Thursday, August 4, 2011

And just like that...

We were off to Utah for the summer...



Sunday the 26th of June (which was Sheepies actual birthday) we went to the beginnings of church, so that we could say good bye to all our friends and they could sing to Sheepie. Then we crammed everyone into our very full car and headed off to Utah. Instead of trying to cram in into 15 straight hours like I did a few weeks before, we took it nice and easy; splitting it over two days so we could sight see a bit.

Our first stop along the way was lunch. Sheepie had told me, out of the blue, that he really really wanted to go to Red Robin for his birthday lunch. So that is exactly what we did. Except that instead of going to the one closet to our house, Daddio tricked everyone by driving all the way up to Portland before stopping for food.

We stopped at this cool little look out tower along the Columbia River that FP had noticed on our last return trip.


not sure what it is about our family that we like to find high up places to climb and explore.

After this first stop we just drove for quite a while until we finally got to a city along the Oregon/Idaho boarder, that I can't recall the name of now. We checked into a hotel there for the night, and everyone crashed. I don't think we even bothered stopping for dinner. The next morning we woke up and quickly ate their free breakfast. FP was excitedly surprised to find a HUGE model replica of the Titanic shelved on the wall in the dining room of our Mexican themed hotel. Odd, but an awesome way for him to start his morning.

Back into the car we all piled and the next stop was in Boise. I think we only stopped to let the kids look at the temple, which they were cleaning, so it was pretty quiet around the grounds with no one really there.








(I love that the wind had to blow my hair right as the picture was taken, lol).


From Boise we just drove through until we reached Twin Falls. This was where we deicided to stop for lunch, and to explore a little bit more. Of course we stopped at the Temple, because that's what we do.

Sheepie though was the only one who wanted to get out.


Before hitting up the temple we went down into a cool park area where the Falls are actually located. They were amazing and when you are used to looking at things like Multnomah Falls, you just are in awe of how big the Twin Falls waterfalls really are.







There was also a lake in the park that we decided to quickly stop at and let the kids pop their feet into to cool off. We were seriously shocked though when we got there. Benjamin stayed in the car with Goob b/c we didn't expect it to be much. I found a little inlet and was about to put the kids in there when I heard voices around the corner. Since the water was kind of gross at the inlet I told them we'd pop around the corner and see where the other people were playing. Much to my surprise it was a HUGE lake with a busy beach. There were lifeguards on towers and a snack shack. The lake had a 'deep' end sectioned off, as well as a cement wall put around a little wading area for kids. Then there was the open part of the lake where you could jump off big rocks. It turns out you can buy a $25 yearly pass to the lake and it's the swimming place to go to in Twin Falls. I made me kind of sad that the Goob was sleeping in the car and the kids bathing suits were buried in the back of the car. They still ended up plenty wet in the 10 minutes I let them play.

We drove pretty much straight through Utah, because two long days of driving made us very ready to get 'home,' so to speak. And once the drive was over we had a nice few days settling in before we took off on any more adventures.

These next few pictures are just some pictures of 'everday' adventures we've been having since we got here. I will post about our real adventures in other pots.


We have this little enclosed patio off the main room that is great. If I turn the AC I can just leave the door open and then the two younger boys can play 'outside' while I'm busy doing something in the house. That way they don't have to be left out of the fun their older brothers have when they go to the play ground that's on the back side of our building.





The boys have spent hours building and rebuilding the new lego sets that Sheepie got for his birthday. They are the only ones I let them bring, since they were all still in their original boxes when we left. I know what our lego room at home looks like and I had no desire to transport the entire thing to Utah. Walking through their room with just these is bad enough.



This video cracks me up (except for the park where the dog started licking my leg and I laugh like a dork). It was easily 100 degrees outside and they had to be dying of heat in those robes, but they ran around for about a half an hour playing quidditch. Yes they are using their light sabers as brooms because they are just that awesome. I think the snitch was a Bakugan ball. What are Bakugan balls even?!



We also have frequented the zoo several times. The first time we went we found out we couldn't use our Oregon Zoo membership because we didn't have a card. So we weren't going to get the 50% off. Benjamin ended up buying a membership to the Hogle Zoo for us because it was only $20 than we paid to get in that one time. It has really be nice to have a fun place to use as my back up that is free. The kids never get tired of going, and it only costs a 1.50 for them to ride the train or the carousel, which is WAY cheaper than in Oregon.









And now, I promise this will be the end of the SUPER long, catch up posts for a while. I have a few posts to show you what we've been up to in Utah since arriving, but they shouldn't be nine million pages long.

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