Family Vacation in Banks

The day after the kids came home with Grandma and Grandpa, we left on family vacation (with my parents).  We went to a cabin just an hour away, and we had the most wonderful time.  I'm already planning to go back again next summer.

We started the vacation with this (luckily, it didn't happen till we were right at the gate for the cabin)...

But, Scott and my Dad were able to switch it out for the spare tire, and the rest of the vacation was great.

We spent four days and three nights in this fabulous location...

We spent our time just enjoying the outdoors. The kids found countless frogs (and a snake)...

The kids played in the creek...

And they got extremely dirty...

They played on the zip line that went across the creek...

We ate most of our meals outside...

Because there was no one around, we could get away with things like this... (Nate's shorts got dirty, so he took them off. Then when his underwear was equally dirty, he took those off, too. If three year old nudity bothers you, then shield your eyes.)

The kids practiced taking aim at the barn...

And hours were spent in these swings...

Scott had no cell phone signal, but there was internet, so it didn't stop him from working on our vacation. Owen is making the face I always make when I want Scott to just put the phone away and pay attention to us...

Ok, I think that's enough for one post. I'll finish telling about our fun in another post.

Craters of the Moon

The day after we got home from Vegas, we packed up the kids and headed to Aberdeen.  We were planning to install a sprinkler system for my parents (we've been talking about doing that for them for years).  But we couldn't round up enough help from my sisters, so we scratched that idea.  Instead we decided to install the firepit my mom has been wanting.  But, when we got there, my parents still hadn't decided exactly what they wanted it to look like, and we were all tired, so we gave up doing any projects and decided to just play.

We took the kids to Craters of the Moon for the day.  It's a place we've always wanted to take them, but it's really not "on the way" to anywhere, so we've never done it.  But now we can check it off our list of places we want to take the kids.

The kids really loved the place.  We made a short stop at the Visitor's Center.

Then we went on a ranger hike and learned about how this area was formed. The kids got to pretend to be "seedlings" and demonstrate where the best place to grow was (Josh and Savannah were the "protected seedlings", while Aaron and Sara were out in the elements and didn't grow so well).

The hike took us down to Indian Cave (a lava tube that formed a huge cave). The kids were fascinated with the idea of being in an actual cave.

After learning about the cave, we got to hike around a bit in it.

My little cave explorers.

Hiking back to Grandma (who didn't want to brave the cave).

On the ranger hike, the kids completed the requirements to become Jr. Rangers, so we went back to the Visitor's Center to let them take their pledge and pick up their patches. (Owen didn't want to be left out, so he wiggled his way into the lineup.)

Next we took a short hike up to a lava splatter cone. (The boys got stuffed animals at the Visitor's Center, and they instantly fell in love with them.)

Then we tackled a much longer hike, out to some tree forms. I ended up carrying kids on my back for most of the way there and all of the way back. Poor little Owen wasn't feeling well, and finally fell asleep on the long hike.

Josh found a lava bomb.

The kids weren't very impressed with the tree forms.

But they were thrilled when we set them loose to explore the lava field.

For such a desolate landscape, it is such a beautiful place.

We had just enough time to go through a few more smaller caves.  Sara was tired, so she stayed in the car with Grandma, Owen, and Nate. 

We made the drive home late that night with very tired children. The next day (Saturday) we went to the Hans Sorensen family reunion that my dad was in charge of organizing. And the next day (Sunday) the older three kids went to church with my parents and Scott and I headed home with the three little kids (Owen was not feeling well, so we wanted to get him home). The older three kids got to spend the night at Grandma's and came home with my parents the next day.