Happy 4th of July

Well, it's kind of late, but I wanted to fill everyone in on our exciting family vacation. Yes, I did write VACATION!!! On Thursday, I went to Idaho Falls and picked Chad up from work. (I had to load the car up and get the kids dressed and ready and everything, which means that I would forget something!) We then made a "quick" stop at Old Navy to get some summer time pj's for Benjamin. It really wasn't quick because we were in Idaho Falls, and I don't know if it is just us, or the town, but every time we go there we want to leave right away. Oh, well. So we got on the road, headed east to Driggs, with a brief stop over to get square ice cream. Then on to the valley. We checked in, then thought to see some of the countryside, so we took a trip up Darby Canyon. It was very beautiful, but the boys did not get to see it one bit.

As you can see, they were getting some much needed nap time!!

The creek that comes out of the Darby Ice Caves and Wind Caves. The water was so clean, and there was a ton of it rushing through the canyon.

We then decided to drive up to Grand Targhee, and that was a beautiful drive in and of itself.

Then, we went back to the hotel to decide what to have for dinner, and unload the car, and it was at that point that I realized I forgot to load the backpack that had all of the diapers and extra wipes in it. Thank goodness we were in a town with a store that had decent prices. So, we took a trip to Broulims and loaded up on diapers, wipes and dinner and went back to the room and had a picnic. Real exciting, huh. We got up the next morning at 5:30 to go watch the balloon launches. (Does any of my siblings remember getting up at 3:00 and leaving from Menan to watch the launches, and also possibly repairing a flat along Hwy 20 in the dark?) Let's just say that staying 2 minutes away from the launch site is very much worth the price!!! And the boys just loved watching the balloons fill up. It is definitely a must do every year.

After going back to the hotel to get cleaned up, we headed to the park via Jackson. That was a beautiful drive, and it was truly amazing how little snow there was from the last trip we took just over a month ago. We stopped in Fishing Bridge for a bite to eat, and that is where my heart stopped. We were just finishing up, chatting with the people across from us, and Benjamin was going back and forth between the grill area and the trinket section. Then, he just disappeared. He had run off. For the next five minutes I was in total freak out mode. We ran around the store looking for Ben and could not see him. Luckily the man we were chatting with saw him and carried him to us. I think if either Chad or I had found him we would have done something not approved of in most countries!!! As it was, he did not realize what he did, and we were just grateful he was not lost. I waited until we got in the car to break down and cry. We also said a prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father to thank him for helping us find him. Needless to say the rest of the trip was spent with Benjamin wearing the harness whenever we were near large crowds!!! Here's some pictures of the Yellowstone leg of our trip.

Yes, those are bears that you see. We were driving past the Petrified Tree turnoff and I saw all these cars on the road. I thought that was strange because that is a neat thing to see, but doesn't draw that many visitors. I told Chad to turn around and we went back and sure enough there were two bears following the creek just below the road. We stopped and watched them. It was pretty cool.

When we got to Old Faithful, we decided to hike to the Observation Point above the geyser. Benjamin was such a trooper. He hiked around 3 miles that day, one mile of it up and down the hill. Needless to say, we were all tired that night.

Overall it was a great trip. I was very glad to go, but also very glad to see our home again (especially our bed!!!).