Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!  What a crazy fun day!  We went to the Buhl Sagebrush Days Parade and passed out fliers for the Spencer's Own concert.  I was so fun.  I have so many awesome memories of parades with JuMP Co friends.  Those were some of the biggest highlights of my teen years.  I am so glad I got to share a piece of those memories with my kids.                    

 Pops and GG!  Don't they look great!

 The kids and I showing off our Idaho Love shirts.  They turned out pretty cool for a midnight project.

 Yay for seeing Liam and Emery getting along in a photo together.

  A Heavenly 4th of July gift.  I love sunsets!

 Birthday Boy!  Happy birthday dad~

 Pops helping Em feel better.  She loves his crazy squeezy bear hugs and how patient he is with her.  He makes all her bad feeling go away.

 Meanwhile Gramachele is loving on Colin who is so tired at this point that she was the only one to make him feel better.

I'm eternally grateful for those who have laid the foundation for the freedoms we have. 

Hagerman Fossil Beds, Family fun and Craters of the Moon...

I'm trying to make sure I remember all the good things we've done on this trip, so we are post friendly right now.  

We made a day off date with poppo to go see the Hagerman Fossil Beds.  I had this genius idea that we could try to fulfill the requirements to be a jr ranger at any of the parks we visited.  We watched a movie, dug fossils and then headed out to find the fossil beds.  Not the best marked park, and a little too hot for a 3 mile hike to see oregon trail wheel marks.  We enjoyed the day, but didn't really feel like this was a hot spot to hit again... sorry hagerman...

 Our next fun date was to the fountains for a picnic in the shop with Gramachele .  I love these fountains.  I remember when we very first moved to Twin Falls.  I had a friend whose dad worked at JC Pennies where Blackers used to be. They had escalators and the two of us would go visit her dad at work and ride the escalators and then play on the fountains while we waited for her mom.

 We visited with Grandma Williams while she was in town (and later in Arco with her)  The photo below cracks me up.

 The kids helped pops mow the lawn...

 We visited Herrett's museum.  That was fun, but mom was paying attention and saw that they were having a solar viewing.  That was really cool  We saw the sun through these neat telescopes and talked about pinhole viewers and even got to see Venus on the big telescope.  It was awesome!!

 We visited this little sweet garden downtown and stopped in to share a story with this lovely statue

 Following this we packed up and headed out of town for the weekend.  We went to Craters of the Moon.  What an AMAZING Jr Rangers Program they have here.  The Rangers ROCKED!  They were so enthusiatic and fun and encouraging. The kids LOVED it and proudly wore their Jr Ranger badges all weekend!

 Em was NOT impressed with my breakfast....  I love the photo below.  It's going on my wall...

thWe hiked to the top of this awesome viewpoint.  What a unique and beautiful landscape.  It's so stark, but really remarkable!

 Isa was tired the rest of the time...  She took lots of rests  Good thing she's so cute!

 Emery Loved hiking around can't you tell?  She was cracking me up.  I tell you this girl is unstoppable if you are doing something she is in the mood for.  When she doesn't want to do something she digs in her heel and gives the best moody faces ever.  Good thing I had Balance (a Do Terra oil blend)  This photo was taken after I poured water over her head to cool her off.

 Colin, before his little legs said no more!

 Liam LOVED it. He loved hiking and exploring and adventuring  His favorite part was the caves.  He would have caved all day long.  What a great attitude!

 Spatter cones,

 Indian Tunnel

 Colin totally DONE!!  Those little legs could not go one step further...

 Liam still smiling!

 The super brother strikes again.  Liam totally carried Colin on his back to give me a rest...What a good kid!
Five minutes out of the park, Colin was FAST asleep.  Funny boy...
Our next adventure took us to Arco.  I've felt it was really important for the kids to see where their Grandparents grew up and to hear their stories about growing up.  So we started with Pops.  He was raised in Arco and Moore and so we headed that direction...

 Visiting a piece of a WW2 submarine

 Out at the Ranch in Moore, looking for the Lost River...

 Found it!

 Pops shared stories with the kids about Mr Who an owl he raised from a baby, and Bobbi the bobcat.  He told them how he and his brothers would play out near the river almost every day, fishing, and adventuring.  I'm so glad we took the time to share this with Pops.

 Hanging out with family and getting some GG snuggles.  On a side note, it was wonderful to watch my kids with Grandma.  They would clap for her and encourage her.  Isa and Emery put on a show for her and had her practicing her numbers and words.  They would lovingly bring her water and help her move from room to room.  They gave her kisses and hugs and just gave pure unconditional love.  It was really wonderful!

 Aunt Lucy helping Emery to get over her fear of dogs...

 Heading out of Arco.  This is the number mountain.  Senior classes have painted their graduating year on this mountain since the early 20's  I love it.  To me it brings back long walks with Morgan in a place that seemed to have been lost in time.  It is family weekend trips and squeaky beds.  It is Williams Beans and some of the greatest people on earth. It's a part of me because it's a part of Morgan and I love it.  

Extra Photos, Cousin love, lessons learned and Balanced Rock...

 I borrowed Pops phone to see if he had any great photos and ha ha!  he did.  therefore, I now have these awesome photos to add to my summer of fun ...

 Mr.'s mustachio

Love this one!


So our next summer adventure was on the way to Twin from Pocatello.  There was a young man pushing his motorcycle down the road.  He was obviously hot and tired and out of gas.  So I stopped.  Crazy I know, but I felt good about it.  Anyway, I dropped him off at the gas station and then took him back to his bike. (Insert happy feeling here....) We continued on the freeway for a few minutes and I realized all the exits are closed for road work...doh, where the heck are we going to turn around.  The last exit I remembered was probably 45 minutes back.  That's almost all the way to Pocatello.  Grrrr.   I failed to mention that I felt like puking the entire way home.  I'm not sure what was going on with my belly, but it was definitely NOT happy and NOT good.  I wasn't sure if I would make it all the way back without an episode.  I had my peppermint oil  Thank heavens!  and it was keeping the "sick" at bay, but I just couldn't picture driving all that way back and forward again.  So I made a bad decision.  I decided to turn around in an emergency vehicles only spot.  Did you know that's something you can serve time in jail for...yep neither did I that is until I was pulled over for my choice.  The trooper was great.  He served me with a ticket and a great guilt treatment.  All of them well deserved.  As we were pulling out, I pondered my decision.  I knew it was not correct.  I knew better, and still I made the choice.  The trooper in this situation saw that I recognized my mistake and was truly sorry.  He was merciful and lowered my citation.  I asked the kids afterwards if we should have helped the guy out.  Isa astounded me with her insight.  She said "Mom, if you are going to serve people, you have to be willing to go the extra mile."  How right you are little miss.
     We made it to Twin and spent some time with GG and Pops and Gramachele and Poppo. It's been great.
Em LOVED her cousin time with Austin!!  They are two peas in a pod!

 I have been trying to plan some fun Idaho adventures for the kids. Some are more exciting than others.  On this particular day we took a trip to Balanced Rock.  It was a little chilly and a little cloudy when we left Twin, we arrived in Buhl and were hit with THIS.... HAIL!!!! and lots of it...

 Thank heaven's Idaho is a fickle state weather wise.  Though it was a little slippery and SUPER windy, we chance the hike to the top and weren't disappointed.

 Freezing!!  This is seriously one of my favorite photos from the trip.  I only wish Em was looking at the camera!

 Liam the super awesome big brother, decided he would switch Isa sweatshirts so she could be warmer.  and of course so she would agree to ten more minutes of exploring....

 Surfing Balanced Rock...

 See I was there!

I've been up to balanced rock only a few times, but everytime I come I get a glimpse of what the pioneers coming through this area must have seen and I wonder, were they worn out from all their travels, did they still have eyes to see this crazy dry desert beauty?  Were they disappointed?  Could they see the potential of this land?  It makes me wonder...and feel really grateful for their journey and their faith...

IDAHO LOVE

I love Twin Falls.  I love the wind, the canyon, the desert smells.  I love the sagebrush and the hot days and cool nights.  I love the clouds and the azure skies.  I love to sit out on the porch at night and look at the stars and just take some time to do do nothing but think and dream or sit and read...I LOVE IDAHO!  The kids love Idaho too.  Idaho to them is fun fun fun.
 It's tea parties with cousins,

  slack lining with uncles...

 It's visiting with family and running free wherever you are

It's GG's grandchildren rose garden...

 Playing dress up

 Reading bedtime stories with Pops

 Becoming shadow walker and batboy...

 Cool nights

 Our beautiful canyon

 It's family time spent together and not so scattered around...

 It's taking time to enjoy the scenery

 and each other....

 Idaho is LOTS of treats...

It's making memories...

 It's individual time with those we love...

 It's visiting places mom visited when she was a girl...

It's Gramachele's front porch

 and picnics at the shop...

 It's front porch swinging...

It's Idaho and WE LOVE IT!!!