We had our own church service at the cabin on Sunday morning, and then in the afternoon, the plan was to head out to Ben’s aunt and uncle’s house near Rexburg, out in the country in Ashton, Idaho (it was about an hour and a half away). On the way, we stopped to see another waterfall.
Ben’s aunts drove his Grandma Wightman up from Utah to Idaho so that she could see everyone at the reunion, which I thought was really neat.
Ben’s uncle Jerry loves to fish and hunt, and their house has lots of evidence – including this bear rug in his office. Eli thought it was the coolest thing ever and was climbing all over it. This is definitely not something you see in Chicago!
We spent one of the days taking turns rafting at Henry’s Fork, not too far from the cabin. We left Charlie at the cabin with Cheryl and took Eli along, who was a little reluctant at first.
We were in the raft with Joe and Cami and three of their four boys.
The other raft going with us had two adults and six kids! Matt and JoAnn were brave to have that many kids with them.
It was a very slow part of the river, and there were many times when someone would get out and drag the raft along to keep things moving (because it was shallow). We had lots of fun though!
We spent one of our days at the Green Canyon Hot Springs, which is owned by Ben’s mom’s cousin. It’s an indoor pool that is fed by the hot springs there, so the temp is about 96 degrees! Pretty warm for a big pool like that. I didn’t get any pictures of the inside, but Eli had a blast swimming and jumping into the pool. Charlie seemed to be very relaxed, hanging out in a borrowed infant float for most of the time in the water. Afterward, we picnicked outside and Eli gobbled up lots of watermelon.
Ben took the boys on a hike while I rested in the shade. The plan was that Ben would stay and fish with his dad, and I would drive the kids back to our cabin (about 90 minutes away – yes, most things were about that far away). The drive back was stressful – the boys were tired and unhappy and I get nervous driving in the middle of nowhere. Somehow driving in Chicago doesn’t stress me out, but driving on the open road in Idaho is a little scary? I hate all of the people trying to pass each other on two-lane roads. I had two close friends die in a car accident right before my senior year of high school, which happened when they were passing another car late at night. I don’t think I’ll ever feel very comfortable passing like that.
On a happier note, we decided to go back to Yellowstone for a second time, and saw more bison:
It took us THREE hours to get to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone because of construction in the park. Our boys were NOT happy!! I tried to see the humor in the situation and got a video for proof of their lovely behavior (Eli didn’t like that Charlie was crying and just wanted to watch an Elmo DVD – ironically called, “Whatever Makes You Happy.”
But we made it and the drive was worth it! Yellowstone is so beautiful.
On our way out of Yellowstone, we stopped so that Eli could wade in the river and throw more rocks, which he loved. This may have been the highlight of the trip for him – rock throwing is a must!
And here are some pictures of the Idaho countryside – it was very pretty to me. We saw a lot of wheat, potato, alfalfa, and corn fields.
We drove back from Idaho on a Thursday (after a week up there) and stayed at the Klearman’s place in Park City, which was so nice! Eli loved this moose next to the fireplace:
Trips to Utah are always so chaotic because we have lots of people we would like to see, but limited time. I was able to see three friends along with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and my grandpa’s wife, Judy.
Here is my friend Natalie’s baby, Penny – they live in South Jordan, UT:
Eli had a blast at Natalie’s house – he had fun with her toys (her husband works for Disney, so they have some fun things), and I was even able to leave Charlie napping and Eli playing there for an hour while I ran to get some things at the shops near her house. Thank you Natalie!!!
Then I drove over to Sandy to see my friend Kelly, who recently had her fourth daughter. She is amazing to me – having four kids before she turned 30 is impressive! Her daughters, Chloe, Piper, Sadie, and Tessa are lots of fun and I was sad we didn’t have more time to spend together.
Babies Tessa and Charlie are three months apart. Eli is close to Sadie’s age too. Look how beautiful Kelly is, even though she was barely awake from her night of waking up every two hours to feed her baby girl! That three-month growth spurt for babies is so exhausting.
On Saturday morning, we drove to Salt Lake to show Eli Temple Square. It’s crazy how much brighter it is in Utah!
We went to the “I Am a Child of God” exhibit at the Church History Museum. Eli had a great time with the stuffed animals, of course.
He lined up all of the sheep…
Charlie was in a great mood after napping for three hours that morning!
Eli pretended to build some temples with the blocks. We saw our friends the Horstmanns from Cleveland who were in town visiting family, and we even went to the same restaurant later (but didn't eat together since we were both with other people then).
Charlie enjoyed getting out of the baby bjorn to stretch out a little at the visitor’s center:
Eli liked seeing the gold Angel Moroni that is similar to the ones on top of each LDS temple:
And Eli was very excited to see this statue of Jesus because he has a picture of it in a book that we look at during church. He recognized a lot of the paintings in the visitor’s center from the book, which I thought was neat.
After Temple Square, we met up with my friend Nicole at California Pizza Kitchen in the Gateway Mall. We were there for a long time and luckily were eating outside, so Eli could get up and move around when he got restless. It was so good to catch up with Nicole! (Charlie was asleep under my nursing cover in this photo)
And finally, we drove back to Park City to hang out for the rest of the evening. It was so relaxing to have a quiet place all to ourselves to spend time together as a family:
the pretty kitchen:
One funny thing – Charlie watched my sister-in-law Cami show us how she can touch her tongue to her chin, and the next day, Charlie started doing it! He was around when she was showing us and must have thought it looked like a fun thing to try. This is for you, Cami! :)
And lastly, while we were out of town, our friends Jeff and Abbey stayed at our house (I was really sad to miss them!!) They live in Australia (Abbey is Australian), but met here in Chicago while Jeff was doing a doctorate at Northwestern and were back in town for a visit (they left their four kids with her parents in Australia). We flew home on Sunday and found these fun items left by the Barretts:
Eli LOVES the koala backpack and the Australian chocolates were really fun to try! They also left a Trader Joe’s gift card, which I’m going to have to stop myself from stocking back up on the Almond in the Coconut chocolates… Ben and I have decided we need to each lose about 7 pounds after not caring about our food intake over vacation.
I am SO glad to be home! We had a great time seeing Ben’s family and bonding at the reunion. Eli had a blast with his cousins (he keeps asking to see them)! Vacation is fun, but can be a lot of work with little kids. Ben's mom had a good schedule for each day that didn't feel too jammed with plans, but was enough to keep us busy. Ben was able to get four fishing trips in, which made him happy! He had a great time fishing with his dad and brothers and being outside so much.
My parents offered to pick us up from the airport when we flew back (which was SO nice, especially since Midway is so far for them), and then made dinner at our place while I ran around, unpacking and doing laundry. I was able to get so much done because of their help, so thank you! Now we just need to all catch up on our sleep… though I’m not sure that will happen anytime soon :)
