Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend, my sister invited us to come and spend some time with them at her in-laws cabin. Their cabin is in Island Park, Idaho on the shores of Henry's Lake. It is about 15 minutes from West Yellowstone and the surroundings are so beautiful. I really love it up there. I have fond childhood memories of spending time up there with my family and my parent's friends and their kids.

It was short notice, and Mark couldn't take time off work, so the kids and I drove up by ourselves. Mark flew up on Friday after work - lucky guy! I am quite proud of myself and them, after all, it was a five hour drive! The drive went really fast, and we only stopped once in Pocatello. We left on Thursday and arrived at the cabin around four o'clock. Just in time for dinner :) My brother in law Jon is such a great cook. We had burgers and fresh trout that they caught that day. Shortly after arriving, we walked down to the lake for a little fun.






Friday morning, Jon woke up Will and Ben and took them out fishing on the lake, early in the morning. Will caught the biggest fish, but wouldn't touch it. They both caught fish and went out the Saturday morning with Mark, as well. I stayed in bed with Max. I'm not a morning person.




That afternoon, my sister stayed home with Max and her little one year old, Charlie so they could nap. I took the kids and Terese horseback riding at Harriman State Park. Terese is from Sweden and she is here this summer, spending time in the U.S. and helping Karyn with her kids. Her dad works with Jon and they came last summer and toured the U.S. Terese wanted to come back, and Karyn loves the help. She is a sweet girl and we'll miss her when they take her back to Sweden in a few weeks.









It was a two hour ride, which was way too long for an old girl like me. My back and bottom hurt for the next two days. After the ride, we went back and I got ready to pick up Mark from the airport. I was so excited for him to come. We hardly ever spend time apart and I missed him and his help with the kids.

Saturday morning, the boys went fishing on the lake again. When they got back, we went into West Yellowstone for lunch and Mark and Jon went fly fishing.



After lunch, we headed back to the cabin so the little ones could nap. Karyn stayed with them again and I took the kids and Terese on a float trip on the North Fork of the Snake River at Mack's Inn. They drive you up the river, about five miles, and you float back to Mack's Inn. The float took about three hours. We all had such a great time. I sunblocked the kids well, but only did my arms. Needless to say, I got burnt on my face and thighs. I'm still feeling it two days later :(



While floating, we were talking about scuba diving...Suddenly we saw Ben's head in the water. It freaked me out. He went "scuba diving". What a dork!


Can you see the moose? We saw two on this little boat ride. Thankfully it wasn't a bear, I would have peed my pants.


For our last night, we went to a rodeo/dinner show on the other side of Henry's Lake. It is just a small operation, but the food was really good. Dutch oven, steak, salad and peach cobbler. The first part of the evening was the rodeo. Apparently they put on summer camps for kids all over the West, and the kids put on the rodeo. Wouldn't that be fun to go to a rodeo camp? Will really wants to, but you must be nine years old. Maybe next year!

The kids nine and older got to go out and chase around a cow. There was a ribbon tied on the cow, and whoever got the ribbon, got a prize. I lied about Will's age and let him go. I have to admit I was a little worried about his (broken) leg and running in the dirt. The first cow ran right out the other end of the field, through a crack in the fence. They tried again, this time with a larger cow. He ran around for a bit, but escaped as well. Everyone that participated got some candy.




Fun times. Max was a little shister the whole night. There was a little stream that he couldn't stay away from.




After dinner, they had a singer (ye-haw) and a little lesson in line dancing. We had such a great time! Thanks Karyn and Jon!