Island Park with the Graybills

This year for our Annual Graybill Campout we went to Island Park for a couple days. There's nothing like roughing it with a soft bed, running water, refrigerator, and hot tub. The downfall was that half the family couldn't get off work to make the trip. We headed out Tuesday morning but had a slight delay as we met up with the whole group. Erin was following Keri and Maryanne and the kids in Keri's Subaru to The CAD Store and got rear-ended by a ReddiIce truck. Erin was okay and so was the car for the most part, but we had to make some phone calls to get things squared away to cover any damage to the car. It wasn't the greatest start to the trip, but our spirits were quickly renewed and we were off.



About a year and half ago, Dion was working on a project in Rexburg and discovered a delectible little pizza joint called Craigo's. It was all Omai and the kids could do from salivating at any mention of pizza--they had the opportunity to taste of Craigo's goodness last year and couldn't wait for another visit. When we got there, we all filed into a little room off the kitchen and had our way with the pizza buffet. And it was, as Paige would say, DELISH! There were about eight different kinds of pizza, a pasta bar, a salad bar, and my favorite (and I think everyone else's too), a dessert pizza buffet. It was fantastic! (And as a side note, they have fabulous canned Mandarin Oranges, which is all Bailey would eat.) After stuffing ourselves to the gills, we were off.

When we got to Island Park the first thing all of us noticed were the mosquitos. My family usually goes there in the fall so summertime at The Pines was new to me and I thought we were going to be eaten alive. Keri quickly ran to the store to get bug repellant for all and I don't think any of us got bitten. Phew. Like I said, experiencing Island Park in the summer was new to me and the word I would use to describe the scenery is BREATHTAKING! The foliage was so thick and green and it covered the hills and mountains for miles. In this part of Idaho there is mostly just flat fields and rolling hills so you can see for miles and miles and the green goes on for miles and miles. It's incredible.

On Wednesay we drove into Yellowstone and had a delightful time. On the way into the park, we stopped to see the Buffalo, and man, are they big.



For lunch we stopped by a little stream and were pleasantly surprised at the beauty and tranquility of our surroundings. Here's Bailey with her daddy enjoying the scenery and lunch.



Here was our view from the picnic table.



(And I think we saw Oprah's boyfriend Steadman there in his fishing garb. We aren't 100% sure, but Erin, Keri and I all think it was him. We should've taken a picture darnit :)) But just so you can get a visual of our experience...



After lunch we drove into Fire Hole Canyon to see the falls.



Then we were off to see Old Faithful.



On the way home, Omai took us along the scenic by-way to Mesa Falls. Once again, it was a breathtaking site.

This was the view from the ledge of the falls.





The view from the walkway was a little scary when you looked down to the sheer cliffs and tumultuous water below.



On the way home, we stopped at Craigo's again to make ourselves sick on the pizza buffet. Yum Yum. Then we headed over to a carousel for a couple rides on the ponys. Bailey LOVED it! This is my favorite picture of the trip.





Thanks everyone for a fun vacation.

Bear Lake Half Marathon [plus] Food Poisoning [equals] My Weekend

Let me just start by saying that this image doesn't represent my weekend entirely, only what could've been.

My whole family traveled up to Bear Lake to support Tyra and Paige as they ran the Bear Lake Half Marathon on June 12th. They had been training for a few months and were excited for their first long race. I decided to join them in the race but, however, was too lazy to train for it and too poor to pay for it. I thought I would just see how I could do. My big mistake was to have my celebration meal (an Arctic Circle #8) the day before the race rather than after. I felt fine until 6:00 AM the day of the race, but then my stomach started to turn flips and I felt horrible. Needless to say, there definitely weren't enough green John's along the route. My family met us along the route at quite a few places and I kept thinking how nice it would be to call it quits, jump in the van, and be out of my misery. I was determined to finish what I was already 6 miles into though. At about mile 10 my whole body was done, but I just kept thinking that if I just keep going it will all be over eventually, I can get my half of a banana, my cookie and be on my way. After the race it took a while for the family to load up and get back to our hotel and by then I wanted death to take me. No such luck.

The rest of the day was very unfun. I got stuck in a traffic jam 15 minutes from home and thought someone was playing a very cruel joke. After the traffic cleared, I had to throw up in an empty cinnamon bear bag while driving down the freeway at 65 miles an hour. I finally made it home, got all cleaned up, and took a three hour, but very unrestful nap. Omai had Bailey at the Graybills so I had the house to myself to re-cooperate and completely veg. I got to finish the second season of Chuck and also started the third. I probably spent a total of five hours on the couch watching TV and it was awesome. I didn't even feel guilty. I feel much better today and have decided to lay off the AC and train for half marathons.

Moab or Bust

For Memorial Day weekend we planned to do something a little different and exciting--leave the city and head south to Moab. We were going to meet Riki and Erin and kids there for a few days of low-key hiking, swimming, eating, and we hoped a little bit of sleeping. In preparation, Omai took his car to get the oil changed and we were off.

We were passing through American Fork when the 'STOP' light came on in the car that told us there was a problem with the Oil Pressure. We pulled over and Omai checked the oil and made a call to Burt Brothers to determine if we needed to pull over or if we could keep going. They told us that the problem was probably linked to a thermostat issue and that we were okay to keep driving. We stopped again in Spanish Fork to talk to a mechanic because we were still having the same warning and we were nervous to keep going. They said that we were good to continue as long as the engine sounded okay. While we were there, I decided to take Bailey out of the car and realized she had a poopy diaper. She hadn't pooped in a day so this diaper was rather large to say the least. It had gotten all over her clothes and made a total mess. Omai wasn't too thrilled with another "disaster" but I just had to laugh at our terrible misfortune. All of Bailey's clothes were in the trunk that had a bike rack strapped to it so we had to stop at K-Mart to grab her a change of clothes. We got her all cleaned up and with a go-ahead from an expert mechanic we thought it would be smooth sailing for the next three hours.

We made it as far as Spanish Fork Canyon. The car started to make some strange noises so we pulled over to check it out again. Construction was being done on the railroad track through the canyon and a few of the workers stopped to see if they could see what the problem was with our car. They couldn't detect any problems, but we decided we'd pushed our luck far enough and turned around to take the car to get fixed. We barely made it out of the canyon when the car sounded like it was going to blow up and it smelled like it was burning. We called a tow truck and decided our big adventure down south was over.

We decided to make the best of the next hour while we waited for the tow truck and my dad to bring us a car to get back home.


I have been wanting to take pictures on a railroad track. I got my chance.

When we got home I was pretty bummed that our trip fell through and we still had a whole 3-day weekend in front of us with no plans. Saturday morning we decided to run a 5k that our Stake put on. It was nice to get out and see friends and enjoy the cool air even though I was more in the mood to get a nice sunburn while hiking to Delicate Arch.



Saturday night we had some friends and family over for a BBQ. The weather was a bit chilly so we took the party inside and chatted and watched the Real game--well, Omai watched the Real game while everyone else talked.

Monday we went hiking and rock climbing with Chelsea and Chris, Paige, and kids. Our "hike" turned out to be a less than desirable. We went up to Silver Lake that was completely covered with snow. Everyone had worn sandles and shorts so we didn't make it very far along the trail. Omai had some bad luck and fell through the snow right on the edge of the boardwalk and hurt his leg pretty bad so after a short photo shoot we were done and piled back into the cars. On the way back down the canyon, Licy got car sick and threw up. We made the best of the break and ate lunch while we quizzed each other on Lost trivia. That was probably the highlight for me.

Once our bellies were full and Licy was clean, we piled in the cars again and went rock climbing. Well, Chris went rock climbing to secure a rope for Colley so we could get this sweet video of her. The rest of us chilled and took turns wrestling the babies and tried to keep them from disturbing all the other climbers who were there, I'm sure, to enjoy the quiet sounds of nature. We weren't helping.




And we know how Paige loves her close-ups.

After Colley was done, so were the little girls and we headed home for naps.

The End