We made our annual trek to Idaho for some family fun. Our first stop was in Butte, Montana where we spent our first night in a hotel with Grandma and Poppy, Erika and her kids, and Derek and Amy's girls. We had a really good dinner at a place called Sparky's Garage (really good comfort food!) and then the kids all had fun in the hotel pool to end the evening.
McCall's little cheesy smile poking in is just the cutest!
The next morning we made a quick stop at Granite Moutain Speculator Mine Memorial where 168 people lost their lives in a mine disaster. It shared some of their stories and the memorial was very well done.
Then we went to the Lewis and Clark Caverns.
Inside the cave is incredible and amazing and all those cool things. It was so hot outisde so it felt so good to be inside the cave. We had a great tour guide and it was so fasincating to see all the different things inside the cave. I do wish we would have done the other tour so we could have seen more of the cave, but I'll just keep it on my bucket list for next time.
We checked into our Airbnb in Island Park for the next couple of days. It consisted of 2 cabins and worked out great for the group that we had. Nate and I made dinner that night and it was fun seeing the cousins playing games and enjoying being with each other.
The next day was our Yellowstone day! I've been wanting to take my girls to Yellowstone for awhile and it was a good day. We started off kind of slow, but we saw all the main things we wanted to and it was a great day exploring a very beautiful national park.
This waterfall and view were incredible! There was a little chipmunk that McCall was more interested in. :)
After some confusion of where to be with no cell service, we all finally got together for a picnic for lunch before seeing another waterfall.
We were at the top of this one which was pretty cool.
We saw quite a few bison and deer throughout the day.
Then we finally got to the "Yellowstone" stuff and it was pretty cool to see and all the kids loved it.
We made it to Old Faithful right after it went off so we had about an hour to wait so we wandered around the information center and gift shops until it was time for the show.
It was pretty spectacular like always. It was Paige's favorite part, but I guess Baylor wasn't that impressed because right after it was done, she exclaimed "Well it's just a fountain!" We all got a good laugh out of that one!
We saw this family of deer right before we left the park. It was a good day! We got home pretty late and didn't have dinner until around 9 pm. We stayed up even later having a big dance party which was so much fun!
The next day we went to the start of Big Springs to see the fish and the cabin.
Then back for lunch before an afternoon spent at the lake... well that's what it was supposed to be. The kids all were enjoying themselves and swimming and skipping rocks. Erika and I were sitting on a blanket just visiting when McCall comes up and there is a small leech on her leg. Erika quickly takes it off and we hope that it was just a fluke. Then Nate comes over to us and there are tons of little leeches on his feet that he is working on taking off. We decide not to tell any of the kids until they are done swimming as to not ruin their fun. Once they start coming in and we start checking them, it was pure entertainment for Erika and I. The squirming and squealing and freaking out was so funny! It sure is gross but was still entertaining. Henry's Lake will now forever be called Leech Lake in our family and it will sure be a memory that will stick with all of us!
We checked everyone over pretty good for leeches before getting into the cars to head back to the Airbnb, but I guess we missed one on Baylor and that leech got quite the snack!
Everyone got showered and the kids always enjoyed meals and playing games together.
We had a relaxing evening of smores and cobbler and just enjoyed being outside our cabins for the evening.
We took the short walk up the street from our cabin and got some cute pictures of these girls. They go WAY back! The original 3!
And of course some fun ones with McCall because her hair was amazing!
Oh how I love this cute face!
The next morning was breakfast, cleaning up, checking out, and a few girls avoiding hugs from Aunt Kaka (Erika). :)
Derek, Amy, and Emily had left the day before so my parents had Juliette and Charlotte and so we went with them on a little extra adventure on our way back home. We stopped to see Mesa Falls and it was stunning especially with the rainbow from the mist.
We made a quick stop to feed the fish though you couldn't see them very good.
And our last stop was Big Judd's for lunch! We got the big hamburger for some of the adults to share and because we had to wait so long, our waiter was pretty sweet and gave us all free ice cream.
Another amazing reunion in the books!
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