We've been trying to squeeze in some mini adventures this past month every chance we get! Since we didn't go to Wisconsin the first week of July like we had planned on, we've tried to explore Idaho and the surrounding areas some more. Josh recently got promoted to sergeant at the police department, so his schedule has been a little unpredictable.
The last week of June, we did a new hike that we heard about from a friend called the Alaska Basin Trail. To get there, we drove through Driggs and then continued east into Wyoming a few miles. The trail starts right near the Grand Targhee ski resort. If we would've done the whole thing it would've been about 15 miles, but we just went about two miles in and two miles back out. Here are some pictures of that hike!
Another fun thing we did was float the Henry's Fork of the Snake River down from Warm River to Ashton Reservoir. Me and Avery went in the inflatable canoe and the Josh and Caleb were in a yellow raft we borrowed from his sister, Janell, and then Gabe was in a black inflatable donut. It took from about noon to 3:00 and then we went out to Big Jud's in Ashton afterwards.
Then soon it was Thursday, the Fourth of July. I was pretty excited because Josh had taken off when we had planned to go to Wisconsin. So I thought, "Yay! We will get to spend the fourth with Josh!" (a rare occasion), but then his co-worker, Gary, called and asked if he would like to work for the fireworks show in Idaho Falls and make $600 working from about 1:30-midnight and so then he did that! It's hard because we obviously can use the money for fun things, but it kind of stunk that we didn't have him with us for the 4th of July!
So we ended up going to the parade in the morning in Rexburg (which Josh worked at) and we sat right across from Desert Book by Porter park. Then me and the kids went home for a few hours and relaxed from about noon to 4:00. Then we went to Rigby Lake. It was nice because a lot of people were leaving. We were there until about 6:00 and then we came home, ate, and watched our neighbors light off fireworks. The Milners, the Rolphs, and a couple other families were all sitting in our front yard and Milner's front yard for a couple hours. It was a pretty nice show actually!
The day after the fourth (Friday), Josh had off for the next few days so we were able to go down to Huntsville, Utah and stay at this SUPER nice house some friends of ours had rented. We did this last year too, but they had a better house this year. It was Josh's old mission companion, Chris, and his wife, Holly, and their twin boys who are 16 months. Then there were a couple other families that they had invited. One family, the Johnsons, we knew from last year. They were the only other ones that spent Friday night at the house. The others all left around dinner time to go home.
We spent time on Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon out on the ski boat that Chris had. The boys did a LOT of tubing (Caleb couldn't get enough!) and Josh did some wake surfing. I did some watching from the boat. :) Avery did go tubing one time with Josh and they just went VERY slow.
We came home from Huntsville at about 6pm and got home about 9pm. (It's about a three hour drive) We were all exhausted and a little sunburnt, but it was so much fun.
Here are some pictures of the gorgeous house we stayed in and the fun we had!
The next little mini-adventure we did was a overnight camping trip to Wade Lake. Wade and Cliff Lakes are two lakes that are just barely across the border into Montana and they are the most crystal clear water ever! There's no wake allowed so we bring our inflatable canoe and let the kids paddle around. Caleb also brought his snorkel gear and kept himself entertained for a long time swimming around on the surface looking at crawdads and little fish. Gabe was gone to boy scout camp from July 8th until today (July 13th) so he missed out on this camp trip. Actually, the reason we went was kind of because Caleb was bummed that he wasn't old enough to go so we told him we would go camping instead.
We got to Wade Lake at about 1:00 on Wednesday, July 10th and then we camped in our tent overnight. So yes, I woke up the morning of my 35th birthday on the floor of a tent in the woods of Montana. It was super fancy. lol But honestly it was a really fun day. I love being there because it's just sooo beautiful. The water is like, turquoise blue-green and super clear. Caleb even paddled me around in the canoe for a little while so I could just relax. haha
We left there at about 2:00 on Friday and drove back to Rexburg. Then we had the fun task of doing laundry and unpacking everything. Josh did take me out to dinner at Da Pineapple Grill for my birthday though and Diane (Josh's mom) came over and sat with Caleb and Avery for about an hour and a half.
Here are some pictures of Cliff and Wade Lake!
So that's all the big events happening over the past month! Summer is going by fast and soon we will be back to school! Coming up in the next few weeks, we have Avery's birthday party, a visit to Montana to see Aaron's family, biking the Hiawatha trail, and then, if we have any money left, I would like to take Josh somewhere for our anniversary! It may be out to dinner in Rexburg if we are broke by then! lol We will see how it all pans out!
That's all for now!
