Our first stop was with our very adorable little cousins. We had a fun time with them at their house and at the Treehouse museum. It seems geared to slightly younger kids, but mine enjoyed it with their cousins.
We spent a night at Grandma and Grandpa's house before heading out early for Idaho so that we could make it in time for a cousin baptism. It was great to be there for her special baptism day. After the baptism we went to the St. Anthony sand bar, a little piece of the Snake River in St.Anthony Idaho, to play. It was a fantastic way to spend a summer afternoon.
There was a slide made from irrigation pipe and a diving board. My brother said that in the spring the river is a roiling torrent of mud as high as the diving board. Fortunately it calms down in the summer. My Girl's favorite thing was floating down the 50 yards or so down river from the diving board area to the slide and swimming spot. She didn't want to jump in, but Buddy Boy certainly did.
My brother is in the process of making capotes for his entire family. That's a lot of capotes. He is using Russian Army surplus blankets and leather from an old chair they found online. It is quite the project. The kids will use them as Halloween costumes and when they go to scout camp in the summer. Even in the summer it can get cold in the evenings in the Tetons. Buddy Boy liked the idea so we copied the pattern. He is all about being warm and cozy. I stopped short of buying blankets. We'll see if the love lasts before I commit to the project.
On Monday the official family reunion started at a house near Lava Hot Springs. It was a beautiful place to stay and a fun place for the family.
Monday evening we played. There was plenty of time for the kids outside and silly games inside. And watching Olympics when we started to get tired.
Tuesday was all about the water. In the morning we rented tubes and the bigger people floated down the Portneuf river through the town of Lava, again and again and again. If you pay a little extra a guy in a truck with a trailer will pull you back to the top of town so you can go again. It is walkable, but the trailer is definitely the way to go.
This was so much fun. I didn't get a lot of pictures. I was too busy playing. There is a place in the river where a natural hot spring feeds into the river. People have stacked rocks to make warm little pools where you can stop to warm up and relax. It was the perfect amount of adventure. It was rough enough you might get dumped off your tube, but not really scary. The kids loved it, but by lunch time they were done. I could have done more and more.
We spent the afternoon at the pool with its huge diving platforms, water slides, and more water fun.
One fun thing was to see the history of the area. The Oregon trail follows the Portneuf river and goes through the area. You can see why, good water, nice (relatively) green (sort of) flat valley between some pretty high mountains. On our way out we stopped at the California Trails interpretive center outside of Elko, Nevada. It is a great little museum about all of the different pioneer trails headed west. It was fun to see a different part of the real thing. Part of our Campbell family way back moved from the mid-west to Oregon and may have taken a wagon through this area. Not an easy trip.
Wednesday we packed up and headed back to Utah to continue our adventures. It was great to see all of the extended family and have some good cousin time. (We are missing a couple of cousins who had to stay home because of work. We missed them here, but we did get to see them in the days before.)
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