Water parks, Friends, and Summer Camp.

 We got to get together with some of our Gibb friends while they were in town.

We took advantage of the summer weather, and headed to Rexburg Rapids for some fun!

The kids had a blast, and I will do anything to be outside in the sunshine! :)

Caden was at camp that week. This boy loved going to Pine Basin last year, and wasn't about to mis it this year. He even chose to go over his birthday!

Can't believe I have am 11 year old.... where does the time go?!

Summer!

 Summer is my most favorite time of the year. I LOVE the hot warm days.

Living in Idaho without the humidity makes it even better :) 

We decided to go on a walk around the river, it was a blast.

So glad I have a little running buddy! He did the firecracker 5k with me and smoked it! running it at an 8 min pace, taking 2nd in his age group. What a little stud!

After the race, we headed over to star valley to meet up with friends for the 4th. We caught the small town parade where the kids made out like bandits with candy, and watched some pretty awesome fireworks.

We spent the next day in Jackson, eating, swimming, and playing!

A trip to Star Valley isn't complete without visiting the Teton Mystery...

We love when we get to spend time with our Thompson friends!

Old Faithful.

 We packed up camp, and headed to Old Faithful. Who knew that was going to end up being an all day thing?! But totally worth it. Other than the falls I think this was my favorite part of Yellowstone.

Once again, check out the Bison. Totally not caring that there were hundreds of people around, and I geyser not 20 feet away from him.

It's amazing to see this thing come to life. It would sputter water for a good 5 minutes before it went off. Teasing you thinking it was just about to go off!

 The kids thought it was so cool. Everyone in a five foot radius of us was making bets to see if the Bison would move when it went off, or acted like nothing was happening. As the picture shows, it just sat there.

We then hiked the loop around to all the other geysers and hot ponds. It amazes me that in the middle of the mountains and forest, you can have all this activity.

Most of the crew got tired and missed out on this pond. Brandon, Clair and I took the short hike to check it out. The pictures don't even do it justice.

After a late lunch, and watching Old Faithful again, we headed home.

As you can tell the kids were sad for this trip to end.

I was ready for a shower.

But I will say it was so much fun. And from Old Faithful to our front door was 2 hours.

So we will definitely be spending more time in this beautiful national park!

Yellowstone.

 This past weekend we packed up, and headed to Yellowstone! I've never been, and it had been years since Ryan went. Ryan and his brother decided it would be fun to bike from Idaho Falls to Jackson, so they took off early Friday morning, while I got up and got my long run in.

Whew. Caroline and I took off around 11, and it was perfect, we ended up getting to Jackson at the same time. After driving those mountain passes, I was glad I didn't know what my husband would be biking! That was scary! Here is Ryan, posing right before their 10% grade climb:

After being in the flatlands for the past 10 years, these mountains just amaze me! How beautiful the Tetons are.

We arrived at our campsite just in time for dinner, and of course I had left my SD card to the camera in the computer. UGH. Thankfully both Caroline and Clair cam to my rescue so we could document this trip. Clair got up just as we were getting ready for some yummy smores! YUM!

The next morning the kiddos were up bright and early. So we made a delicious breakfast, and then loaded up for a day of sight seeing.

 I made sure to get a picture of each of the kiddos alone. They are so stinkin cute, and for most of the trip were fabulous. Brooke is having a little melt down, but what 3 year old doesn't??

Some more  views, and some serious bubbling. 170 degrees to be exact.

These signs were everywhere, and for the most part the kids were great at following. I give ya one guess at who was told to pay attention... and no not these cute feet, just couldn't resist the picture. 

(She was forced on this one, though she did venture once or twice.)

  The falls, and the Yellowstone canyon, was one of my favorite sites for sure. 

Seriously just beautiful.

Next we headed up to Mammoth Hot springs.  The first spring you came to was amazing, the others, well they were dried up. They would have been so cool full of water.

And how could you not take pictures of the Bison??

They were everywhere, and the kids loved counting them. That and finding as many state plates as we could. We got to 45. Oh so close. Apparently no one from North Dakota, Georgia, Delaware,West Virginia,  and Vermont cared to join us that weekend.

Anyways, these Bison were like Cows, they had no fear of humans, and just roamed around as if we didn't exist.

 To be continued...

Camping outside is scary...

 
(My title is sort of an inside joke... I can't help thinking about that saying when I hear the word camping. It's a Joeyism from our childhood days. pretty much an awesome song he made up..hehe!)
We are back from our camping in the wilderness! Well, that is the beauty of Minnesota, cause we were only miles from town, but it felt like we were 100 miles away from the hustle and bustle of a metropolis! And thankfully so, we did not have enough bug spray, so Bonnie volunteered to go get more. Man those mosquitoes were bad!
We spent a lot of time doing this:

 Here are all the ladies! Aren't we just the most beautiful bunch of camping ladies you ever did see!?

This is not how I envisioned these pictures, but alas with my nice camera out of commission, I didn't get as many as I wanted, cause my old one doesn't do so well at night:

The next morning we were up bright and early for breakfast! It was a warm day, so Annie and I took off as soon as we could for a good run. Good thing we had our water belts, cause the sun was blazing!

The kids enjoyed the wonderful breakfast that the Dad's so graciously cooked!

Can't wait to do it again next year!