Summer is in full swing! I remember as the school year was ending, I was making these to-do lists about all the school-related things I was going to work on this summer. I made a bunch of copies for the new school year during the last day of school and tucked them away in my file cabinet. I started to revise some homework assignments that I thought needed some improvement. I was doing pretty good for about the first week of June. Then, I kind of slowed down the second week of June... and now I haven't looked at anything school-related for the past couple of weeks! haha I'm officially in summer mode! Having summers off is definitely the best thing about being a teacher!
Lava Hot Springs
One of the first fun things we did as a family once school let out was we went to Lava Hot Springs. It's about an hour and a half away, just south of Pocatello. We went there mid-week during the first week of June, so I think a lot of the surrounding areas weren't quite out of school yet. Rexburg got done on May 28, but a lot of other schools didn't end until about June 8th, so the pool seemed pretty empty still! It was awesome! The kids went off the diving boards, we went down water slides, and swam all day. It was HOT - like 90 degrees - and a perfect day for the pool. This spring was actually unusually nice (60s - 70s and not a lot of wind) and now this summer has been unusually hot! It's been consistently in the high 80s and 90s the whole month of June already! Here are some pictures of Lava Hot Springs!
Caleb's 13th Birthday
As I am just now typing this, I've realized I never got any pictures from Josh's phone of the boys' fishing trip. For Caleb's birthday, Josh, Gabe, and Caleb went fishing with our friends, Cody (the dad) and his sons, Colter (Caleb's friend from football) and Cayson (Colter's little brother). They took Josh's boat and floated down the lower area of the river they always go to in Ashton. They did that on Saturday, June 5th and then when they got back, Caleb had a different friend come over (Cole Ririe) for cake and ice cream and video games. Caleb's actual birthday was on Sunday, so we got to celebrate by going to church! Yay! haha My birthday and Avery's birthday also fall on Sundays this year. I'm hoping that means they can all be low-key and I don't have to plan big parties! Avery may think otherwise though. Here are some pictures of Caleb on his birthday! He is now officially taller than me (which happened probably right before his birthday) and he weighs over 200 pounds (205? I don't know exactly!) He still has his braces on, which are totally ready to come off if he would just wear his dang rubber bands to adjust his bite! Maybe he will still have braces when he's 30!
Rexburg Rapids and Gabe's First Job
Our little local swimming pool/water park has been frequented by the Rhodes family a lot this summer! The first reason is because Avery could basically live there. She loves going swimming any chance she can get and eating the cotton candy from the snack bar! The second reason is because Gabe got a job as a lifeguard there! When he was 13 and 14 he did a "lifeguard pre-training camp" that is just a week-long class where they practice things like diving for bricks and treading water. This summer, he was actually 15 so he was old enough to officially work as a lifeguard. He had to go through this two-week-long class to get CPR certified and then he had to take both a written test and a swim test and prove he can save people! He said the class started out with over 20 teens on day one that were interested in becoming lifeguards. By the end, only 5 made it through the whole thing! Crazy! You would think they would pay more than $7.50 an hour after all that! lol I told him it's good to get a summer job when you're 15 because next year when you actually want to get a job that pays decent money, you will already have some good job experience. He usually works either a 4 or 6-hour shift and it's not too bad to go sit at the pool and hang out! They rotate around the pool at different "stations" every 15 minutes and then after 4 stations, they get a 15-minute break. So it's basically "work for an hour, then a 15-minute break." I think he especially likes the break times when he can flirt with the girl lifeguards. Here are some pictures of the pool with Avery and Gabe as a lifeguard!
Hiawatha Bike Trip
During the last week of June, we had planned on doing a Montana/northern Idaho trip where we would drive to Aaron's house and stay overnight and then continue to drive northwest to get to the Idaho Panhandle and do this Hiawatha bike trip. This was our second time doing this bike trip. We did it in June 2019 too. It ended up not working out exactly the way we had planned this time because Aaron's family had just returned from Wisconsin and apparently some giant big bit Amanda in the back while they were there! Her back was all swollen up and she was pretty sick, so Aaron called and said, "It's probably not the best time for visitors." We were super bummed not to be able to see them, but we still went ahead with our bike trip!
We ended up leaving early Monday morning (June 28) and we drove six hours to Kellog, Idaho. We checked into the Silver Mountain Resort and we went swimming the rest of the day at their indoor waterpark. The next morning, we woke up early and did the 15-mile Hiawatha bike trail. Josh wanted to go early because the temperatures that day were going to hit over 100! Luckily, we *mostly* beat the crowds and the heat. It was still getting pretty toasty by about 1:00 when we finished up the bike ride and were getting on the bus back. We were glad we started early! The tunnels were a welcome cool break from the hot sun! I remember when we did this bike trip two years ago, it was kind of cool and rainy and I remember just FREEZING every time we rode through the tunnels. This time, it was like, "Yay! A tunnel!" haha
Also, Avery rode her own bike this time instead of the tag-a-long bike attached to the back of Josh's! This was kind of a drama at first because we couldn't find her a bike that had the "backpedal brakes" and she wasn't comfortable with only using hand brakes. Finally, Josh found her one himself and we were able to rent it!
Back at the pool afterward, Caleb again spent a lot of time on the FlowRider practicing his surfing. He's able to stay up by himself now for at least a minute or two! The rest of us spent most of the time on the lazy river and the waterslides. We left on Wednesday morning and drove the six hours back home. It was a fun, quick trip!
Here are some pictures!
The 4th of July
I wonder if I will ever have a 4th of July where Josh DOESN'T sign up to work! It would be crazy. Yes, he is a Lieutenant now and does NOT officially have to work. But, does he volunteer and sign up anyway? Of course! Why not? I know he secretly likes riding around on the golf cart all day and talking to people and being in the middle of all the action, but he will never, ever admit that. He says it's just because of the overtime pay, but I know otherwise. He has definite FOMO (fear of missing out.) So basically, he left at about 7am and didn't get home until after midnight.
I took the kids to the Rexburg parade on Saturday morning. Caleb was on the float for his grid kid football team and then right before the parade started, Avery somehow sweet-talked her way onto the float too! She sat there with one other little sister and waved. flags and threw footballs to the crowd and Caleb threw candy. Gabe and I found a nice spot in front of Subway at the very end of the parade route. It worked out well because as soon as their float came by, they hopped off and we got in the car and beat the rush! They were the 38th float in the parade, so they were kind of close to the end anyway I think.
Later that afternoon, we went swimming at the Marriott hotel because our neighbor's had their grandparents in town visiting and they had pool access for the day! It was indoors, but Caleb and Avery came and swam and had fun. Gabe had to work at Rexburg Rapids from about 2pm - 6pm and he said it was packed to the point that they weren't letting any more people in! It's been such a hot summer!
That night, when fireworks started going off, Caleb, Avery, and I drove around town looking at the fireworks from different spots. We drove up by the temple and parked for a while and they watched from the roof of the car. Then we went back home and fell asleep watching a movie and Josh didn't get home from working at the Idaho Falls fireworks until about 1:00 am!
The next day (Sunday, the actual 4th of July), we went to church in the morning and then came home and relaxed. That night, we lit off our own fireworks with our next-door neighbors, the Milners. Jay had bought all of these fancy (illegal) aerial fireworks. We figured since the police Lieutenant was sitting with us, it was okay. lol At one point though, Jay lit this one that happened to be called "The Death Ray." Apparently, it lived up to its name because it tipped over in the street and started shooting out in every direction! Luckily, no one was hurt, but it gave everyone quite a scare!
That was our excitement on the 4th of July! Here are a few pictures!
