It hasn't been quite a month since the last time I wrote a post, but we've been having a lot of fun this past few weeks so I better write about it before I forget too much!
After my birthday and our Wade Lake camping trip, Gabe returned home from his Boy Scout camp Saturday the 13th and then we just had Sunday and Monday (July 14th and 15th) to take a little breather. Then on Tuesday, July 16th we celebrated Avery's 7th birthday. She had seven friends (plus herself) at her backyard birthday party. The "theme" this year was a luau/flamingo party. I had found lots of good decorations for this "theme" at the dollar store around the end of the school year so I bought a bunch and threw it in a bin in the garage until a couple days before her birthday!
I really have scaled back since a couple years ago. To review: when she was 2 and 3 we did birthdays in Porter Park. When she was 4, we did a My Little Pony birthday in the backyard. When she was 5, it was a mermaid party. When she was 6, it was a unicorn party at a friend's house with actually miniature horses dressed up as unicorns. So when I buy decorations from the dollar store and only make the party favors.... trust me... it's scaling back.
For her guests, she invited Ashlie, Emery, Brindy, Chloe, Briella (all friends from her school class), Kendalin and Adrie (neighbors) and then Kendalin's little sister snuck over too. So we ended up with 9 little girls plus Gabe and Caleb, who mostly hid inside. We had an inflatable water slide that we borrowed from a friend and Caleb did play on that for a little bit before the girls arrived. We also played "Pin the beak on the flamingo", "Flamingo ring toss," and a "Dress-up as a hula girl" relay race. Avery's presents included a bike (from us), a beach towel, a water bottle, a Shimmer and Shine movie, and lots of Hatchimals toys. Here are some pictures from her birthday party:
The party went from about 1:30-3:00 but it was about 4:00 by the time everyone had gone home and we started cleaning up. We barely did enough to get the house in a livable state, then we did some laundry and threw some stuff in our suitcases and got ready to leave the next morning for a little trip.
Wednesday morning (July 17th) we drove from Rexburg to Bannack Ghost Town in Dillion, Montana, which is about two hours. It's an abandoned town from the Montana gold rush days. It's now a state park of Montana and they've kept it basically the same as it was back then except they added a little visitor's center in one of the log homes. We walked around there for about an hour and a half and it was kind of spooky but really interesting! The highlights were the Meade Hotel (the red brick building with TONS of rooms), the Masonic Temple/School (school on the first floor, masonic hall on the second floor), and the old church. There was also a saloon and lots of little houses.
By about 2:00 we left the ghost town and continued our drive to Aaron and Amanda's house. It was about another two hours from the ghost town and we arrived around 4:00. When we got there, Milana was standing out on the front porch and she looked grown up that Josh asked, "Who's that?" I guess it's been too long since we've seen them!
Milana had made Avery a birthday cake, which was sooo sweet. It was pretty impressive actually! And it was rainbow chip, which is a Rhodes family favorite. We all sang to Avery that night and had cake after dinner. We spent the evening chatting and the kids played really well. Milana was so sweet with Avery, who followed her around like a little puppy. Colter and the boys played legos for a little bit and also Monopoly and chess. The grownups sat outside by a bonfire and talked about how we should all plan a trip to St. George for next year (we'll see if that happens!)
The next morning, Aaron had to leave for work by 8:00 and we left by about 9:00 to continue our drive to northern Idaho to bike the Hiawatha Trail. It worked out really well that their house was right on the way!
We got to the city of Wallace (where the bike trail starts) at about 11:00am and then went to the Lookout Pass Lodge to pick up our bike rentals and helmets. Once we got everything we needed, we headed about five miles to where the trail started and parked our car. We started out on the bike trail about 11:45 am and it took us until about 2:15 to get to the bottom. The Hiawatha Trail is a 15 mile gradual downhill former railroad path that includes 10 train tunnels and 7 sky-high trestle bridges. It was a prosperous railroad out of Chicago from the late 1800's to about the 1930's. Then it took freight trains until about 1970. After that the railway was abandoned, but it was such a pretty path that someone had the idea to pull out the tracks and turn it into a bike trail in the 1980s.
The first 20 minutes of the trail, you ride through this 1.6 mile tunnel and it was COLD, DARK, and MUDDY! I didn't love that part. The kids thought it was really cool though. Avery was riding on a tag-a-long bike, attached to Josh's bike, which I was really glad we had done. That was i wasn't worried about her getting lost in the tunnel! Our bikes had lights on them, but if we wouldn't have it would've been pitch black!
One of the kids' favorite parts was when we sat down for some lunch (we had packed sandwiches in a backpack) and a group of friendly chipmunks came running over to join us! They seemed pretty familiar with people and the food that was going to be dropped. They loved finding any scrap of Avery's Cheetos and eating them.
Once we got to the bottom of the trail, we got on this special converted school bus that had bike racks in the back half of it and seats in the front. Then we loaded up and rode about 25 minutes back up to the top! As we rode, the bus driver lady told us all about the big forest fire in 1910 and some heroic stories. Gabe fell asleep. lol Then we got back to the tunnel part and we had to ride BACK though the long tunnel again. This time at least it wasn't quite so cold. The sun had come out and it had warmed up to about 75 degrees outside by then. (Earlier it was about 65, but felt like 50 in the tunnel!)
After we got through the tunnel again and back to our car, it was about 3:30. Then we drove about 25 more minutes north to the city of Kellogg where I had reserved us a room at the Silver Mountain Lodge for the night. It's kind of funny that there's this huge, super nice ski resort with indoor waterpark in Kellogg because the town is TINY. There was a little downtown area with a couple of food places and a car dealership, but otherwise the ski resort was basically the whole show! I had debated if we should stay there or in Coeur D'Alene, but I was glad we did stay there because the kids had a blast! They loved the indoor waterpark (probably more than the bike ride even.)
We swam that night from about 4:00-6:30 and then we went and got dinner at a pizza place in the little downtown area. It was called "The Pizza Palace" and we were the only ones in there, but the food was good and the owner and one worker in there were very friendly. They looked like the type of guys that played video games in their parents' basements in their spare time and didn't go on many dates, but Caleb thought they were awesome. lol
The next morning we woke up early and drove to the city of Coeur D'Alene from about 9:30-11:00. We also stopped at Idaho's oldest building, the Cataldo Mission, on the way there. Caleb and I were the only ones who got out of the car, but we snapped a quick picture and then we were good. It wasn't all that exciting. lol
In Couer D'Alene, we hiked around on Tubb's Hill to get a view of the lake and the kids played at a playground at nearby McEuen park. We also stopped at a gift shop and I got a T shirt and the kids got some candy. Then we drove back to the hotel and swam again from about noon to 3:00.
Avery loved the lazy river and the medium-sized kids' slides. Gabe did some of the bigger slides (there were just a couple big ones) and Caleb spent most of his time perfecting the flow rider. He went from falling down instantly, to being able to stand up on the wake board for a good 20 seconds! He was a very fast learner!
Finally, at about 3:00 we made the kids get changed and we made the long drive home. Driving the whole stretch in 7 hours from 3-10pm (plus a 1 hour loss due to time zone change) was definitely not as fun as the way there. We finally made it home by 11:00 and didn't even unpack the car. We just went inside and crashed into our beds.
The next week we mostly relaxed around the house. And by "relaxed" I mean the kids and their friends were there, taking over my home (backyard, living room, playhouse, everywhere) eating my food and making messes most of the day, Monday through Thursday, while Josh was at work. Back to school time is starting to sound good.
Avery went to a little princess dance camp thing one of the days for a couple hours. it was an "Arabian Nights" themed day because everyone is all excited from the "Aladdin"remake. Jasmine is Avery's favorite princess, so she wore her little Jasmine outfit (that is actually pajamas.)
That Thursday night, since Josh didn't have to work on Friday, we took the kids to see the "Lion King" remake at the drive-in. (Why is Disney remaking all of these?! Because they don't require creativity or risk and they know people like us will see them.) It was a beautiful night though. It had been super hot all week so it was actually NOT freezing even at 11pm at night. The sunset was also gorgeous!
Also that Saturday while Josh was off, we went to the Pioneer Day parade in St. Anthony (always the best parade of the year... talk about LEGIT floats and TONS of candy) and then we went to Kelley Canyon to pick huckleberries after. We didn't find that many huckleberries (I think too many people had been out there) but we had a fun little drive through the mountains. This one huckleberry I'm holding? That was about the only one we found. lol
Nothing too exciting happened the next week from Monday-Thursday, except for the City of Rexburg employee party night at Rexburg Rapids! Caleb took second place in the belly flop contest (it should've been first.... he was robbed. He won some nice water bottles though!) That brings us up to this past few days.
Avery and I went to Utah for a little "girls getaway" and visited my friend, Stacey. We went swimming at Lindon Aquatics center (like a bigger Rexburg Rapids), went out to eat a lot, went to Tibble Fork Reservoir up in the mountains, swam at Stacey's neighborhood clubhouse pool and went to the shopping. One of Stacey's friends named Michelle brought her little boy, Briggs, and they ended up playing together really well at the pool and the lake.
At the mall, I had intended to buy Avery some back-to-school clothes but all she really ended up getting was LOTS of unicorn sleepwear. She picked out fuzzy slippers, a nightgown, a sleeper, and a pj pants/shirt set - all unicorn and rainbow colored. I guess she can wear those to school! Here she is on the slide in Stacey's backyard wearing her unicorn pjs and slippers!
We also got to see Stacey's new extremely fluffy cat (who always looks grumpy) named Georgie and her room mate's cat named Poppy. Avery chased them around a lot, despite Stacey's constant attempts to get her to stop. Those cats probably wouldn't survive a day in my house. lol
Now it is Sunday, August 4th and I am getting all caught up on my blog, going through closets to figure out what the kids need for school clothes, and going to bed early (hopefully!) Tomorrow Josh is still off, but we have to attend a funeral for his high school friend's mother, who passed away this weekend.
School starts on August 21st! We will see what else we squeeze in before then over the next two weeks!
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