Canyons, Cows, Caves, and Cars Vacation Post Number 2

If you missed part1 of our vacation to Idaho you can find it here http://reutherfamily.blogspot.com/2017/09/vacation-to-idaho-part-1.html


There are so many great places to see by my home town. We took the kids to Canyon and watched some BASE jumpers jump off the bridge. We got our one and only family picture and probably the only one I was in thanks to a homeless guy that spends his days at the bridge jumping and just talking to people.

We also went to visit my grandma and grandpa. The kids helped her feed the cows.

We had really wanted to take the kids to Craters of the Moon. Unfortunately it is a bit of a drive and in the desert plus mostly lava rock so we figured it would be hot. They just wanted to see a volcano. So instead we took them to the Shoshone ice caves. This is where I failed! I actually forgot my camera in a diner in a small town. We got to the caves about 20 minutes away from the diner and realized it. So I just had my phone. This is actually a lava tube from the volcano so they got as close as we were going to get. They loved it. We left the babies at home.

After the ice caves we went and visited one of my grandparent's friends that collects rocks. It was a great follow up to us studying rocks last year for school. He even sent us home with some rocks for our nature area.

The other thing they were fascinated with this trip was my grandpa's old car he has redone through the years. As a kid I use to see him in his shop working on it. It is good to see him actually driving it now. They thought it was the neatest thing. He loves it because it reminds him of his youth. 

I have one more post to share of our trip. It probably won't happen for another week! Although I may surprise myself and get it done! School is in full swing and I am busy with that plus sewing and life! More to come soon....

Vacation to Idaho Part 1

I fully intended to post this weeks ago. A couple things happened though and it just kind of got put on the back burner. The minor things. Lightroom did something crazy and re downloaded and I lost all my photos and had to download from online back up. That added time I just couldn't devote to this. School started for us and that takes up a large part of my time. Also I jumped right back into work which means sewing projects and deadlines which I absolutely love. It just means some things not as important get put on the back burner. 

The biggest reason is I honestly couldn't look back at these photos without a few tears. When I say all this I LOVE our home. I LOVE Michigan. I LOVE living here. I LOVE having Anthony's family around. BUT I hate not having my family closer. I just barely unpacked my suitcase this past weekend because I loved smelling my clothes. They smelled like my Grandma. It had been four years since we had been to Idaho. Don't get me wrong I don't love  Idaho. It has some beauty, but it just is so brown. LOL It has my family though. My grandma's parting words to me, "If I don't see you again, I'll see you in Glory." It still breaks my heart. I realize she is close to that age and it is hard to see. I don't realize how much people age until I visit them after a few years. So while our trip was so wonderful to see family it hurt a bit knowing my kids loved visiting everybody and then we may not see them for a while. It is one of those things about living across country. If we move they miss out on family here. So I had to put pictures away just so I didn't dwell too much on it.


Our vacation was wonderful and  we all had a blast. We flew out in the evening which was a bit nuts with the babies. The older kids were angels. The twins not so much. We had a rough go. We didn't get into Boise into our hotel until about 2:00 a.m. Idaho time which was really 4:00 a.m. Michigan time. Needless to say Anthony and I were exhausted. We stayed the night in a hotel as we still had a drive to Twin Falls. The kids woke up and had forgotten what mountains were. They were so excited. Unfortunately while we were home we didn't get the greatest view due to all the forest fires which is common for that time of year. 

Then we headed to see my parents at the river. The kids all had a blast.

Anthony and I took the twins to my grandparents where we were staying and left the older kids to hang out and tube. We got some much needed sleep.

We spent a lot of time visiting my Grandparents. They have a beautiful yard  and the kids loved waking up and being outside all day. They picked blackberries, helped my grandparents dig potatoes, and just had fun.

My grandparents had gotten a new kitten to go with the other kitten they had. All the kids loved them. They were well played with.

The other big thing they all played with for hours was this tricycle.

More on our adventures and some of the fun things we did and saw on our vacation in the next post.