Island Park

We love Island Park. If you were to ask me what the closest thing to heaven on earth is, I would definitely say Island Park, hands down! We have gone there quite a bit the last little while, because Chris has Fridays off, it is summer, and why not? Being close to Island Park is seriously one of the advantages of moving to Idaho Falls. There are lots, but it ranks pretty high!

However, actually getting to Island Park has presented some challenges. The first weekend, the "Check Engine" light on our car came on. I texted my mom about the situation (she was in Hawaii) and my wonderful dad volunteered that we take his brown truck to Island Park. It was like a dream come true for a little boy! Not only did we go to the cabin, but we did it IN THE BROWN TRUCK!!

This is him, jumping on the trampoline while Daddy was getting this loaded in the brown truck:

So, we finally got to Island Park. Here are some of the things we enjoyed doing. Trains. Always trains.

 Exploring with Daddy.

This is after seeing the going to Big Springs and seeing the seagulls and fish. Davis was amazed by the seagulls. He claimed that he wanted to catch one, but we assured him that he would not really enjoy catching one. I went to get my phone to take pictures of him chasing the seagulls, and then realized that we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes! Much to Davis's dislike, we went home instead.

 Playing with Reagan

 We went on a walk on the island.

 Davis loved the "sweet smelly flowers"

 When you are a boy, you have to find a stick and a puddle and play accordingly. Duh.

OK, then this last weekend, we decided to go to the cabin again. Because of the whole car situation, we got in the packed loaded car, and I thought I would check the console (where we usually keep the cabin keys) for the cabin keys. They were not there. So, we went to my parents' house. They were not in the brown truck. We came home. They were not at our house. We went back to my parents' house and I started digging for keys. This is what I found:

I texted Casey, to see if he thought these looked familiar. I also emailed my parents, along with a photo of these keys to see if they looked familiar either:

Casey said the first ones didn't, and we decided to give up. We were going to take all of our stuff home, and put it back at our house. And then, the cleaning lady at the cabin, whom I had texted earlier, texted me A BLOCK AWAY FROM OUR HOUSE and said she had keys we could use. Halleluiah. So we went. And the next day, I found the keys in my backpack.

Anyway, it was a great weekend! We went to Mesa Falls on Friday. They have a cool little (very little) aquarium and some animal pelts inside the visitor's center, which Davis thought was pretty cool.

 Two of my very favorite people in the entire world walking to the falls.

 More "sweet smelly flowers."

 Walking with a toddler always requires some patience.

 At the falls:

 Davis made falls of his own. Do you see the look of glee on his face? He was pretty impressed!

AND THEN . . . on Saturday . . . we went to Yellowstone National Park, otherwise known to my family as "The Park." And I forgot my camera. Thank heavens for iPhones! We walked around Gibbons Falls:

 Playing with a bug

 And we SAW TWO BEARS! This is a really big deal when you live close to the park. Our joke is that we never get to see bears, but we saw TWO in ONE DAY! The ranger at the gate said to go to Tower. She was right!

So, we saw most of what we wanted to see. When we first got to Yellowstone, Davis said that he wanted to see "deer, buffalo, bears, and elephants." We did not see the elephants, however. So, we decided to buy a year-long National Parks Pass, and go back soon. Hopefully, elephants will be there!
It was so exhausting! Davis fell asleep on the way back:

What a great, successful couple of trips to the cabin, despite the hard time getting there on both occasions!