Westward Ho! Part 2

For part deux of our trip we hopped back in the van to drive another 8 hours through southern ID, past Pocatello, to Lava Hot Springs. We were very glad to be out of the car when we drove up to this cute bed and breakfast in an absolutely gorgeous valley. I didn't think southern ID could be this pretty, but I guess it has been getting abnormal amounts of rain so everything was green and lush. For the Wood family reunion, we all rented this place out for the weekend and had such a great time.

We all enjoyed the hangout and relaxing time. Ryan even tried to escape once for a nap in the hammock, but the boys were close on his trail. With the Wood family, it is always fun to sit around and talk, which inevitably results in a lot of laughing and fun times. We also played several family games, including the traditional "Candy Bar game", a white elephant exchange, and a new one we learned called Werewolves, a mafia-type game where you're trying to discover and kill the werewolves before they kill you. I thought it was more fun than mafia, except that I kept on being a werewolf and never figured out an effective way of lying.

So the scenery was absolutely beautiful. Also, you can see the weather here never quite warmed up either. We are glad we threw in those sweatshirts last minute! We loved getting out, enjoying nature and breathing the fresh Western air.

Besides catching up with family and enjoying nature, we spent a lot of time riding the 4-wheelers and dirt bike. Gavin was so great and took the boys out for tons of rides. They never wanted to get off. There was a fire pit out back, so we also enjoyed a roaring camp fire with s'mores.

For one day of the trip we headed out to the water park at Lava Hot Springs. Yes that's me on top of the high-jump. It doesn't look too high from this shot, but up on top it's kind of a different view. It was 33 feet high so they made you sign a waiver, maybe just to freak you out. It was fun and I survived the jump with an "I'm going to die now" scream and a nice bruise along my left thigh where I must have landed. The one draw back to Ryan's eye surgery was that he couldn't swim. So he was pretty much left with kid-duty while I went down the slides, jumped off the high jumps, and climbed the rock wall. We are so glad that the water was nice and warm, 92 degrees they said, because the weather didn't warm up that day, and the sun never came out. So we pretty much stayed neck deep in the water as much as we could.

Grant enjoyed an early morning outing with Grandpa Wood, who normally doesn't look this stern :)

Our attempt at a family picture. Oh well :)

On Sunday afternoon we had to say our goodbyes and we hopped back in the van for a 2 1/2 hour drive back to SLC. Ryan caught a red eye flight that night to be back to school at 6 a.m. the next morning (what a trooper!). The boys and I stayed at Nana's for another couple of days and hung out with my brothers. We went down to BYU for an afternoon and even got to stop by and see Jenna for a minute, one of my college roomies. Driving around BYU I tried to point out places of interest to Grant. We drove by the Elms Apartments and I said "Grant, that is where Daddy and I met and fell in love." In usual Grant fashion, he replied "That's where I lived and fell in love." He likes to be the subject in most sentences. On Tuesday afternoon the boys and I caught our flight back to Ohio. I'd say the flight went pretty well, with only about 15 minutes of uninterrupted screaming and 5 angry looks from the lady in front of us. We had so much fun on this trip, but of course, we were glad to be home and back to somewhat of a routine.

Westward Ho! Part 1

At the beginning of June we took our big summer trip out West, visiting 3 different states and lots of family. It was a lot of fun, but we all think this trip required a little too much traveling. At least I think that's what Grant and Tate were trying to say as they were screaming in the back seat.

For the first leg of our trip, we flew into SLC late Friday night and spent the night at Nana's. On Saturday, drove 8 hours up to La Grande, OR in our rented van (it was supposed to be a compact car, but all they had left was a van...oh, darn), to visit my sister, Christine, and her family. It has been about a year since we've seen them so it was great to visit and to hangout in their new hometown. The kids had a blast together with lots of running around, lots of playing swords, robots, and sharks, and lots of rounds of Star Wars computer games. La Grande was very pretty and a cute little town. We tried to scope out cities and towns as we drove around the area, just to see if we may be interested in setting up shop there eventually. Right now, who knows, but that area is definitely in the running!

We stayed busy going to several parks, playing outside, playing inside, making delicious food, eating delicious food...all the important things.

Part of our trip included a drive to the Tri-Cities of Eastern OR for Ryan to get LASIK eye surgery (hence the glasses in this pre-surgery shot). It's been something we've been considering for Ryan since we've been married, but finally decided now is the time to do it. Of course, Ryan loves it and we both still think it's a little weird that his morning and night rituals with contacts are now a thing of the past. Now his vision is better than mine, but don't worry, I still don't need glasses...yet.

One of the cool things about where Christine and Sam live is that they are about 10 minutes to beautiful scenery and boon-dockish nature. We drove up a mountain side for about 15 minutes to get to this lake, which was very beautiful. The kids had fun throwing rocks in the water until they got brave enough to consider throwing themselves off the dock. That and the mosquitoes made the lake trip short but fun.