Idaho or Bust

The month of June included 9 days in Idaho...it's always such a treat to visit Andy's parents and siblings...a good country vacation for a very city family. Andy's parents live outside of town on a reservoir, with a boat dock right off the back of the house. It's hard not to thoroughly enjoy yourself to no end. With a never-ending number of cousins to play with, there is always something to do. Though it rained on and off all week, we still had plenty of sun to enjoy.

I attended my mission reunion on Saturday after we flew in to Salt Lake...I know that everybody feels this way, but it was a privilege to serve in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and there are few people I respect and love more than President and Sister Shumway. It felt good to be with my mission friends again and the night brought back a lot of tender emotions and memories for me.





And then up to Idaho...after all the rain, it was stunning. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. This is the view off the Hyer's dock...a nice place to spend a week.

The week started off in a "goodly" manner...The sand-pile money dig...a Hyer tradition...Andy's parents hide a lot of money in big sand piles and let the kids dig for it...we were engaged the first time I got to participate in it! Parents get to help the little kids...Andy is digging for Charlie...we walked away with 3 heavy cups filled with nickels, dimes, quarters and gold dollar coins...thanks Grandpa and Grandma Hyer for waiting till we got there!


Brittany rocked Charlie to sleep on the swing...

19 of the 23 grandkids are in this picture...

Charlie and Tyson--the youngest and oldest grandchildren

Charlie--the newest grand-baby, and Tag--one (of 4.5 now) great-grandbabies...Tag belongs to Tyson in the above photo...

Many may not know this, but Andy is a FANTASTIC water-skier. He skied several times a week in the summer growing up, and obviously doesn't get to do it very often anymore, but we hope to get a boat when the kids get older and get them into it. I'm always very impressed when Andy pops up and skies hard after a 12-month break.

I ski too, but nothing remotely photo-worthy past this...I didn't get any good pictures with them, but we had our really great friends, Jon and Becky Jenkins, up at the cabin this day...Jon is pulling me in the boat...he and Andy were college roommates and we have all kept in touch, despite their efforts to move as far away from us as possible! He started medical school in Mexico and has since transferred to a school in the Caribbean and will be heading to New Jersey and then Chicago for rotations over the next several months...we beg them to bring their 3 girls to LA at some point...we'll keep hoping. We see them only in the summer now, because luckily we all seem to be in Idaho or Utah at the same time.



Andy and Kate drove up to Malad to visit Andy's Grandma Thorpe (Kate's great-grandmother). Lauren was far too CRANKY to make the 45 minute drive, so she missed out on this visit...luckily Grandma Thorpe came down to visit later in the week...I have some fantastic pics of Lauren with her, but they are on my other camera and will have be loaded later...

We had a campfire one night and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, then we all got on the big "float boat" and Andy's dad took us across the reservoir so that the older kids could go off the rope swing...


Any chance this life-jacket would save Kate in an emergency? Yes, she still sucks her lip.
Not too happy about being on the 4-wheeler...

One afternoon Andy's mom and I took the kids on the 4-wheelers over to a neighbor's house to play on the GIANT swings they have tied in the trees...the kids had a blast...I had to come back a little early because Charlie needed a diaper change, so I sat him in front of me on the 4-wheeler and headed back down the road, thinking the entire time, "if Andy's home when I pull in and sees this, he'll kill me." A minute later, Andy and his dad are driving toward me in their car...I just smiled, pulled Charlie tighter and kept going...

I love this picture...how many Grandma throw the kids on and take off on a 4-wheeler?



Canoeing with Dad...


Grandma has the BEST deep sink for bathing kids...my friend Valerie got me into sink bathing at the beach house...I love it.


We celebrated Lauren's actual birthday on the 18th with a cousin's party...games, a scavenger hunt, ice cream cake and then a 5-balloon release over the lake.


Getting ready to let go of her 5 balloons...


What I didn't know when I mentioned releasing the balloons for the kids to watch was that Grandpa Hyer has a history of using balloons for target practice. As we were walking out on the dock, he got his gun...

I didn't realize it right away, but Lauren had started sobbing, and then threw herself across the water-weanie in pure 5-year-old agony over her balloons...the other cousins were cheering, and Lauren was crying. She was partly scared of the gun (which unlike the other kids, she had never seen), and partly sad...I finally assured her (lied, actually) and told her that the 5 balloons she let go had flown away, and that Grandpa had shot the extras that the other kids had released. Finally, she calmed down. I guess the name "city cousin" will stick for a reason.
A few nice family pics before we headed back to Salt Lake to fly home...which was a horrendous flight, I might add...the first time that I have ever truly felt out-numbered by 3 kids...good thing the week was worth it...


Wedding post to show up in the next few days...