We're Home!

We have been gone almost 2 weeks on our family vacation and we are finally home. We got back late last night, and are glad to be home.
We left on Thursday, August 7th - headed to Idaho Falls to visit Jeremy's sister Hilary and her family and then on to Yellowstone National Park. We had an absolute blast! On our way to Idaho Falls we stopped in Boise and stayed a night with my grandparents. It was so great to visit with them. My kids just love Grandma and Grandpa Showman. We left the next morning to Idaho Falls. We stopped to see Hilary and Mikes new house before heading to Island park and Yellowstone for the weekend. Their new home is so beautiful. I wish I would have taken a picture to show. It has a cute wrap around porch with a porch swing and rockers, and Hilary has decorated just perfectly. It looks like you are actually in the Pottery Barn Magazine. So we after we left their house, together we headed to a place just outside Island Park, ID. called Mac's Inn. It is about 30 minutes from West Yellowstone. It was right on the river and really fun. The kids loved being together with cousins and ran out to the water and started catching tiny fishes with their buckets and putting them in cups as soon as we were checked in.

Looking For Fish

Brielle and Grace finding fish in shallow water

Gracie's cup full of fish

Shaylie and Ella

I love this picture of Shaylie

Chase went right in with his shorts on.

The first night we were there Brielle, Gracie, Hilary and myself went to see Oklahoma at the Playmill Theatre in West Yellowstone. It was so fun! We were on the front row and seriously on the stage. The pre-show was hilarious and I think the little girls loved it as much as the show itself. The cast ran the whole theatre, they would take your tickets, walk you in to your seats, serve you drinks, fudge, popcorn, and then did the show. It felt really personal and the girls just loved it! Jeremy and Mike and the rest of the kids ate at the Resteraunt across the river and fished while we were gone. I thought it was so fun and would totally reccomend the theatre to anyone who was going through. Here is the link: http://www.playmill.com/
The next day we floated the river. It was so fun and absolutely beautiful. We actually saw a Moose in the river while we floated. Mike brought his fishing boat and then we rented some tubes for the rest of us. There wasn't a boat launch so Mike and Jeremy pretty much shoved the boat off a dock to get it in the water. Hilarious! You know your a redneck when??????
The kids made up some fun rules for the boat while were were floating.
Rule #1 - Always address the Captain - Captain Mike or Captain My Captain.
Rule #2 - No Whining or Crying while on the boat
Rule #3 - No Singing unless approved by Ella and Shaylie as "not their song" since they would fight over who's song it was (HILARIOUS)
I think they had come up with around 50 or more rules before the day was up, I wish I could remember more of them. They were pretty fun.
It was the perfect day for the river, however I sunscreened my whole family except myself, and ofcourse I ended up fried.
That night Chase, Jeremy, and Uncle Mike went fishing while us girls got dinner ready. Hilary also spent some time teaching me some cool photography tips. Such a huge help. THANK YOU HILARY!!!!

Ayden sharing his tube with Daddy

Enjoying the ride

Moose!

When we stopped to let the boys water the trees, Shaylie picked flowers

Ayden close-up

Here is Mike's fishing boat that got drug up and down the sides of docks.

Brielle and Grace

Gracie flipped off this tube as soon as we got in the water, her face says it all.

Here is Uncle Mike doing a funny run to rescue the "SASSY SOURS" that Aunt Hilary had been throwing the kids as a fun treat. It was soooooo funny!


The next morning we packed it up and headed to Yellowstone. I have to say that it was really a lot of driving to do in one day, but absolutely breathtaking sites along the way. We loved seeing Old Faithful and some of the other pots and geysers. My favorite was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with the Yellow Rock and huge waterfall. We got to see Buffalo, Deer,& Elk, but we didn't see any Bears.

Here we are in front of tons of Buffalo, kinda hard to see in this picture.

This was so gorgeous! The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Here we are waiting for Old Faithful

There it is in all it's glory! OLD FAITHFUL

My cute little family at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Stinky Sulfar Pots smell oh so nice. NOT!

That night we went back to Hilary and Mike's house in Idaho Falls where we stayed for a couple of days to play.
We went swimming at a local pool and got Yummy Shaved Ice, and went to a cute park by the zoo. My kids loved playing with Ella and Grace and absolutely loved dressing up in all of their fun costumes. There were a pair of Nerdy glasses that were their absolute favorite. They all had them on at some point.

Ayden acting out the part of NERD all to well.

I think Shaylie may have gotten some of the Shaved Ice in her mouth????

Cutie Cousins!


Tuesday morning we headed for Spokane to my parents Lake Cabin. I had to do Choreography in CouerDeAlene on Thursday and Jeremy had to work in Spokane on Saturday and Sunday, so we thought we would try to squeeze as much fun as we could in to this week. Chase decided he wanted to learn to wakeboard behind the Jetski, so Ayden and Brielle decided to try as well. All of them got up, but Chase was the most determined to learn. He tried over and over again, and had the best attitutde! We were really proud of all of them for trying it.

Chase Wakeboarding!


On Saturday night we went over to our good friend Laura and Jason's house for dinner and to visit. It was really fun hanging out with them. They have built 2 gorgeous homes in their development Ridge Park Estates. http://ridgeparkestates.com/developer.html
It was fun laughing with them and letting the kids play.
Sunday we went to church with my parents, and then relaxed at the cabin after dinner.
Monday was spent cleaning up the cabin and then playing as hard as we could before hitting the road to come home. We are so exahausted from our trip, but had such a great time.