Craters of the Moon

Our next stop on our road trip was to my sister Mindy's house in Rexburg. We took a detour at Crater's of The Moon. I have driven by it several times and have always wanted to stop and explore. It was definitely worth the stop.

Isaiah liked the name of this cave and wanted a picture by it. I think he's pulling off the casual, contemplative look, very well.

This is the Indian Tunnel. It doesn't seem like much when you first make your hike into the entrance, but the further down you get, the more majestic it becomes. This was my favorite spot of the entire park. It makes you feel very small in a massive world.

I was so happy Isaiah endured the many stops we made along the paths to read every detail about the landscape around us. At first he just wanted to fly through the park so he could see his cousins, but he eventually got excited by what was around him.

Isaiah overlooking the park from atop the Inferno Cone.

I love all the rock formations.

This tree is along the path in, "The Devil's Orchard." The trees here were all infected with a non-native shrub called witches broom. Isaiah and I both thought they were very fascinating.

At the bottom of the Inferno Cone.

This was my favorite tree in the entire park! Apparently the trees there learned to adapt to the weather in order to survive. This tree has survived the wind and snow by bending and twisting along with it, rather than pushing against it. The result is the above picture. I like it because to some the tree may seem dead, but the reality is, it is still alive because it was adaptable.

Going Back

I will be periodically posting about our summer in an attempt to get caught up. Isaiah and I took a two week road trip to start the summer off. It was a little ambitious with many stops but we had a great time. With that being said I think it will be a long time until I attempt it again. Our first stop was only three hours east in Bend to visit my sister Debora and her family. Oddly I didn't take one single photo. We only stayed one or two nights, I can't remember exactly, (this is why you post right away). My sister has four boys so Isaiah was really excited to see them. Our only "outing" was to the outdoor pool they have there and the boys had so much fun we stayed all day. I left with a sunburn. Isaiah came down with something so we started the next leg of our trip like this.

I felt so bad for him. There is nothing worse than feeling yucky and being stuck in a car for eight hours. Our next stop was Grandpa and Grandma Dewey's house. We love visiting them!

This is the beautiful scenery along the way.

Isaiah still feeling sick. He was such a trooper though. He didn't complain once!

Again these pictures are out of order. I still can't figure out how to drag them to where I want to. G & G took us fishing while we were there. Exactly what Isaiah wanted to do. I of course could not fish because I didn't want to purchase an Idaho fishing license for the one time. Isaiah had success and he was more than excited about it.

Isaiah's little bit of Heaven on Earth.

G& G then took us to one of their friends farm so we could play around with this machine. Grandpa won't be too happy with me that I have completely spaced on what it is called. Let's just say giant digger:)

Isaiah was a bit intimidated by the "machine" and wanted Grandpa by his side the whole time.....

.....then again so was I.

Isaiah enjoying some story and game time with Grandma Dewey on her ipad. He loves that thing. So much that he asked for one for Christmas this year.....keep dreaming kid.

Isaiah's fish fry. With the help of grandpa, he learned how to clean and fry up his own fish!
Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Dewey! We had a wonderful time, although it was a tad too short.

Halloween Fun!

I am not the biggest fan of Halloween but I decided to have a little fun with our food this year. Isaiah thought it was pretty cool so I guess it was worth it.

Daniel toasted our pumpkin seeds from pumpkin carving.
They were yummy!

We had some family visit for the BYU vs OSU game. My sister's husband got tickets to go with his brother and they took a couple of their kids. As you can see they were obviously not cheering for OSU.

We made these monster cupcakes while the guys were at the game. I thought they were more cute than scary.

Pumpkin stuffed peppers. Daniel told Isaiah we were eating pumpkin brains, (sort of like the monkey brains in Indiana Jones). Isaiah thought that was pretty awesome.

Mummies in a blanket.

Now on to our pumpkin carving fun. We each had our own different ideas and I thought they turned out nice.

Stephanie: Boo pumpkin on the left. Isaiah: Scary pumpkin in the middle. Daniel: Hoffman pumpkin on the right (he was pretty proud of that one).

Halloween night getting ready for Trunk or Treat. Isaiah was very specific on what he wanted his costume to be, which was sort of a mix of things. He wanted green hair, white face, dark circles around his eyes, and blood dripping down his chin.

Daniel and I thought the green hair was pretty cool.

I think it turned out pretty good! Now that I look at it though his hair sort of looks like Dennis Rodman's :)

Isaiah with one of his buddies from school. It turned out to be a great Halloween this year!