Rexburg, Idaho and Jackson, Wyoming Trip

Danielle has been attending BYU Idaho for a couple weeks now and she is loving every minute of it. We didn't get to bring her up before she started school so we went up the next week to visit her.

Ever since we brought the little kids to Disneyland a year and a half ago, they have begged and begged to get to stay in a hotel again. They associate hotels with watching cartoons on tv and swimming. We left around noon Thursday and drove the 4 hours up to Rexburg, Idaho. We recently bought a new car for Anthon and we decided the night before we left that we would drive our old car up to Idaho to give to Danielle. We didn't tell her we were planning this. So Anthon and I drove separately to Idaho. That worked out well for him because he needed to check on a job in Logan, Utah. I packed everything we would need for our 3 day trip, picked up a few extra things to entertain the kids on our long drive, picked up the kids from school and then me and the little kids started our journey. I was pretty happy with how well they behaved during our drive. I made sure that none of them were sitting right next to anyone else so I think that helped. Every hour or so I'd pull out something new to keep them occupied: snacks, movies, coloring books, boogie boards, more snacks. Around hour 3 they were getting pretty restless so we stopped at a gas station for a potty break. While we were in the convenient store I told the kids they could each pick one piece of candy. You would have thought they won the lottery. Anthon introduced them to getting a toy candy at the gas station about a year ago when they were going on a camp out together. Ever since then they beg to go to the gas station for some candy at least weekly. I always say no. So when they found out I was saying yes, they were overjoyed and were little angels for the remaining hour of the drive.

When we arrived in Rexburg, Danielle was at an appointment with her school counselor so we went straight to the hotel, unloaded everything and relaxed for a little while. We checked out the pool, but didn't get in.

About an hour later Danielle was home so we went to see her. She lives in a nice apartment complex right near campus with 7 other girls. Anthon got into town about 30 minutes later. We wanted to help Danielle get some stuff done while we were there so we all headed out after meeting some of her roommates and seeing her place. When we went over to where we had parked I said to Danielle, "See the Civic right there? Guess who's car that is?" She just shrugged her shoulders thinking it was a trick question. Then I told her it was her car. She was really surprised and excited. Things just kind of fell into place for us to give her that car so we felt like it was the right thing.

We drove to Jamba Juice so she could apply for a job there, then we went to dinner at Frontier Pies. She's a college student now so anytime she can get a free meal, she's happy. We also gave her all the left-overs. After that it was finally time to bring the kids swimming at the hotel. The were so excited and had a lot of fun.

After swimming for a while, we went back up to the room. Dad and the kids eventually fell asleep while Danielle worked on homework and I stayed awake so that I could drive her back to her apartment when she was done.

The next morning, Danielle was going to be in class until noon so we ate breakfast at the hotel and then went swimming again.

Then we packed and loaded everything, filled up Danielle's car with gas, went to the car wash and totally cleaned that thing inside and out and then brought it to her apartment. There were a lot more things she needed help with we discovered. We needed to get her a parking pass, which is apparently very difficult and expensive in that college town, we discovered that she hadn't paid rent yet so we helped her get that figured out, then we went to a local bank that is in both Rexburg and Utah so that she could set up an account that she could access no matter where she is. After all that, it was finally time to head to Jackson Hole for a fun little weekend getaway. A friend of ours has been renting a house there for the past few months and he wasn't using it this weekend so he said we could stay there. That's what instigated this whole trip. Friday night we went to the main part of town and walked around the square.

The bad thing about your kids learning to read is that they start reading all the signs, so when they see one that says, "Teton Toys" they want to go there. In the basement of one of the stores was a big toy store. Toys as far as the young eyes could see. The kids immediately started asking for everything in sight so we knew we had to get out fast. One of Damon's favorite things to do on a trip is get a new toy. He asked if he could get a toy if he paid for it with his own money so I said yes. And of course Monson had to do the same. Damon picked a little Lego pack with 100 pieces that would build into a toucan. Monson picked a squishy ball. Damon built and re-built that toucan multiples times for the next 2 days. Monson loved his ball...until it broke the next day. We ate dinner at a really yummy burger place called Jackson Drug. Not sure why that's their name, but the food was good.

It was getting dark after we finished dinner so we headed back to the house. We watched some tv and then we all went to bed pretty early because we were all tired.

Saturday morning we went to Albertsons to pick up some breakfast food and lunch food that we could take with us. We drove about 30 minutes away from Jackson to Jenny Lake. There are a bunch of hikes you can do and a shuttle boat ride you can take across the lake. Originally we thought we would just take the shuttle boat across the lake, do a little 1 mile hike and take the boat back. But once we got there, we decided to do the 3 mile hike around the lake and only take the boat across when we were done. Our boys love being outside and hiking so we knew they would be ok. Damon even said to me before we started, "Mom, I'd be happy if the hike was 10 miles because hiking is good for our bodies." Every now and then I get a glimpse past his wild nature and I get to see what a good kid he is on the inside. Sophie has never hiked that far so we weren't sure what we were getting into with her.

I made them do a nice picture first and then let them do the funny one they really wanted to do.

It was a fun and beautiful hike. The boys picked up rocks and put them in their pockets the whole way. Anytime we were near the water or a cliff, they would throw their rocks. What's up with boys and throwing rocks? The mornings and nights are already chilly in Idaho and Wyoming so we wore jackets, but it wasn't long before we took them off and had perfect hiking weather.

About a mile in everyone we passed said there was a moose on the trail right ahead of us. I guess it moved before we got there because we didn't see it, but we did take a little side trail that lead to Moose Lake and we got to see Dad, Mom and baby moose really close up.

Danielle and I also got to see a moose right off the trail, but everyone else had walked ahead already and didn't get to see it.

There were only a few short times that Sophie asked to be carried, but for the most part she walked the whole time. We ended up hiking about 4 miles up and down the mountain and none of the kids ever complained. I was very impressed with all of them.

We had to stop here for a while so the boys could throw rocks off the cliff.

This was the highest point we hiked to. All the way across the other side of the lake is where we started.

The final part of the hike was to a waterfall. We stopped there for a while to rest and eat our lunch....and throw more rocks.

Damon also found two sticks that he wanted to keep. Since his rock-filled pockets were pulling his shorts down he decided to put all his rocks that he wanted to keep in the hood of his jacket and his two sticks in the body of his jacket and he tied it all up and carried it around.

The last boat left at 4pm and this was the only thing we really had planned for the day so we just took our time exploring and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

I love how strong my husband is.

Around 3:15pm we got on the boat and took the short ride across the lake, back to where we started. It was a beautiful, extremely fun hike, but I was really glad we didn't have to hike all the way back the same way we came.

We were lucky that only one minor casualty occurred the whole day. Sophie was running too fast down the hill and ended up falling and scraping her knee. Luckily a very kind man gave her a Band-Aid, because Band-Aids make it feel all better.

Almost everyone, including me, fell asleep on the drive back to the house. We spent the rest of the night watching movies together. Luckily we had some left overs from our dinner the night before so we didn't even have to leave to get dinner.

Sunday morning we cleaned, packed and headed back to Rexburg. We were in a bit of a hurry because we needed to make it to Bountiful by 3pm so that Anthon could ordain Anthon Jr. a priest in his mom's ward. We made it just in time. We also got to be there for Avery being set apart as the Beehive 2nd counselor.

It was a short trip with a lot of driving, but it was a lot of fun. It was so good to see Danielle and see how happy she is in her new college life. The kids always have fun going new places and seeing new things. It was a great mini-vacation!