What in the world was I thinking? Loading up the car for a 21 day road trip to Idaho? Only having my husband with us on the weekends? This girl must have forgotten her sanity or taken too many happy pills when plans were being made! But since the plans were made, away we went. Our first stop was in South Dakota. Chad flew into Rapid City to meet us, the boys and I had to drive. Totally unfair, right? The next morning we jetted off (yeah, wishful thinking -- in reality we drove) to see Mount Rushmore.
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| "Look Mom, I finally found a bowl big enough for my cereal in the morning!" |
After leaving Mt. Rushmore we headed for the hills. Well, across them really. Our destination for the night was Cody, WY and the Cody Night Rodeo. **Bad Parent Alert** we realized on the way there that Colt had NEVER been to a rodeo and Dakota was a babe in arms the last time he went. The cowboy gods are rolling over and revoking our right to wear Wranglers as we speak...
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| Dakota really did have fun, contrary to what you make think when looking at that scowl. |
Ahh, but the fun didn't stop there! We decided to mosey (working on my cowgirl language) on into Yellowstone to see what we could see. Unfortunately all we could see was water - in the forms of lakes, geysers, mudpots, and rivers. But very few animals. A couple deer and a elk were all that we spotted. A bit disappointing but we loved the scenery and the geysers and Colt learned (somewhat) how to skip rocks and I learned that sun + standing by water throughout the day should have equaled sunblock for my shoulders!
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| Wading in Yellowstone Lake. |
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| Back to where water flows the correct direction! |
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| Waiting impatiently for Old Faithful to erupt. It was late, of course! |
Finally we made it to Blackfoot to see Chad's family and attend the first of the two family reunions. Lots of fun there!
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| Got to love a reunion with old school playground equipment, fishing, and canoes! |
Then we dropped him (that jet-setting hubby of mine) off at the airport and continued our crazy journey across the state to Council. While in Council we fly-fished on the Little Salmon (and caught only our limit - I swear!), picked wild blackberries in Hell's Canyon and then made them into jam, went white water rafting (didn't drown and rememberd the sunblock this time) and horse back riding, and had our second fabulous reunion. Chad joined us just in time to enjoy the rafting and reunion.
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| Drinkwine family |
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| Small but tasty! |
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| Lovely picture of our behinds while we pick blackberries at the side of the road in Hell's Canyon. |
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| 29 pints of blackberry and strawberry jam. I have to can jam every time I go home to Idaho, it is tradition! |
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| White-water rafting on the Salmon River |
Then back to the airport Chad went and off to Nampa we traveled. There we helped Grandma Michele do a few remodeling projects, enjoyed the Canyon County fair (where Dakota was hypnotised and almost got into a fist fight with another participant over who had the worst fake B.O.) and attend my (Darcy's) 20th High School Reunion. Unfortunately Dakota swears he will never EVER EVER speak to me again if I post any hypnosis pictures (or videos!!) so I won't. However, if you send me a private message I might share them. (Nah, probably not)
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| Canyon County Fair |
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| Me and some buddies from Payette High School Class of 1992! |
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| Headed out to the first night of the reunion. |
And then we drove home. I have no pictures or witty words from there as by that time we were done! We didn't stop at any scenic vistas, heck we barely even stopped for gas! While our summer vacation was a ball and we did and saw many fantastic things, next year I think we'll stick to a normal 7 day trip. I think that is more than enough time to be away from home! :)
