Well we have officially gone from the fun, laid-back days of summer to the craziness of back-to-school and getting kids to and from activities! I am already counting the days until next summer!
Here is what we have been up to lately...
Josh and the boys go fishing
While Avery and I were visiting Stacey in Utah at the beginning of August, Josh took the boys out fishing Saturday with his sister, Janell, and their cousin, Carter. (He also ditched the boys on Friday and went with his two friends, Devin and Scott... But that's a different story and it involved me yelling so I won't include it here...) Josh "surprised" me by buying a fishing raft with Devin this Spring.... (again another story that involved yelling).... so hopefully they will get some good use out of it over the next ten years! Here are a few pictures of them on the river.
Rigby Lake:
I think I took the kids to Rigby lake more times this summer than I ever have before. It's easier now that they're older to just take them swimming there while Josh is working. However, Caleb gave me a scare when he was out in the water on my donut floatie. I guess it got away from him and then the wind instantly started taking it away! So he started to swim after it and he went further and further until I could barely see him! So I sent Gabe out there to make sure he didn't drown. Then I put Avery's life jacket on her and WE started swimming out there too. Eventually a lady in a kayak grabbed it with her paddle and brought it over to where the boys were in the water, but they were sooo far out! They ended up walking around the lake to come back! Sheesh. I got my workout for the day swimming super far too.
Floating Warm Slough:
This is a little section of the Snake River that goes through a spot only 20 minutes outside of Rexburg. We had never done it before and I had to twist Josh's arm to try it, but afterward he was like, "That was great! Let's do that again!" It was just a really easy, slow float and it wasn't very deep. I took the inflatable canoe and everyone else was on tubes. We did that mid-week on August 14th and there were only a couple other groups there. It's nice from July 23rd to Labor Day because the college students are out of town!
Hiking "R" Mountain:
This is a little hike that the boys and Josh have done a couple times but me and Avery have never done it. R mountain is right outside Rexburg. Me, Gabe, and Avery went one day while Josh was working and Caleb stayed home because his feet hurt from football practice (insert my eye roll here.) The hike was actually harder than I thought it would be because you are hiking uphill on sandy ground, so I guess it was good Caleb stayed home. But when you get to the top you can see all of Rexburg!
Family pictures:
On Saturday, August 17th, we did the infamous family pictures! My family "loves" (that's code for "hates") this day every year! But I force them to do it, like the good mom that I am. Gabe has changed so much since the last time we took pictures in June of 2018. It's been a good 14 months! He is now taller than me in the pictures - but just barely! I really wanted to go out to the sand dunes outside of town because it would have a cool beach look. But it was super windy and a good portion of the pictures involved my blowing over my face! Luckily Claire (our photographer friend from church) did get a few good ones! We had to take some at the base of the dune so we were kind of blocked from the wind, so we didn't really get any that showed the awesome dune landscape. So that was a bummer. Maybe we will try again next year!
Can you believe it! 15 years have gone by since Josh took me off the market. It's hard to justify leaving Idaho in the summer because there's only like two months when it's really beautiful weather here. So on Monday, August 19th, we decided not to go anywhere too far and instead do something close by. We have been to Yellowstone lots of times, but surprisingly neither Josh nor I had never been to Grand Teton National Park! After reading lots of posts on instagram and google about things to do and see, we mapped out a little plan (mostly I did that) and we left the kids for the day in the care of their cousin, Alex. We left our house at about 8am and arrived in Jackson, WY at about 10:30. Then we started making our little stops.
First stop was "Mormon Row" where there is this iconic barn that you always see in photos. We took some pictures there and then moved onto the next place. Not much to do really there, just see some old buildings. But it's a quick stop right off the main road.
Next stop was Schwabacher's Landing, which is another little easy drive off the main road down to this windy section of river that goes right in front of the Tetons. It just is a really cute little place to seems really close to the mountains, but you can't really swim or anything there. There's just a trail that you walk down a little bit and then walk back.
Last photo stop was the Snake River Overlook. We used to have this poster-sized photo that was framed in our home back in Wisconsin that was taken by Ansel Adams in the 1940s. It's a beautiful picture with the Teton mountain range and the Snake River winding back and forth in front. I really think looking at that every time he came up the stairs was part of the reason Josh was so set on moving back to Idaho. This wasn't the EXACT picture but it looked something like this:
Well we went to the same exact spot where that photo was taken, however, now the trees have grown over the past 50 years so you can't quite see the winding river as much as you used to. Still a pretty place, but not quite as good as it used to be.
We took a few pictures there and then moved on to the portion of the day where we actually DID stuff!
We drove first to Jenny Lake, which we had heard was really pretty. Actually before that, we stopped at the Visitor's center and bought a $12 pass for our canoe to go into the lake. Then we went to the Jenny Lake south parking lot, only to find that it was PACKED. There is a little boat you can get on there that takes you across the lake to the "Hidden Falls" hike. I had read about that and heard about it from a friend so we had considered doing that, but we weren't set on it. It was $18 round trip per person to take the boat so that as also a deterrent. lol
So we decided to try String Lake which was just up the road a bit. We pulled in and the parking lot was much smaller and not full. So we parked there and goto our canoe out. After inflating it, we found a little spot to put it in and we started paddling up towards Leigh Lake. It was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.
This was the highlight of the day for me. There were some people on the sandy beach area, which was small, but not a CRAZY amount. I would guess maybe 30-40 people total that we saw on the few different sandy spots. Mostly families with kids and college aged people. We liked being in our canoe and floating by the people who were on the beach! It was a great way to explore the lake.
Some areas were really shallow and we had to get out for a minute to walk our boat through (my side was not bottoming out, for the record, but Josh's end was. lol) Once we got to the point where we were just approaching the start of Leigh Lake, it got pretty rocky and we would have had to take our boat out and carry it if we wanted to go further. So we decided to turn around and go back. We paddled back to where we had put in and then deflated it and put it in the car and drove just a couple minutes to this String Lake trailhead parking lot.
There was a ranger there that told us if we wanted to hike to Hidden Falls (and not take the boat from the south Jenny Lake spot that was busy) this was the best place to start the hike. It still was about 2.5 miles each way and we started it at 4:30. We got back to the car at 6:50. We hikes along Jenny Lake, which was really pretty, then through some woodsy area, then to Hidden Falls. First we passed this "Cascade Canyon" creek falls (I think that's what it was called) and I thought THAT was the Hidden Falls. But it wasn't. lol
Then we kept going and got to the actual Hidden Falls. This picture below is us standing in front of "Hidden Falls."
Then we hiked about halfway to Inspiration Point and decided we were inspired enough and called it quits. lol it was already almost 6:00 and our kids were texting us and asking us when we would be home. Here is a picture from the place we stopped before the actual Inspiration Point Lookout. It was still inspiring, right?
The we had to hike the 2.5 miles back to our car... which was fine but I was getting hangry. I would've love to stop and eat a nice dinner somewhere in Jackson, but A) I looked like a sweaty mess and B) We wouldn't have gotten home until 11:00. So we did the cool anniversary dinner thing and drove through Wendy's. Then we drove the rest of the 2.5 hours home and made it to Rexburg in time to get a Freddy's ice cream cone for dessert before rolling into our house about 9:30. The kids were still alive and in our bed watching a movie.
Alex had taken them swimming at Rexburg Rapids from about noon to 3:00. Then Diane and Brad had come to take them to McDonalds for dinner at about 6:00 and left at about 8:00. So they were home alone in the morning and in the afternoon for a bit and then from 8:00 on.
So that was our anniversary! That got really long. Phew! (And yes, I did three outfit changes in that day. Here is us leaving the park at the end of a long day!)
First Day of School:
We had one day to relax and get prepared after we returned from our little day trip. Then Wednesday, August 21st, was the first day of school! Luckily Josh was off for that day so he could help me get everyone ready and off to school. Avery had to be to Burton first at 8:00, then Caleb to the middle school and then Gabe to the Jr. High. Avery has Miss Homer for second grade this year. Caleb is on team 6-1 for 6th grade which includes Mrs. Jones, Mr. Bloom, and Mr. Spencer plus a couple other teachers for elective classes. Then Gabe is going into 8th grade (the middle year at the Jr. High) and he has a wide variety of teachers. It's kind of nice this year because no one is starting at a new school! Last year was rough because Gabe was new to the Jr. High, Caleb was new to the middle school, and Avery was starting 1st grade which is an adjustment. All seemed to go smoothly and they all liked their teachers, with the exception of Gabe wanting to drop his robotics class after the first day and do gym instead. So I went it with him to the office before school on day two, charmed the principal into switching that for him, and we were good to go. ;)
I am also still working from 1am -1pm at the same elementary school where Avery goes as a part-time secretary! So I guess I have a reason to get dressed every day. Darn it.
Here are their first day of school pictures!
Lastly, now that school has started we are getting the kids back to their after-school activities. Caleb is doing football again with his same grid kid team that he has been on for the past two years. Josh also helps out with assistant coaching for that team. Gabe decided to give football a try this fall as well since fall soccer is always kind of lame anyways. Avery will be starting a tap/clog dance class this week at Fuzion. It is the same studio she has been going to but she decided she wanted to try that instead of ballet/jazz this year based on the simple fact that she doesn't have to wear tights for that class. So we will see how that goes!
I think I've covered everything! Now I have to go beat Gabe who is standing weirdly over me and trying to annoy me as I type this!
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