Time in Idaho

In July, Nels left for a work trip in California, so I did something crazy.  haha.  I drove up to Idaho with the twins by myself!  I was pretty nervous, but the kids were really good for the 4.5 hour drive.  Isak napped most of the time and Kira played with some toys my sister Kari let us borrow.  

  

It was so good to spend time with my parents and sister Jenny.  I loved every minute of it.  Here's a few, I mean a lot, of pictures of our time in Idaho.

The kids LOVED being outside.   I really miss not having a yard at our new place in Utah.  But it was so fun for the kids to have a lot of space to run around and explore in Idaho.

Isak helped grandma with the garden.  Picking and cutting herbs and lettuce and spinach for a homegrown, delicious salad.

He even picked me a flower.  :)

I love how Isak is looking up at grandma, so lovingly. :)

The twins played with this water activity for hours!  Yes, they got wet, but they loved it.

Filling up cups and dumping them.  So fun.

 They also spent a lot of time playing with grandma's best homemade play dough.  See Kira's horsey at the end of the table.  That horsey goes everywhere Kira goes.  :)

They both love grandma...and grandpa and Jenny.  But here's a picture with them and grandma.

Isak with a treat and lots of strawberries and raspberries.  Isak loved picking the berries and then eating them.

My mom pampered me by making all of my favorites.  Including this dish, my grandpa's famous enchiladas with an egg on top.  Mmmmm good!

We stopped by my grandparents' houses.  Here's my grandpa Swensen showing the lawn mower to the kids.  Isak loves anything with wheels.

We went to two parks while in Idaho.  One park was one that I used to go to all of the time growing up.  We called it Horsey Park because of the horses you can ride on.  I thought Kira would enjoy it.

The rest of the toys at Horsey Park weren't very toddler friendly so we went to another park.  We ate lunch...and the kids played and played!
Mom treated us to some Ding Dong's. It was the kids first time trying them.  They were pretty excited.

At the park they had this awesome fire engine toy.  Oh yeah!  The kids would ride it and make the siren noise.

After the park we made a quick stop to Aunt Jenny's for a sweet haircut for Isak.

There's our handsome little guy.  He did great holding still for his haircut while eating his sucker.

More play dough. :)

So what did I do while the kids played so well inside the house and outside??  My mom helped me make some beautiful cards.  I am holding up a bow made out of paper in this picture.  It was so fun to make cards!

One night we went to a play in St. Anthony.  For the 24th of July celebrations, our little town always does a play, rodeo and parade.  We took the twins to the play which was 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.  The kids actually did well for 85% of the time.  Isak even clapped when it was time to clap.  It was a fun night out.

Another night, we went out to eat at Big J's.  They have some yummy hamburgers, fries and shakes.  Huckleberries were in season, so we HAD to have a huckleberry milkshake.

I was nice and shared.  :)

Yummy burgers.

We all enjoyed the burgers.

Even my dad.  Heehee.  We kind of snuck that picture of him.  haha.

After dinner, we drove up to a place called The Cold & Hungry.  It's property of about 120 acres that my great grandma House inherited from her parents.  The land was passed down to my grandma Swensen.  It's beautiful property with a great view of the Tetons.  We had a little photo shoot there and I will post the many pictures of that in the next post.

Raspberries were in season and my parents have quite a few bushes.  Isak was so eager to help and my dad was nice enough to take him along.   Here they are before picking.  I love the little bucket hanging around his neck so he can pick with 2 hands.  Doesn't he look so grown up in this picture?

And here they are with full buckets and big smiles.  Yay!

That was our last day in Idaho.   :(  I drove back to Provo.  The kids slept for 2 hours.  They were great except for one bad part...Kira dropped her bracelet on the floor and she cried and cried.  Luckily, I was low on gas, so I pulled over and picked up her bracelet for her.  Everyone was happy again.  And that was our trip to Idaho.  I am so happy I got to go and enjoy time with my family.  I am also happy that we were all healthy and happy for the trip.