A Very Long Vacation - week 1

We left on July 23 and headed to the land of the taters. We drove as far as Declo and stayed in Dave's sister's house. They were on vacation, so we took over the house and it was fun. The next morning we got up and drove to Sugar City. As we drove through Idaho Falls, it just felt like we were coming home. Tanner looked out the window at the familiar scene that we have seen dozens of times, and was surprised to notice that "there are storage units in Idaho." Our first stop was at the house. It made me cry. The poor yard looked like nobody lived there. Sure, it has been cared for, but nobody makes it look like someone lives there if they don't. Then we drove to Green Canyon and said hi at the family reunion we were missing out on. Then we drove to Island Park to spend a few days with my family. The boys were beyond ready to get there, and truthfully we were all glad to be out of the car with Braden!

Island Park was so fun! We were there Saturday through Wednesday, and all of my family was there on Saturday, then Mitch had to leave. Tanner and Colton learned to knee board and we had so much fun playing and relaxing!!

On Wednesday we headed back to Sugar City to spend some time working on our house. Dave tilled the garden and adjusted the sprinklers and I worked in the flower beds. The boys played with friends or in the sand box. We stayed the night at Ronnie and Carol's who were also out of town, so it was again, nice to take over someone's house. We had dinner with our friends the Reynauds and enjoyed their company and kindness. It rained like crazy and was sort of fun to watch.

On Thursday night we headed to Rupert for cousin Joelle's wedding on Friday. It was so fun to be with family.

Saturday was a Mills Reunion with Dave's siblings and we had a blast. We went to the Burley boat dock and visited and the kids played in the water and Uncle Klade pulled them behind the boat. Then we went to an awesome place in Raft River called "Steadmans". It is the home of this awesome family who had turned their yard into a playground. They have water slides and picnic tables and a volleyball net and playground equipment and firepits and on and on. They don't charge anything, just make a reservation and leave a donation. It was fantastic. The boys loved it, and Braden simply couldn't get enough. We were so glad that Mandy and Ike were there from North Dakota and that Russ and Janelle came during harvest, and that Melissa and Klade put it all together during their craziest week ever. We knew it wasn't convenient for anyone, but it was wonderful.

Then we drove back to Corinne to stay the night, went to church the next morning, then drove Dave to the SLC airport so he could fly home to work while me and the boys went the PG to continue our fun vacation for the whole month of August.