In and Out, National Parks, Shasta, and Grass

A lot has gone on since May.  We took a trip to Craters of the moon, went to CA twice, completely redone the front yard and put grass in, climbed Mt Shasta, and in one week, I will be done with my 7 years of   college forever... until grad school.

Believe it or not, I am horrible at taking pictures and have no proof of anything that I just said.  Here are some other pictures though.

Olivia has suddenly turned in a super picky eater.  She use to love raspberries, but now she just puts them on her finger and forces daddy to eat them.

Nobody in Idaho has air conditioners because they all have basements which are surprisingly cooler.  Now, since John and I both have a fear/hate for basements, we bought a 2-story house instead.  Unfortunately it didn't come with an air conditioner.  But heck, we bought one anyway!  Coming Tuesday or Wednesday.  It gets really hot in our house, especially upstairs.  Olivia's baby monitor measures the temp between 87 and 90 every night.  During the day, I just throw Olivia in her swim suit, put on a bunch of sun block, and let her play with the hose and water the lawn.  She loves it!

This was Olivia's first time seeing the firework show in Idaho Falls: best firework show west of the Mississippi!  Melaleuca spends over 20 million on this 40 minute firework show.  It's wonderful because it is walking distance from our house and we don't have to drive and wait hours to get on the freeway.  If you want to see it next year, just come to our place!

When we were in CA, Uncle Kevin gave us a bunch of glow sticks so we shared them with our friends and let Olivia play with the rest!  She loved them!

Olivia loved the fireworks!

Hey Olivia, What's in Your Mouth?

This video is so funny (at least to me) that I couldn't wait until Sunday to post it.  It might just be a thing that only parents and grandparents think if funny, so I won't be offended if you don't like it.  She does it every time, but she usually has a rubber band or something else she shouldn't have in her mouth.  This is chewed up chicken.

The Other Side of Hell and 16 Teeth

(This is John's first blog post!  Enjoy)

Olivia has sixteen teeth. This is how she deals with change.

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On May 8th John had a company meeting in Boise. It was 8 hrs of driving for a 3 hr meeting. Good thing he got a rental out of it. He left early so he could do his thing. His first stop on the way was Horse Butte, just before Burley, very close to where Hwys 84 and 86 meet. Turns out the Butte was just a hill next to a rest area. This is a picture of the rental car at the rest area.

This is Horse Butte. No wonder John had trouble finding any information on it online. 

The summit. After walking for about 15 minutes and crossing three barbed-wire fences.

Other side of the butte from the 'summit.'

John's second stop on the way to Boise was Burley Butte. This one was even more pathetic. John actually drove over the Butte before he even realized he had missed it. Yes, this is a picture of the Butte.

And this is from the "summit," also taken from the car.

On John's way back from his 600 mile drive he stopped at a rest area between Blackfoot and Idaho Falls that he said the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) website for Bonneville County claimed there were trails at that rest area which were part of Hell's Half Acre.  John confirmed that they were and we did the first one, I-15 Pocatello bound, on Saturday. This is the map of it at the trail head.

 It's a pretty serious hike when you have to bring a bag of chips along.

Fun little paved paths. The trail head sign said it would take 45 minutes to walk. At a truly leisurely pace we did it in about 15 minutes. Don't trust trail signs.

This is the other side of the freeway. We did this trail on Sunday. These are excellent little walks for the Sabbath. 

Olivia lost one of her flip-flops. This is a zoomed in picture Melinda took of it before making me run back and get it.

For Mother's Day the Ward gave everyone 19yrs and older a milk chocolate Symphony bar. Olivia benefited.

Our Trip to Hell

We went exploring on Saturday and went to a new place that we've never been to before, but is only 1/2 hour away from our house.  Hell's Half Acre: tons of lava.  It was the neatest little day-walk that we've been on.  There was no trail, just poles that mark a little path so that people don't get lost.  We walked right on the lava, jumped over the crevasses, and saw different formations up close!  We did the small 1/2 mile loop, but there is also a 4 1/2 mile lava hike!  We will definitely do this again especially since it is so close!

Here are some pictures.  I couldn't narrow it down, so I hope you enjoy them.

The dirt road up to the path.

 Guess who

Road Trip Adventure Part 3

Day 3 was more of a review day than anything else, but probably the funnest day our whole trip!  We left the hotel at 8 and went straight to the badlands because we still had to get our passport stamp.  But this time we didn't just look at the Badlands; we were able to walk around INSIDE the badlands!  It was the best part about the whole trip!  Olivia even loved it too!

See.  IN it!

And if I were homeless, I would live here:

John and Olivia climbing to the top

Next we took a tour of the Minuteman Missile Command center area.  We didn't take any pictures except of this cute donkey!

Next we toured Jewel Cave which is the 2nd longest cave in the WORLD!  It is over 160 miles of mapped passage ways, but there are many different depths of the cave.  Looking at it from a surface, it only takes up about 3 square miles.  It is 18 miles away from Wind Cave, but completely different!  This cave had big huge rooms and openings.  Google it and go to it.

Next we did the most spontaneous thing our whole trip!  We went to the CENTER OF THE NATION!!!  We left our hotel early in the morning and started driving up HWY 85 when we saw a sign that said CENTER OF THE NATION!  It was just 7 miles off the highway, so we turned on a little dirt road, found this sign made by a 6year-old, and took some pictures!

We squoowzed through some barbed wire to this flag just a few feet off the road.   This was the official center marked with a geological survey marker.

I was there too.

We got back into the car and a few miles later:

Yep!  NORTH DAKOTA!!!!!!!!!!  Our first (and probably last time) in the ND.

After a little while of driving, knocking on random doors, and off roading in a minivan, we made it to our first North Dakota Destination: White Butte.  Elevation 3,506 ft

The road up the the butte was closed, so we walked it: a whole mile.

Hay!  So we took a picture.

This is where the real trail begins.  Jessica got stuck in the mud and got a mud tattoo.

Papa always takes the lead, mostly because we just can't keep up with him.

Crazy Ol' Maurice, always good for a laugh.  He's at the summit waiting for the rest of us with Olivia on his back!

Proof:

At the top there is a pile of rocks with a plaque of a guy's name.  I think it's a dead guy buried there, but John disagrees. 

At the top, there was an old tin lunchbox with pens and a notebook.  Each person who made it to the summit wrote their name, date of submitting, and hometown.  

Next was the Badlands of North Dakota.  Not as cool as the other ones.  Only worth one picture.

And then a visit to Teddy R's house.

(Theodore Roosevelt: The dead pres.)

Then we went to Montana, slept in Billings, went to Little Bighorn Battlefield (Custer's last stand): and a marker where Custer died in the battle:

Then we went to church, went to a gorge that we didn't really see, then drove home!  That's all!