Weekend in Idaho

Last Friday we took a trip down to Idaho to visit my family. We got on the road about 4:00 and decided not to take the freeway this time. The scenic route was so beautiful and actually made the drive seem less long and dreadful. Montana and Idaho are really pretty looking states! Here are some wind turbines in Great Falls. I took the picture from the car, so not the best shot.

As we were taking the back roads, we came across this Catholic church that was seriously in the middle of nowhere. I'm really fascinated with church buildings for some reason, and thought this one was picture worthy.

We stopped a few times to let Vessel stretch his legs. Mike took him down to a creek and let him play in the water a bit. His favorite part was throwing rocks off the bridge and watching them splash into the water. There were hundreds of birds living under that bridge and they were all flying around in circles. It was a little spooky at times, just because there were so many of them above our heads. I was paranoid they were going to dive down and peck at us or something! But we survived. I know you're happy about that, right?

Vessel's new thing is showing off his toothy grin. If you ask him to smile, he'll get this almost mean, snarly look on his face while exposing his upper and lower teeth. Grrrrrr!

When we got to Island Park, I was flooded with memories of the summer after I graduated high school. I spent a lot of time in IP back then. It is still so beautiful and I enjoyed driving past Henry's Lake and several other familiar places. We finally got to my dad's house a little after 10:00. My sister Steph came over and spent the night with us, which was nice. I really enjoyed spending time with her. She is such a blessing in my life and I'm glad we are getting closer. After hanging out with everyone for awhile we finally decided to lay Vessel down for the night, but he was having a very difficult time going to sleep in such an unfamiliar place. So I ended up laying with him on the spare bed in the pitch black bedroom. He clutched onto my shirt and snuggled up close to me. Those kind of moments are so sweet to me. Then Mike came in and laid down next to us. Vessel talked to us for a bit in his baby-talk and then decided to fall asleep.

The next morning Vessel woke up at 6:00 (I know, shoot me!) and wouldn't go back to sleep so I ended up getting up with him. Chris was nice enough to get up and take him for a walk so I could sleep a little bit longer. What a nice broad, eh? Although it was the 26th, celebrations for the 24th (Pioneer Day) were going on all around my hometown. The annual parade went down around Horsey Park this year, so Steph, Mike, Vessel and I watched the parade from there. Vessel enjoyed it, I think. He saw big trucks and lots of horses. He especially liked the candy the people on the floats threw out. He was pretty much hyped up on sugar from that time forth. I got to see a few of my old classmates and talk to some of them. Hard to believe I've been out of high school for 8 years! After the parade, dad and Chris babysat Vessel so my sister, Mike and I could float the river. Dad dropped us off at the Silver bridge and we planned on floating to the Sandbar. But the river was so low that we ended up walking a good part of it. I felt bad that the float trip didn't turn out better, but it didn't put us in a bad mood. We still had a good time and laughed about it. Dad and Chris met us at the Sandbar with Vessel. We let him "swim" in the water and float around in his little floating toy. And I took him down the slide with me once. He LOVES the water!

Here's Steph about to go down the ghetto slide.

When Vessel started shivering we let him play in the warm sand for a bit. I think he likes playing in the sand ("dirt") just as much as he likes to play in the water. He likes the sensations of it going through his fingers. After playing at the Sandbar for awhile, we loaded up in Steph's truck and went back to my dad's. Mike and I got dressed and then went uptown to fill up the car with gas and buy S'more stuff for later that night. Before going back to dad's, Mike and I took advantage of not having Vessel with us and we went to Big J's for something to eat. Mike really likes to go to Big J's when we're in St. A, and so do I. They have the best tater-tots!

Later that evening we all went fishing at Bubbleland. It was about 7:00, and the best time to go fishing according to Steph and my dad. It was so beautiful there at that fishing hole. I tried to get a lot of pictures to "capture the moment" but no photo I took can really do justice to how beautiful it was. Maybe if I had a more expensive camera and skills to use it, I could show a glimpse of how amazing everything looked. I just believe that nothing can really compare to the human eye and senses.

Here is the railroad bridge that I thought was so cool.

The fish were biting! Steph caught the first one and Chris caught the second.

Here's Mike with his pole.

Dad, Steph and I walked along the train tracks on the bridge where I got some more photos.

I love how the pink from the clouds were reflecting off the water.

Only 2 fish that night, but it was still an enjoyable evening.

We were going to build a fire out in Bubbleland after fishing, but decided we could build a fire in the backyard just as well. But by the time we got back, nobody wanted to deal with making a fire, so Chris just cooked the hot dogs on the grill. Mike and I really wanted to camp out at Monkey Rock, but changed our minds when we started feeling tired. Then we thought about just camping out under the stars in the backyard. But the laziness in us made us change our minds on that too. I guess it just seemed like too much work to blow up the air mattress, find sleeping bags, and haul out extra blankets just to be uncomfortable and cold all night. :)

The next day we went to my grandma and grandpa's house for the annual Hiner steak-fry. It's like Thanksgiving in July...only with big, juicy steaks instead of turkey. The food was seriously worth the drive from Montana. Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Here is my cousin's darling baby girl Bailey Nicole. So plump and cute, I love it!

Around 4:00 that afternoon we made the trek back to Montana. It was such a beautiful drive. So much better than driving from Idaho to Salt Lake (what we're accustomed to.) No freeway traffic and just gorgeous scenery all around us. As much as I miss Salt Lake and the "big city" environment, driving through Montana and Idaho reminded me why I wanted to live in a rural area in the first place.

Here is Vessel playing around at one of our pit stops.

P.S. I tried to take some "artsy" photos of our trip to Idaho which you can look at by clicking here.