Back to school and Tiff + Josh's 15th Anniversary

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!

Grand Teton National Park 15 Year Anniversary:
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!

Football and dance:
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!

Avery's 7th Birthday, Bannack Ghost Town, Visiting the Bestor's, Biking the Hiawatha, Silver Rapids, Huckleberry picking, Mom and Avery's Utah trip

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!