EVER!" in the middle of the meeting. I got a good chuckle out of that whole encounter! After church, we went to their house to eat some light sandwiches. It was nice to have some down time with family. We drove back to Salmon after that, and encountered rainy and snowy roads the whole way home. Thankfully, we got home right before dark. It was a really quick trip to Boise, but we were grateful that we were able to go support family, and spend quality time with both immediate and extended family!

Calvin has such a sweet disposition!

Caleb is a delight and so fun to be around!

Double Date with Ryan and Heidi

Springs, Stairs, Swims, & Sunburns

We went on our first (and only) family vacation of the summer just one week before it ended and Kanyon had to go back to school! Our vacation plan was to go to Bear Lake since Kanyon likes hanging out in water and on the beach, and we hadn't been there in years. But since Josh and I had so many weekend trips to hot springs planned all summer long, our family vacation didn't happen until the end of August.  

We knew it wouldn't be very fun for Kanyon to just hang out with just me and Josh, so we told him he could invite a friend. He invited his friend Sam, and he and his parents agreed that he could join us. However, he ended up going with another friend Jesse to Boise the day before we left, because he thought our trip was a different weekend. So last minute, Kanyon invited his friend Evan Dobson to come with us instead. We left on Saturday August 19th and drove to Montpelier. On our way, we stopped in Soda Springs as we were passing through because the timing was just right to watch the Soda Springs Geyser (it bursts every hour on the hour). 

We made it to Montpelier and checked into our hotel, then went to the Minnetonka Cave to take a tour. Our reservation was for the last tour of the day. You go down 444 steps while in the cave, and then at the end, you have to turn around and go back up the same steps. None of us had been there before, but it was an interesting cave tour that lasted a little over an hour. We were surprised at the people in our group who brought babies a/o toddlers and had to carry them the whole way! It wasn't easy going over the steps that were built out of natural materials 80 years ago! 

Walking on the boardwalk to get to the cave entrance

The cave entrance is behind/to the left of Kanyon

Some of the stairs inside

This formation looked like a pope gnome to me!

Don't worry--this formation was already ruined,
so the guide said people could touch it.

Afterwards, we stopped and got pizza in Montpelier. That night, the boys hung out at the hotel gaming and swimming in the hotel pool, and I persuaded Josh to go see the Barbie movie with me in the theater (I loved it and he hated it).  

On Sunday morning, we drove to the North Beach of Bear Lake on the Idaho side. It wasn't too busy, and the weather wasn't too hot, due to the sun being behind cloud cover. We soaked in the Bear Lake Hot Springs that are near the beach first (another one to cross off our list!). There are two warm pools there varying in temperature, and the smell of Sulphur was prevalent, so the boys didn't soak with us long because they couldn't stand the smell. I thought the location was quite pleasant and peaceful, with the view of the lake in the distance. We were the only ones soaking for a few minutes before a large adult family came and joined us. The facilities are dated, but sufficient with dressing rooms and bathrooms. I've been researching this particular hot springs for years--the ownership changed hands in the past few years and I wasn't even sure it was still open, so I was glad it to see it was! 

After that, we hung out on the sand and in the shallow water of Bear Lake for about 6 hours. It was very relaxing. We mostly used our paddle boards to play on the water with. Since it wasn't too sunny, Kanyon chose to not wear sunscreen, but since he was laying a lot on the paddle boards in the water, and the water reflects the light more intensely, he got super sunburned on his chest, shoulders, and back. We left around 4:00 that afternoon and stopped in Logan at a store to get some sunburn relief gel which I applied multiple times that night and the next day. He was pretty miserable! We spent the night at my parents' house in Providence. Grandma made dinner for us when we arrived, and then we hung out all evening talking, watching TV, reading, and doing puzzles. Kanyon and Evan walked down to Walmart that night, which was a 2 mile walk, and it was 11:00 when they got back.

On Monday morning, Grandma made us breakfast and then we drove to Ogden to Amanda and Ryan's house. Amanda trimmed mine and Kanyon's hair. We were there for about an hour. After that, we drove north and stopped in Pocatello to do some school shopping and have lunch before driving the rest of the way home.  It was a pretty short vacation, but it was nice to do some sight-seeing and have some down time with Kanyon before the summer's end.