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.

October 1 - 7 Moments

October 1 - 7:

Our little moments:

Here's our version of snow.  I tell the kids, "Look!  Tennessee Snow!"  It's really cotton.  :)

Sofie and Noah made a snack for the kids to share.  

Painting pumpkins with Sofie and Noah for their 3rd grade project.  You'll see the final product soon.

One night we had Sofie and Noah's STEAM night and Isak's choir concert.  We had to divide and conquer a little.  I took Sofie, Noah and Kira to Steam night.  Isak had to be an hour early to his concert, so Nels took Isak.  

Here's Sofie and Noah with Baxter.

Here's their art work.

Here's their steam project, the boat library.

Here's Sofie's boat library.  

Kira got to see her old teachers like Ms. Fletcher and they were all so happy to see her.  :)

Then we quickly drove to Isak's choir concert and made it there just in time.  

It was so hard to get a good picture because the lights shone right on Isak's face!

But hopefully you can find him...first row, towards the middle, left side.

The concert was middle and high school performing.  Isak's class did three songs and they were great.  It was a wonderful concert.

And here are the pumpkins.  Sofie did Eva from Owl Diaries and Noah did Winnie the Pooh.  Kira helped with Pooh's face.  :)

Yay!

The ears fell off in the car on the way to school.  So I'm glad we got pictures before they took the pumpkins to school. 

We saw a hot air balloon on the way to school. 

Play dough time.

General Conference weekend.  Conference Bingo with cereal.

Lots of snuggles.  And I finished Noah's bear hat.  He wears it all of the time.  I'm so glad I made it for him.

Cinnamon rolls.  They were Yummy!

We put together our family photo puzzle too.  

Kira and I carded and it was fun to do with her.  She has a crafter's heart!

Sofie made this fun game for us to play together.  She's always making fun things too.  

We enjoyed conference weekend and the messages that were given.  I look forward to listening to them again!