Yellowstone

Ever since we moved to Idaho we have talked about going to Yellowstone, but we kept on putting it off. This year though, our kind neighbors offered for us to stay in their cabin that is near the west entrance for the park. We were so excited. We planned it out to go shortly after the park opened from COVID-19, but before it was open to the tour buses or camping or things like that. We saw a lot of people there still, but I think it was less crowded than it would have been. Nathanael and Mary-Anne and their family were able to come up with us. We went up on a Thursday, hitting the St. Anthony sand dunes on the way. Then we stayed Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night, and come home on Sunday.

The cabin was super nice. It had five bedrooms, but the kids still wanted to all bunk up together (boys in one room, girls in another). Although camping is a lot of fun, having a cabin to relax in made the trip very comfortable.

On the first night we just played around the cabin and used the four wheelers that they have there. We had a small problem with one of the showers and it was stressful trying to fix that, but everything else on the trip was great.


Here we are at the entrance. Right after entering we saw a coyote and then not long after some bison that were walking right in the middle of the road.



Our first stop was Old Faithful. We ate lunch there while waiting.







Then we walked around maybe a mile or two of boardwalk to see all sorts of different geysers and pools. There were signs all over warning people not to step off the boardwalk and how there was a risk of death, so we tried to keep a close watch on the little ones. I think Julia thought the geysers and pools were especially cool - at least I heard her telling one of her siblings that, she is at an age now where I don't know that she would ever mention to mom and dad that something is cool or fun.



This was another geyser that was erupting while we were there. It might have been as big as Old Faithful and it was definitely going off for a longer time. A couple of us went in the spray from it and surprisingly it was cold. Not surprisingly though, it smelled really bad.



Later that day we did a short hike to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was a really colorful lake.



I think we went home after that. It was a long day with the different walks and all of the driving, so it wasn't long before people were sleeping.

Then I think this was the next day, starting off with a waterfall.



Then we saw some mud geysers. Each of our kids did short reports on different parts of the park. Elliott did his on these mud geysers, so he thought they were especially neat.





One looked like a cave with dragon's smoke coming out of it. With the water and waves it made a noise that sounded like a dragon was breathing in there too. And it definitely smelled like a dragon's breath.







We found a nice spot for lunch and the kids loved paying in the trees by the river. Not sure if you can see in this picture, but the boys are across the little water over in the trees.



If you look close, Christian is about 10 feet up one of the trees on the other side of the water.



Then the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The whole park was beautiful, but I would say this was the most breathtaking part. We did a short hike on one side, then drove around to different view points of the canyon and waterfalls.













The last thing we did was visit the Mammoth Hot Springs. They were really cool looking too, but I think we were all pretty tired by this point.









We finished the day with pizza and a movie back at the cabin. The next day we held a little sacrament meeting and then it was just a mad rush to clean up the cabin and get home.

It was a really fun trip. Our neighbors were so nice to share their cabin with us. And it was so fun for Nathanael's family to come. Our kids love spending time with their cousins. Even though we were not able to do our big trip this year due to COVID-19, it looks like we are going to get in lots of family time with cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents, which is always really great.

May 2020

Although the days have seemed really long, the month of May has been going by really fast. The children all got into a pretty good routine with their school work. Rebecca has been helping the younger ones a lot, but Julia, Ethan, and Christian have been pretty much working on their own. Rebecca still checks in with them every day to make sure they have finished all of their assignments, but during the school time hours, they have been doing a good job focusing on their school work. This last week they received their final assignments. A few of them have small things to finish up next week, but for the most part, they are completely done for the year! Yay! Time for the summer break.

Besides our school routine, throughout May we were able to do several hikes. This is the perfect season for hiking in the Pocatello area where it is not too hot and not too cold. But we have had some extreme days here and there. For example, all yesterday morning it snowed. We probably got at least an inch that stuck to the grass. And it was funny to see the drooping branches that were weighed down with snow on all of the trees. But today it is supposed to hit 70 and by Thursday it is supposed to be in the 90s.

We also had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Swift this month. I didn't get any pictures of them, but we had a fun time hanging out. We didn't do anything special while they were here, but they did get to join us on a walk and it was fun just playing games around the house with them. The children especially loved playing pickleball. 

We have been enjoying our fire pit. About once a week we have been doing dinners out there. Just hot dogs or tin foil dinners and of course smores. Agnes has been getting into telling ghost stories while we are out there.

And we sold our van and bought a new one. Our old van had just under 212,000 miles on it and we started to notice some major problems. I was just going to bring it to junk yard - they said they would give us $200 for it - but I ended up selling it to someone in the area for the same price. And now we have a new van - well new to us. It is a 2009 Honda Odyssey. It has a lot of luxuries that we didn't have any our old van, like a working air conditioner and heater. I guess those are necessities, but it does have cool luxuries too, like a navigation system and rear camera and heated seats and a dvd player. We are hoping to get some good use out of all of those things this summer.

Kinport Peak Hike - I think about 7 or 8 miles round trip. It was tough, a constant uphill all the way. But, it had lots of different terran. It started off with sagebrush and some wildflowers, then it got into a forested area, then above the treeline it was more grassy with more wildflowers.















We had to hike across huge patches of snow on a few parts. In this next picture you can kind of see Christian half-way across the snow part.








Getting closer to the top and looking back at Julia bringing up the rear. She is a really strong hiker, but she doesn't want to go hiking as much. Sometimes she puts up a stink about it and lags behind. We did see a few snakes on this trail, so that made it so she didn't get too far behind the rest of us.



At the top. The city is just down below on the left of the picture.






Ethan's 12th birthday. He didn't have a friend party given COVID-19 restrictions; however, once Idaho opened up some, he invited a couple friends over to hang out and celebrate some.

Last pictures of our old car. It lasted us 10 years and we drove it for over 100,000 miles. We bought it from Rebecca's parents when it already had 100,000 miles on it. Getting our new car was a little scary because this was our first time buying a car from a non-family member.




Out on a hike with Grandma and Grandpa.







We saw several rabbits in these bushes. Also lots of marmots on the hike that the children had a fun time chasing around and trying to catch.




This next hike was at the nearby ski slopes. It is the start of the trail up Bonneville Peak (the tallest peak in southeast Idaho). We were just scouting it out this time with the hopes of hiking to the peak sometime in the next couple of weeks.





You can't see Pocatello from this picture. But if you look close you can see the freeway that is just left of the middle of the picture. The freeway goes around to the left of the hills/mountains and then Pocatello is right behind them in the very center of the picture.

Family Walks

Now that the weather has been getting nicer, we have started to do many more family walks. For the past month or so we have been walking to the temple every Sunday afternoon to check on the progress. We have also tried to do some Saturday walks to some place that we usually don't go to very often. This last Saturday though we had to skip that because our van broke down. And then, during the week, we often get in a walk or two somewhere around our neighborhood. There is still snow on the mountains, so we haven't done any big hikes yet, but the walks have been nice.

This year the walks have been extra nice because it gives us a chance to get out of the house and move our bodies. It is also nice to be able to see people out moving around too. Sometimes, being cooped up in our house day after day, it is easy to forget that there are actually other people out there. And it has been fun to see the trees budding, the flowers starting to come out everywhere, and all the plants starting to turn green again.

Here are some pictures from our recent walks.

The rock walls at Ross Park.






The columns at ISU.




Progress on the temple. This is from up above, so the top of the main floor is just barely visable in the picture. They are still making lots of progress on it.





We have still been trying to find clever ways to occupy us at home too. This is Christian's attempt to use every tile in the banana grams bag. Sorry about the sideways picture.

Backyard Zipline

Last year I tried to put in a backyard zipline. Once I got all of the posts in and had it all set up, I realized it was just going to be too dangerous for the kids (for the right ground clearance in the middle, they were going to have to start and end the zipline 8 feet in the air). We really wanted to do something where they could just go out and play with it on their own, so I took the whole thing out. This past year I spent a lot of time thinking about a replacement way to do it. And finally, after a year of planning and a couple weeks of work. The new zipline is done!

The kids have been loving it! The first day we got to try it out, several of them said it made the top 10 best days of their lives. On the two ends we have 9 foot poles that are in 5 feet of concrete with four of those feet buried underground. Those are attached to two 6 foot anchors with guy wires that are also in four feet of concrete underground. Then it is just a 1/4 inch aircraft grade wire cable between the two. They are 50 feet apart with somewhere around a 2 foot drop between the post. It doesn't seem like much, but it is just right for the speed we were hoping for. And the run has a steeper drop in the middle, which makes it easier for them to get on and off of it, but still thrilling that they are going over a bigger drop.

Here are a few pictures. They have all been able to do it, but it scared Asher a bit the first two times he did it, so he has been hesitant to do it ever since. We like to be out there supervising for Agnes too, but the rest of them have no problem doing it all on their own.

When the social distancing requirements are over, anyone who is interested is welcome to come and visit and try it out.

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. Our celebrations started last weekend as we watched General Conference. It was so nice to hear the Prophet, Apostles, and other church leaders and members testify of Jesus Christ and the Restored Gospel on the earth today. It always feels rejuvenating, but this time was especially hope building amidst the pandemic that we are currently experiencing.

Throughout the rest of the week we participated in The Church's week log Easter devotional program. In past years we have tried to do our own thing, but it was really nice this year to have something to guide us through the final week before the resurrection of Christ.

On Friday, we joined people around the world in following President Nelson's encouragement to fast. Even Agnes and Asher went without one meal.

On Saturday we did a nice walk just south of the city. We hadn't done that particular one for the past three or so years and the children really enjoyed it. Then we did an hour long drive that we had never done before. It was really pretty, but Julia got a little car sick. When we got home we did our traditional Easter egg hunt.

Here we are on the walk.












Here are each of the kids right before they got to start looking for eggs.


















Up until today, I was feeling like our lives had not been impacted all that much by COVID-19. We saw the impact on others, and were hoping for a solution to decrease the health and economic problems that it has been causing. And it has been sad to know that missionary work has not been going on in the same way. But the negative impact on us as a family was relatively small. Our children our missing school and we probably won't be able to go on our summer trip, but we have been able to spend a lot more time together as a family - which is nice. And I am still able to do my work and we don't really go out that much except for grocery shopping any way. And there is plenty to do around our home and exploring all of the trails by our house. So things have been going pretty well. However, today, just didn't seem like Easter to me. I have been loving home church and we tried to make it special today, but it just wasn't the same. I missed the special musical numbers by people in our ward and I missed the special Easter message by our bishop. Instead, it just kind of felt like another day at home and sometimes Sundays don't feel all that different from other days of the week now. And I just really missed have a special Easter Sunday. And then I got to thinking about how much I miss being able to go to the temple and all of the other small ways our life as a family has changed. And then I was thinking more about all of the world wide impact on others and the hundreds of thousands who are sick, and those who have lost loved ones, and the people who are out of work, and those who are separated from family, and everything else. However, among all of this, it is comforting to know that our Heavenly Father is in charge. That he knows what is going on. And that He will not let it go past a certain point. I don't know what that point is, but He does. And I find that comforting. And it is also comforting to know that there will be a resurrection - that physical troubles like this are limited to this life only. And that one day we will have perfect bodies and be beyond these types of cares. I am grateful for that knowledge and my testimony that Jesus Christ lives.