Our annual trip to Idaho never disappoints! It was filled with family time and many daily adventures.
Wednesday, July 2nd: We started early in the morning and left Covington at 6:30 am. The girls did amazing, and we made it to Firth in time for dinner. It was fun that Derek and Amy and their girls were there when we arrived. We enjoyed a family dinner, and the girls were happy to be with cousins, enjoy Grandma and Poppy's backyard, and we found baby kittens. The girls were super excited about that! 
Thursday, July 3rd: We enjoyed sleeping in and then Juliette and Emily joined us for lunch at Mr. Pizza's. Their lunch special is super cheap, and we love it. It was so nice having the van since we always seemed to have extra kids with us, which I loved. After eating, we went over to Derek and Amy's and the girls just had fun with cousins, Baylor and Emily went in the pool, and we even got to walk over to a neighbor and hold their tiny puppies. They were so adorable! Derek and Amy's girls ended up going home with us and having a sleepover at Grandma's house. It was so fun! We stayed up too late and made chocolate chip cookies at 10 pm. Baylor and Emily built a fort in the living room and slept in. I joined Charlotte, Juliette, and Paige in a fun game of spoons.
Friday, July 4th: It was a lazy morning enjoying the baby kittens, 4th of July waffles, and getting our hair all ready for the day's festivities. We made it to Derek and Amy's for the annual BBQ at their house. Erika and Karlton's families were all there, so the girls got even more cousins to play with. We enjoyed great food and great company. The cousins all had fun in the pool and on the trampoline. Then it was time for fireworks. McCall was a little unsure at first and I was happy to sit with her in a camping chair and watch it all. The kids had so much fun lighting the fireworks and everyone around us in the neighborhood was also lighting some, so it was a show wherever you looked. It was a wonderful day, and we are so grateful to live in the USA!
Saturday, July 5th: We had a Walker Family Reunion (potluck lunch) and it was so amazing to see and visit with my cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. Nate was a rockstar and took most of the kids to the playground so that all the girls could just sit and visit. It was an incredible couple of hours catching up, laughing, and enjoying time together. We made a quick stop at the cemetery to see Kelton and Grandma and Grandpa Peteron. We took Emily and Juliette with us so we dropped them off on our way back down to Firth and ended up staying there for most of the evening. Sharolyn stopped by for a bit and it was great to visit her. We made some alfredo and enjoyed dinner together before going back to Firth for bed. We were getting ready for bed, and we noticed fireworks going on and one of the neighbors was putting on an incredible show. It was a sweet moment where we were all gathered in the bay window, just taking it all in.
Sunday, July 6th: We went to church with Amy and the girls and then I got to go and see some high school friends. It was so amazing to catch up and just sit and talk with them for a couple of hours. I'm incredibly grateful that I had such an amazing group of friends for all my growing up years and that we still stay connected to this day. Derek and Amy came over for dinner and the girls had fun in the backyard. They did gymnastic competitions, chalk drawings, and went over to the neighbors to pet their goats and horses.
.jpg)
Monday, July 7th: We started the day off going to the Idaho Falls Zoo. We took Juliette with us, and she ended up getting us all free since she volunteered there at the beginning of the summer for a couple of weeks. We loved seeing all the animals, especially the monkeys. There was a baby lemur that was the cutest little thing. We then met Erika and her kids at Funland and rode the ferris wheel. It went way faster than I thought it would and I may have scared Baylor and McCall for life. They were hanging on for dear life while I was laughing. Juliette and Paige loved every minute of it! Then we all went to lunch at Dixie Diner. It was a new place for us, and it was so good (though the fry sauce wasn't that good which is always a little disappointing since I go to Idaho to enjoy some good fry sauce.) Then we met up with the rest of Derek and Amy's family and we all went to enjoy gem lake. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. The kids had so much fun floating in the inner tubes and jumping off the dock. Paige and Juliette found so many dragonflies and would have them all over their hands and arms and had names for them all. It was fun to see Baylor enjoy the water and she loved swimming out deep with her life jacket. I love to see her confidence grow in the water and she was even fine going underwater which is a big milestone for her. McCall was happy to play on the shoreline and would go out deeper than she should at times. She has no fear of the water which can be a little stressful at times. I loved sitting down by the water and taking it all in. I love watching my girls be with their cousins and the fun they have together. We enjoyed a quiet evening with the baby kittens. Nate, Paige, and I enjoyed a late night playing some card games to end our day.
Tuesday, July 8th: We all slept in and had a chill day. Emily came over to spend the day with us since Juliette and Charlotte went to Girl's Camp. They had kept themselves entertained by holding the kittens, playing outside, doing yoga challenges, and Grandma made some playdough, and they played with it for a couple of hours. We had an exciting afternoon when the back of McCall's head went into Baylor's face. There was quite a bit of blood and I thought that she had bit through her life. After cleaning her mouth out, I realized it was just her loose tooth that was bleeding and so Nate just ended up quickly pulling it out. It was a little much for Baylor, but she got through it and was so happy to have that tooth out. Derek and Amy came over for a lasagna dinner and we enjoyed playing some ladder golf and visiting in the backyard. Nate and I enjoyed an evening walk almost every day and on this day, we got to watch some fire excitement. We could see the smoke and quite a few fire trucks zoom by. It took them a while to figure out how to get to the fire and it seemed to be under control by the time they got there. It was an exciting way to end the day. Emily ended up sleeping over, which was fun for the girls.
Wednesday, July 9th: Paige and I drove up with Amy to go to their Girls' Camp for the day. I wasn't sure how Paige would do but she was incredible and brave and put herself out there. It was cool to see how another stake does their Girl's Camp, and I came to realize that Girls' Camp is about the same wherever you go. It was really fun and such a wonderful day! We got there in time to go with their ward to the challenge/obstacle course, axe throwing, and archery. I was amazed with Paige from the beginning and impressed with their ward that just welcomed and included her. She needed some pants and closed toed shoes to do the obstacle course, and two different girls came to her rescue. Their ward had a certain amount of time there and the girls got to pick where they went. Most of the younger girls did the obstacle course which is different challenges that they had to work together to get through. It was fun to watch. At one point, Juliette wanted to do archery and Paige decided to stay with the group and do a challenge without Juliette, which I was super impressed with the confidence and maturity of Paige. It is amazing to watch your children grow and become themselves! Then we had lunch and after lunch, the girls had lake time. There were kayaks and paddle boards, and this big floating mat that a lot of the girls played on together. They had a really cool rope swing. Amy and I went down for a bit to watch, and you could tell they were having so much fun. Once they were done with the lake, the girls came back and did jewelry making and picked a partner to paint each other. Juliette and Paige did each other and did amazing. They are both quite the artists and it was fun to see how everyone else did. We had a flag ceremony and then the girls did a faith walk and then dinner before we left for home. A lot of the day, I enjoyed visiting Amy and some of the other leaders. It was such an enjoyable day! Nate spent the day with Baylor, McCall, and Emily. They were at my parent's house for the morning and then with Derek and his house. The girls had fun in the pool and Emily and Baylor also enjoyed playing with a neighbor girl.
Thursday, July 10th: We picked up Emily on our way to Rexburg. We first went to a few thrift stores and then got some lunch to take to Porter Park. We met Erika and her kids and Karlton and Michelle's family at the park. The kids had lots of fun on the splash park. McCall and Baylor were hesitant about the big bucket of water that dumps and didn't want to get too wet with the wind, so they spent their time on the outside just dipping their feet in. Emily and Paige went down the slides and had so much fun together with Bria. The boys were entertaining to watch since they would go down the slide and then run over and wait for the bucket of water to just dump water on them. They did this over and over. Once the kids had dried off, we went and did the carousel two times. All the kids loved it and had fun doing different poses and faces as they would go past me. McCall was tired at this point and last about half the time on the first ride and then wanted Nate to just hold her. Then we all went to Karie Anne's to try their famous gelati. It was so worth it and so good! Then we left and picked up Lily. It was so fun to walk around campus with her. She showed us and talked about the things that she is doing, and we told her stories from when we were there. We them picked up a pizza and enjoyed dinner at her apartment. You can tell she is loving college life, and she is so fun to be around and visit with.
Friday, July 11th: Today's adventure was going to Downata Hot Springs. Amy and her girls and my parents went down with us and Sharolyn and Tyler and their family met us there. We were there all afternoon, and it was so much fun. The water was so warm, and they have so many fun slides. They have two big water slides that the kids and adults loved going down over and over. Baylor and McCall stuck to the pool. They had a small, shallow pool that McCall loved. She kept putting her face in the water and was a little too brave for comfort at times but is a little water girl and loved it so much. Baylor is very confident with swimming with her life jacket and was all over the pool and had fun with cousins. There was a smaller slide that it took a few times of me catching her and soon she was going down all on her own. It was sweet to see the progression and her confidence and bravery grow. Soon her and Maggie were going down over and over. McCall went down the slide a couple of times and most of them Nate held her hand down until I could catch her. She went down once on her own and I got a good kick to the nose. It stung quite a bit, but I was laughing, and she thought it was the coolest thing ever. :) We got some Artic Circle on the way home for dinner and enjoyed watching the sunset from the front steps while listening to some Benson Boone. Most of the time, it was just me and my girls, and it was magical.
Saturday, July 12th: It was a lazy morning, and we held the baby kittens a lot. Then we made our way down to Erika's house for some card making and dinner. Don and Shel came, and it was fun to visit with Shel and talk all about the coast since her son just recently moved to Vancouver. They had recently visited in the Spring and went to Seaside. She was showing me pictures of spring flowers that I love, and I would name them and I suggested some places to visit. Then after dinner, we went to the sand dunes which was probably one of my favorite things of the whole trip. It started off with some excitement since Erika wasn't sure where to go and led us down a road that had quite a bit of sand, and we got stuck as soon as we got off the road. We were all laughing about it and it was so funny seeing all these little kids trying to help push the car out. Eventually we realized we were really stuck, so I took all the kids across the street to jump on the dune there while the other adults worked on the car. Eventually, a truck drove by and was able to tow us out and Erika was so far in, and the truck started to sink so he didn't trust going in that far. Erika and my mom stayed back and waited for a tow truck. Amy had already gone ahead and found the actual parking lot and had walked back. So, I ended up loading ten kids and three adults into our van which was awesome to drive the little bit to the parking lot. We found some even bigger sand dunes to play on and found the perfect spot to have a fire. The kids were in heaven jumping off the dunes and the views from the top were INCREDIBLE. The sun was starting to set and it was gorgeous. We enjoyed the fire and some smores and had so much fun together. I took some of the kids to the top of the dunes to do some star gazing and we ended up getting home at midnight.
Sunday, July 13th: We went to church with Amy and her girls and then hung out their house until dinner. The girls had fun with cousins, and it was sweet to watch McCall cuddle up to Derek as they played games on his phone. Nate had to work on the van for a bit since something happened with the car getting stuck and it was driving a bit off. It ended up being a quick fix. Baylor and Paige ended up spending the night at Derek and Amy's, which was fun for them.
Monday, July 14th: Today was our last day in Idaho so it was spent doing laundry, doing some shopping, and doing some packing. The girls had fun with Grandma and did some painting. We of course played with the baby kittens. Then Derek and Amy and Karlton and Michelle and their families came over for dinner. I made egg rolls, chicken teriyaki, and chicken yakisoba for dinner which everyone enjoyed. We had fun enjoying family time and the kids had fun in the backyard. We played a game of croquet. Then we all ended the evening by having Rupes for dessert. It was a fun, family-filled way to spend our last day!
Tuesday, July 15th: Juliette spent the night last night because she gets to come with us to Washington! Paige is so excited about this. She will get to spend the entire month of July with one of her favorite cousins. We got an early start and made the long drive home. It's always sad to leave Idaho and we always love our time with family but we are excited to sleep in our own beds and I miss the trees. This goodbye wasn't as hard since Juliette will be with us and most of my family is coming to Washington for our Peterson Family Reunion.
Until next time Idaho!
.jpg){kind=spacer}
