Idaho Trip

 For my birthday I got a plane ticket to go to Idaho- thanks to both sets of parents! Paige and I went down to Firth with Dale and Margaret and then we flew back. We had an amazing week being with family!

Our first day was Wednesday of last week and we drove to Coeur d'Alene to stay with Gary and Dana. On the way we stopped in Vantage and Paige got to swim in the Colombia River with Aaron and Rachel and their kids.

 We enjoyed our night with Gary and Dana. It is always nice to have a stopping point and we always get a delicious meal. We followed Mike and Christy and their family who were traveling to Yellowstone in an RV to Montana where we stopped at the Lewis and Clark Caverns. The cave was absolutely incredible and my pictures don't do it justice.

 It had a small, natural rock slide.

 The pretty purple/pink pictures are what the cave would look like under natural light verse LED light.

 The long tunnel we walked down to get out of the cave and as we were walking Paige said it smelled like skunk poop.

 We then made it to Firth very late Thursday evening. Friday we slept in and had a relaxing day. Erika and Brian with two of their kids came down to visit us. It was great to visit with them and I got to meet my newest nephew Parker. Just Erika and I went to Rupes for some ice cream and it was nice to have some sister time. At dinner time Derek and Amy and their girls came over and Paige loved being reunited with her girl cousins. It is like they never left each others sides and they just played outside for hours.

 They had fun collecting feathers from the chicken coop.

 Then taking them up the slide and decorating the crow's nest.

 Cute little Grace.

 And cheesy Emily.

 And the newest little guy.

 Saturday we drove up to Grandma Walker's house and she had her yard flood irrigated and the girls loved playing in it.

 Their favorite game was to have Poppy chase them and them chase and splash him. Lots of running, laughing, and squealing.

 And I got to see this cute guy again. We has the most beautiful eyes and he wasn't too sure about me.

 I made Tannin a birthday present. He turns one in September but he got an early birthday present so I could see him open it.

 I made him some superhero finger puppets. They turned out really cute.

 And I finally got a smile out of him.

 And this little guy was not impressed that I was taking pictures of him when he was so hungry.

 And this is what happens when some of the girls just don't want to take a picture. :)

 After everyone left I took Paige on a little four-wheeler ride around the farm.

 We headed to a reception and my one request for dinner was Arctic Circle so I could get some fry sauce one of the things I miss since living in Washington.

 Sunday I enjoyed going to church in Firth and seeing some people that I haven't seen in awhile. After church we enjoyed watching the end of the Olympics and Derek and Amy and the girls came over for dinner since I promised bread sticks and chocolate chip cookies.

Amy has helped Charlotte collect some bugs for an upcoming school project and they decided to have my dad catch a cat face spider for her collection. He got it in a jar and we just watched it for a while. My mom even caught a fly to put in the jar to see if we could get the spider to move. The spider was all curled up and eventually Amy shook the jar to see if the spider was still alive when all the girls were watching and he climbed all the way up the jar and there was lots of screaming from the girls.

A little blurry but here was the reaction. It was good ole Idaho fun.

 Emily is so entertaining. She is constantly talking and does the funniest facial expressions.

 I showed the girls how you can walk on this "horse" and told them that I used to do it all the time when I was younger. They each took a turns walking across it with help and then we got a picture. You can tell in the picture that Paige was not a fan of being up that high without someone being right there by her.

 Monday I went vising teaching with my mom to see Shelly  Killpack- our next door neighbor and my best friend's mom. So I spent many days over at her house and it was so nice to visit with her. Then my Grandma Walker and her roommate came down for lunch so I got to visit with her for a few hours. Later in the afternoon my parents left for West Yellowstone for some plays so we went to Derek and Amy's to spend the night.

Tuesday we got up and we headed to Bear World. I had never been there before and it was awesome. It was one of Paige's favorite parts of the trip and mine too.

 The animals before getting into the bear area.

 The bears- we were behind the big truck the stopped every so often to feed the bears. It was so entertaining. Most of the bears followed that truck around so we got to see lots of bear out and about. The girls thought it was so funny when the bears would sit or climb up on the truck to get the food.

 It was a bright and sunny day.

 In the gift shop.

 We watched the baby bears get fed for a while before heading to the petting area.

 Mid sneeze picture for Emily but everyone else is looking at the camera.

 Amy and her girls loved petting all the animals especially Juliette who seems to have no fear. Paige on the other hand was not interested in touching any animals.

 She finally got brave enough to pet some goats only if they were laying down.

 Then we went over the the little river that flows through where there were good sized rainbow trout and ducks. All the girls loved feeding them.

 Then we went to the rides. All the girls loved all the rides. They spent lots of times just going from ride to ride. They loved them all!

 I love this picture of Paige with so much joy in her face.

Juliette and Emily fell asleep in the car and while they were still sleeping Paige and Charlotte went around collecting rocks. We were all pretty tired so we just enjoyed watching Aladdin and relaxing. We had dinner with them and then their girls had to get ready for bed since they had their first day of school the next morning.

 So we headed up to Idaho Falls and met Mike and Christy at their RV park. We spent about an hour there and Paige enjoyed the playground they had there.

 Wednesday we went with my mom to Hyrum, Utah to see my sister and her little guy. We visited for awhile and had some lunch and then we walked to the park. There was splash pad area and the kids weren't that interested in it. Paige touched some of the water but she was too distracted by the playground and didn't want to get her face wet.

 So we spent most of the time on the playground.

 Look at that cute smile.

 We then went into Logan and got some Aggie Ice Cream.

 Thursday was the day we drove to Sun Valley with my parents to catch our plane back to Washington. My flight left in the evening and when the plane landed they said there would be a 20-30 minute delay for a mechanical issue and then after a while they cancelled our flight. We were sad that we were going another day without seeing Nate but we enjoyed our last night thanks to Alaska Airlines. The airline got my plane rebooked for the next day and paid for a hotel and for the taxi to and from the airport. They also gave me some food vouchers for meals. Emily Smith (one of Shelley's daughter) lives pretty near so she drove up and we enjoyed getting some ice cream. I loved visiting with her and seeing a familiar face.

 After we got back to the hotel Paige was so excited that we got to go swimming at the hotel pool. Paige loved every minute of it and enjoys staying in hotels for the pools and the big beds.

 The next morning was a day full of travels. We first went from Sun Valley to Los Angeles. Paige loved constantly looking out the window and enjoyed her complimentary Sprite and snack. She was a great traveler.

 We had a quick layover in LA and we hurried and got some lunch before we got on our plane to Seattle. As soon as Paige had a full tummy and we got up in the air she fell asleep and slept the entire 2 hours. It was great to finally see Mount Rainier and know that I was close to being done traveling and we were so excited to be with Nate again. We all missed each other so much and we are all so happy to be together again.