Road Trip!

4 States:Washington-Idaho-Montana-Utah

7 Days

2262 Miles (3641 km) plus

33 Hours plus

Vincent, Andrew and good friend Kallan and I jumped in the MiniVan for a Road Trip! 

Our Itinerary and Goals:

• Get Vincent and Kallen to BYU Idaho for EFY (Especially for Youth, camp)
• Visit Yellowstone Park
• Visit family in Utah

If you ever get the chance to drive thru Idaho and Montana, 

you should DO IT!

I have driven to Utah many times and let me tell you it is not too exciting. Lots of desserts and farm land. But this route to Rexburg Idaho was fantastic! The road snakes along the lakes and rivers. I wanted to stop around every corner. I was Oohing and Awing most of the way there! The 12.5 hours that it took to get to Rexburg went pretty fast. The great views really helped. It also helps that my kids are older now and I don't have to entertain them. We listened to lots of music and even tried out the local Country Music stations. They all agreed that Country is not that bad. :-)

This is a lake that we stopped at along the way. We needed a break and seeing all the water around we needed to get wet! Ok I needed a break. 

The boys found a old wooden tower that kids were jumping off. So of course they gave it a try. 

Well Gary was not with us, so Vincent felt he needed to keep our tradition going of trip injuries. 

When Vincent jumped off the platform he some how sliced open the bottom of his foot. 

Ugh...Really? Really! 

After cleaning the wound I was torn about taking Vincent to the Hospital. It was not bleeding, and it cleaned out really well. I had some butterfly bandages and I pulled the sides together and it stayed! Yeah! I also knew if I took him to the hospital he would be late to EFY and it would be hard to walk on stitches...Plus is I am tired of going to Hospitals. I have had a nice stretch of not going for a few months (knock on wood). I sent Gary a photos and he agreed with me that he would survive with out stitches. Yes it might have helped, but really, do I care if he gets a scar on the bottom of his foot? Not really. :-) So I got extra bandages for Vincent and told him to take it easy and try not to get it wet and keep it clean. He is a big boy and it was fine. 

Sorry Doctor! I am sure we will see you again soon...

Andrew jumped off just fine. He was smart and kept his shoes on. I had sandals for Vincent...next time he will keep them on. :-) 

 Sorry if you are squeamish...But I like to document all injuries. It looks much better now. 

The Boys made it! "Just drop us off here Mom...we don't need you to help any further...:-( 

I did not hear from them again until I needed to pick them up. No news is good news when you are talking about teenagers...I think. 

After dropping off boys at EFY we headed up to Yellowstone. We stopped at these falls on the way up. They were pretty cool. Even had a pretty rainbow showing for us.

Yeah we made it! 

First wild animal!

  

It is amazing how every where you look in the park there is steam coming up out of the ground! Gysers here and there. Such a cool place! You wonder did all of the world look like this at one time? 

Seeing all the raw power reaching the surface is pretty dang amazing. 

Old Faithful!

 Waiting around for the Geyser to start

 Hundreds of people watch this event every hour or so!

While watching the Geyser it started to rain, the crowd quickly left and then as we walked away another geyser went off next to Old Faithful. Crazy place! 

A little rain did not slow us down. We wrapped our towels around and continued exploring more of the   park. The rain thinned out the crowds for sure! 

Stopping to see wild life on the way back to the hotel. 

As dusk came Elk were showing up along the rivers. 

Not sure if this is a Golden Eagle or a young Bald Eagle ? (or just a cool big bird?)

On to Utah! 

Andrew and I arrived just in time to Todd's house to help out with Sharolyn getting ready to have a new baby.  All of the kids had left to go to Lake Powell with their cousins and grand parents. Justin stayed home because he is so little. He is about 3 years old.

Little did they know poor Justin was very sick. He had a fever and mouth ulcers all over his mouth. We later found out it was probably Hand Foot Mouth disease. Very contagious. Poor guy was in a lot of pain and could not tell us what was exactly wrong with him self.

I was lucky enough to be able to go and Photograph the birth of new baby Aubrey Joy Westra. Sharolyn had a long hard labor but in the end when the baby was ready it only took 3 pushes to get her out.

Oh yeah, Todd delivered the baby with the doctors help. He was pretty excited to do this and did a great job.

Thank You Sharolyn for letting me share this special moment with you! You did a great job, total grace under pressure! 

A couple of days latter Cindy and I had special plans for Aubrey. Of course a baby Photo Session! Angela came also to help out and to meet Aubrey! 

Back to Yellowstone after I picked up the boys from EFY. 

They had a great time and met a lot of COWS (Crushes of the Week) this is what they call the cute girls. They also had a great time in classes and learned a lot. 

They did text friends from EFY for 12 straight hours on the way home. Pretty funny. 

Swimming in FireHole Falls. 

We saw a bunch of scuba divers here. I guess there are some dive holes in this river. The water is pretty warm because of the hot springs around the area. In this hole where Vincent is standing a bunch of divers went 30 feet deep. Not sure how deep the hole goes. Pretty cool. 

We all had a great trip and saw and did a lot of amazing things.. I am planning on bringing Gary back here next summer. Love it! 

Thank You Heavenly Father for giving us these beautiful places to visit! 

Truly Breath Taking!