Island Park Adventures

After our Bear Lake trip ended, we drove straight up to Island Park, ID to be with Craig's Family. I love being there especially for the Fourth of July. Unfortunately, I was sick for the first few days but Landon had seemed more adjusted to the change in routine which was nice and Chase did fabulous. He had a lot of fun boating and wanted to be on it every chance he got.

Chase and Grandma waiting on the dock for a tube ride. 

 

It was finally his turn. He was so excited. 

 

At first he was holding on tight but by the end, his hands were in the air and was screaming in delight. 

I fell off the tub a few years ago and every since have a had a fear of riding the tube but they finally convinced me to go on and gave me a "kid ride."

Craig got roped into riding on the back of the tube and I think fell off at least three times. It is always fun to watch someone fell off when it is not you.

After a boating all day, Chase always enjoyed some hot tub time.

Landon was a little challenging on this trip. He was very clingy to me and we had to change our activities a lot to keep him content (After we got home, we found out he had an ear infections so that explains a lot).
We went on a lot of walks, through rocks into the water, took drives to Big Springs to feed the fish, and I even found a playground for him to play on. 

We also try to make it into Yellowstone National Park at least once while we are there. We packed lunches and ate next to the river in Yellowstone.

We took a little "hike" which was more like a walk down a road to see what is known as Natural Bridge. It was a really cool rock formation.

 

Chase walked most of the way but of course took his opportunity
to get a ride from Aunt Carolee.

Craig and I were able to take a drive one afternoon without the kids. We drove up to Sawtell Peak.  On top of this mountain is a flight traffic control radar. 

We were able to get this cool picture of the rain storm in Island Park. 

My poor boys got caught in the storm. My sister in law took them on a walk to get ice cream at the gas station and on their way back it starting to rain and hail on them.  My other sister in law came to pick them up on their way back. They always take good care of my boys!

We started our Fourth of July celebration at Hebgen Lake. Chase is ready for the party to get started. 

Landon spent a little time in the water but he does not like to be dirty or messy. He kept saying "hands, hands, hands,"  meaning he wants me to wash the dirt off. We spent most of the day at the Lake before fireworks and luckily Landon got a good nap in Grandpa's arms.

Waiting for the firework show. 

We always have an awesome view of the firework show over Island Park Reservoir.

We didn't get to spend time with all of Craig's family but enjoyed the time we had with the family who were able to come up to the cabin and missed the ones who couldn't come. Above are 5 of the 8 grandchildren on the Mackay side. 

Just a random picture of Craig and Chase that I enjoyed.
We don't have own an iPhone or iPod touch so when they get their hands on one, they get distracted very easily. Very much like father, like son. 

Name that movie

Chase has a very good memory. I will read him a book one time and then he will ask if he can "read" it to his teddy bear. He usually does a pretty good job at retelling a story word for word, so it didn't surprise me when I heard him recite movie lines. This kids cracks me up.
 

If you guessed the movie A Bug's Life, you are a winner!

Bear Lake Vacation

We had a great family vacation in Utah this summer with our families. Craig was able to get away from work for almost 3 weeks and this was the first time we have flown to and from Utah together. We started our vacation out with my family at Bear Lake and then ended our vacation with Craig's family in Island Park, ID. It was a very busy but fun vacation and it always makes us realize how much we miss Utah especially being with our families.

Before we left for Bear Lake, Papa let Chase cut his lawn with our riding mower that we had left behind when we moved to Texas. He was thrilled.

Landon was scared at first and rather just be held by
Papa but he eventually warmed up.

I had found this house for us to rent. 

It was much cheaper than a cabin and overall worked really well for us. There were seven bedrooms plus a couple of futons and couch beds. So everyone had a bed to sleep in. The really only down side to this house was there was not a lot of sitting area for everyone to gather.  

The house had a indoor hot tub which the kids really enjoyed. 

 And there was a lot of grass space with a beautiful view in the backyard.

Here I am trying to organize a game of duck, duck, goose.  

We arrived on late Monday afternoon so we spend the rest of the day and evening unpacking, visiting, and relaxing. On Tuesday, most of the family decided to go on a hike to the Minnetoka Caves. It is a nine room cave and throughout the tour of the cave you go up and down many stairs, about 400 stairs to be exact and that is just one way. So by the time, you are done with your tour cave, you have climbed about 800 stairs. We had a lot of kids with us but surprising they did really well.

Here is our little family before the hike

Landon stayed home with Papa and took a nap.

The inside of the cave was amazing and really cool to see.

 

With my twin brother

Chase getting a break from walking for a little bit. 

With my family, at the end as far as they would let us go.

After the hike, we drove over to Montpelier,  Idaho and went to the Oregon Trail Center. It was a little bit of a disappoint. I thought it would have been more hands on activities for the kids but it is always good to have a variety of activities.

The boys getting attacked by the bear.

 Demonstrating buffalo chips
 

Taking a wagon ride

On Wednesday and Thursday, we spend most of the day spending time on the beach at Bear Lake and just letting the kids have fun in the water. They mostly spent their time building mud piles. 

Landon enjoyed digging in the sand where is was not so muddy
and hanging out with his mama.

 

On the Thursday we had rented a wave runner for a few hours. This was Chase's first time on a wave runner and he was nervous at first but by the end, he wanted to go faster and kept saying how much fun it was. 

Before the trip my sister joked about making matching t-shirts but I thought it was a great idea. I had already made matching skirts for my niece so I decided it would be fun to have matching shirts not only for them but for everyone. We also bought matching basketball shorts for all the nephews.

 I did a post on my other blog with more family pictures. Click here to see more.