Oct 9-10, Fall Break

 Fall Break Continued:

October 9 - Wednesday:

Nels took Isak and Kira to the temple.  

Nels ended up being the main baptizer.  He said he baptized about 80 names!  Great job!

While they were gone, I took Sofie and Noah costume shopping.  They had fun trying on different costumes.

This picture cracks me up...who's taller?  :)

Then Nels and I played some pickleball with some friends.  So fun.  

October 10 - Thursday

Isak and I went to Feed America First and did service.  Isak needs 10 hours of community service for his school.  It was fun to serve with him.  He has a great attitude and he's a hard worker.

Later, we met up with friends at Barfield Park.

Down the line:  Sofie, Kira, Amani, (a girl we didn't know), Zuri, Brooklynn, Jaelynn, Noah and Isak is behind the girls.

Kira and Amani

Noah worked hard on this domino set up.

Sofie helped him finish it.

I made some brookies (brownies on the bottom, cookie dough on top...so good!) and tacos.  

Great news!  Nels's friend Clark offered Nels a contract accounting position!  We are so grateful and excited about it.  Such a blessing.  In fact, we call it our temple blessing because it happened the day after Nels and the kids served in the temple.  So, so grateful!

Oct 8 - Fall Break Outing - Waterfalls

Fall Break was October 7 - 11.  

October 8th - Tuesday 

Fall Break Adventure to Rock Island State Park!

We drove about an hour and a half to Rock Island State Park.  Poor Sofie got a little car sick.  On the drive, we listened to Elder Gong's General Conference talk and a little of the book Wild Robot.  We also listened to some music.  

Once we arrived at the park, Sofie felt better.  Yay!

We started at the Visitor Center.  We got a map and recommendations.  

Then we drove to Great Falls Lookout.  It's huge.  This is one side of the view...

And here's the other side.  I couldn't get it in one photo, but I did take a video. :)

We visited the Spring Castle.  

Inside was a pump...

Then we visited the info sign (that Nels read) for the Cotton Textile.  

Took some pictures...

Here's the dam.  My dad loves dams.  So I took a picture for him and thought of my dad too.  :)

We were getting a little grumpy by this point, so we stopped at the trolley for ice cream.  

But they were so SLOW.  So we left and drove to Twin Falls.  

We climbed over rocks and made it to the bottom of the falls.  

Then we ate lunch near the falls.  We were joined by annoying wasps/hornets.  No one was stung, but there was some screaming/whining.  :)

We ate quickly and then started out 3 mile loop hike.

It was called the Downstream Hike and followed the river for most of it.  

It was a beautiful, easy hike and we all enjoyed being outdoors.  We also explored a cave that was fun too.  

Then we went back to the falls and I took lots of pictures.  I love this one...I didn't even ask them to do it...they were just naturally sitting there like this.  💚

Then we drove back to the Trolley for ice cream...this time for real.  They were still slow, but they had things to help entertain us while we waited.  

Sofie got Blue Monster.  Kira got Salted Caramel Brownie.  

Noah got powdered donuts.

Isak and I shared a Rocky Mountain S'mores Shake.  So good!

Nels enjoyed apple fritters with caramel ice cream and syrup.  

Then we drove to the "beach."  Here's the dam from the other side...

Here's the beach...

I set up table tennis.  :)

Kids played and we enjoyed the sun setting.  Pretty place.  

Then we drove home and that was our adventure exploring Rock Island State Park in Tennessee.