Monday morning Dan picked up our rental car (which only had 84 miles on it!) and we headed out over the scenic beauty of central Idaho. It's really gorgeous for anyone who likes shrubs. And dust. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Carey, Idaho at a place called 93 Express. We'd recommend it. It was either that or the grill at the Sinclair gas station. But really, it was good. And their chicken nuggets were shaped like dinosaurs, which immediately won over Sam and Afton. We drove by Craters of the Moon state park and I made the kids get out and take a picture.
That's a keeper.
Right after passing Craters of the Moon we got a big rock chip in the windshield of our rental car. Of course. We'll see if they charge us for it... The lady at the return said they'd had so many rock chips lately that they'd stopped charging. But ours was big enough that it was questionable.
We arrived in Yellowstone around 5 and met up with Dan's parents and Dan's brother's family (Matt, Amy, Noah, Ethan, Mack, Hunter, and Luke) at our rental cabin. It was Dan's parents' birthday (they have the same birthday!) so we celebrated with cake, cupcakes, and ice cream.
We visited the rest of the night and planned our adventures for the next day.
Our trip to Yellowstone was so much fun! We took a late flight out of Baltimore last Saturday which we almost missed due to a deluge of rain (which made our drive take 2 hours longer than normal). We got in to Boise at midnight and Kirk was kind enough to pick us up. We got to spend Sunday with Kirk, Gretchen, Carter, Wendy, and Sherri. Gretchen made a delicious breakfast, we went to church, we tested out a remote controlled car on a remote controlled car dirt track, we dipped our toes in the Boise River, ate way too many cookies, and we visited. The kids played like they'd never been separated. It was fantastic.
We only lasted 15 minutes at the track. It was like 112 degrees.
Sam got some dust in his eye that really hurt. He also got his glasses in time for our trip!
Sam had his last week of school two weeks ago. He loves school, but was excited for summer. On national donut day, the school clinic called to say that Sam had hit his head pretty hard on the asphalt at recess and that they were keeping an eye on him for a while. I thought, since it was national donut day, "Hey, I'll be a great mom and go get him some donuts so that when I pick him up, I can cheer him with sugary pastries." I got into the store and it looks like this:
Worst idea I've ever had. The manager wasn't even helping his employees. He was all smiles just taking pictures and distracting the employees from getting their work done. It took so long to get the donuts that I was then LATE to pick him up from school and I felt even worse. Fortunately for me, he was very forgiving.
Eli managed to turn himself perpendicular while napping.
Sam adores his little brother. I think the feeling is mutual.
I took the kids to some water feature thing.
Sam's last day of school he came home and we pulled out his top left tooth.
Last Saturday my dad's work had a King's Dominion day, so they invited us and we had a great time! It was super hot that day.
It was so fun. Dan and I got to ride something together and that hasn't happened in a long time!
I took the kids swimming at our gym the other day. It is quite the production getting everything ready, but they had fun.
We got out the playmate and Afton reverted to a six-month-old.
Thursday I met Destiny and her cute baby at Jamestown before she moves away this weekend. :( Again, it was so hot! Man, I was sweaty.
Ninety-five degrees and a giant ice cream cone aren't a good match. He had ice cream dripping off his elbow all over everything. When he bit into the cone, his front right tooth got loose and started to bleed.
I love seeing this lady and I'll miss our visits!
Friday morning, I pulled out Sam's tooth,
took him to the doctor for a well-check,
and found out he needs glasses. We went and picked them out today. We should get them in a few weeks.
