Day 4 Grand National Tetons (Gros Venture State Park)

After leaving Massacre State Park we headed toward the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. We drove through some of the most beautiful parts of Idaho. Wade got advice on the best roads to take from a friendly bus driver, and the day was pleasantly passed listening to audio drama and looking out the window.

I think this is in Wyoming. Rachel had time to exit her ipad program and snap this shot!

Entering Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Wade had a childhood memory of the antlers. He was also pretty sure that the guy you see under the antlers was his cousin Russell. He was so sure that he called Russell to find out where he was. As you probably already guessed, no it wasn't him. Just his look alike I guess.

Beautiful Teton's. Taken again with the ipad. Try to ignore the bug spots on the window!

Another way to enterain yourself in the car. Maybe I wouldn't have fought with my sister on our long road trips if my parents had bought us an ipad!

Here we are at Gros Venture Park. I was a little disappointed that our campsite didn't offer a view of the Tetons. But we busied ourselves by skipping rocks on the overflowing Snake River.

I walked a ways to get this one.

Day 3-4 Massacre Rock State Park, American Falls, Idaho

After Shoshone Falls we headed to our campsite in American Falls. I was excited to stay here because of the history. This spot was right along the Oregon Trail. It gained its name by some Indian skirmishes. The rocks were amazing and a good spot for the Indians to hide. There were immigrants killed, but not enough to really call it a massacre. Still, the name caught my attention and I think that's the point.
There were several hikes. I chose first and looking at the map, it looked like we could loop into several. We need to rewrite their maps. After walking 1/2 mile we found a sign that said our trail was 1 mile away. Oops! Well, it was important to me. We were going to see wagon tracks left by immigrants on the Oregon Trail. I said we could do it, so we did....

Lilly had her moments. To be fair - we all did!

Walking on the Oregon Trail.

Another trail, along the Snake River.

This is Register Rock. Here the immigrants carved their names into rocks as they came through.

Look close. This boy - J.J. Hansen also sketched an Indian head near his signature.

Very cool rocks. Good hiding places for Indians, and fun climbing for kids!

Day 3 - Shoshone Falls, Idaho (Twin Falls)

One of the first things we did was cross into Mountain Time. Rachel's phone changed, Wade's didn't (for a while). The ipad never changed, the ipod eventually did - but I think we were in South Dakota before it caught up. Garret changed his watch, Wade didn't. The truck didn't change time either - and it was 10 minutes slow besides! So time was just a number on this trip. It really only mattered when we needed to eat lunch. Then Lilly usually did the calculating for us!

Thanks to Wi-Fi, we found out our very good friends the Ebersoles were coming from the Tetons and that's where we were heading. We thought it would be fun to meet up on the road. After several phone calls -we realized that we'd passed each other before we had a meeting spot. Oh well, Wade (Ebersole) did give us some tourist advice. He told us to stop at Shoshone Falls and we're glad we did.

The Snake River. We followed it for three days!

Shoshone Falls and the Snake River

The Happy Campers!

Beautiful!

Did I mention that we're traveling with our 28 foot trailer? It was a little tight getting to this spot. But Wade's so good at maneuvering that truck and trailer, he never let a thing like size get in his way of having a good time on this trip!!

Day 2 - to Wells, Nevada

There isn't much to say about this day. It rained some, the dessert seemed to go forever. The only thing that interrupted the landscape were the Super Walmarts placed here and there. We spent the night in an RV park, and thought we could have driven further. We're not fans of RV parks - but this one was decent. I met some very nice people there - who told us all the things we should do in South Dakota. There was also Wi-fi so Wade and I put the kids to bed and watched one of our shows on Netflix! That was fun!

Another observation ...restrooms are seriously much cleaner in every state we visited than they are in California. Starting here is where I noticed. Old RV park, sparkling restrooms - and it continued throughout our trip. Hmmm.....I wonder why??

We're on our way...June 28th, Reno, Nevada

I'm back on my blog - to share our vacation with you. I thought this would be the prettiest way to show some of our pictures and explain our trip.

Day 1- Off to a late start, of course. It's kind of hard to pack and make final arrangements for a 21 day trip. But we were anxious to get to our first destination. We left early afternoon and it was a wet, wild and slow trip! We pulled off to get gas in Lodi, Ca and noticed gray clouds and cooler weather. We thought we might hit a little rain. As we traveled through Sacramento at less than a snail's pace - we were dumped on. And we seemed to bring the storm with us as we drove.

We finally arrived at our destination. Pizza Plus, Reno, Nevada (as much as I love Pizza Plus in Ripon, this was better). Wade's oldest nephew and his family had been patiently waiting for us. It had been several years since the girls and I had seen our Wagner cousins. But they were fast friends and favorite cousins before the night was over! In fact, Lilly and Grace were up at 6 the next morning so they could get some more play time in before we had to leave. Thanks - Wagners for your hospitality!

That's a Lot of Wives

Awana Leader: What is a midwife?

Lilly: When a man has 20 wives, the one in the middle is the midwife.

I'm so glad Rachel is helping in Sparks this year, otherwise I might not have heard that! By the way, I'd read the same exact story to the kids that morning -from Exodus 1. In my eagerness to get the point of compassion across, I skipped the vocabulary lesson! Oh well, the laugh has been well worth it!

Grandma Helen is teaching Lilly how to embroidory. She loves it, she picks it up for a few days and then lets it set for a week. Grandma comes home soon, so we should try to finish the monkey's shirt tomorrow. I'm getting pretty good at threading a needle again! Maybe I'll even try my hand, come Christmas vacation.

A Place for Everything or Total Schoolroom Makeover

Thanks to an organizing friend (a professional)- our school room saw a total makeover this weekend. I didn't take before pictures, but trust me - it was bad! I was at the point of not wanting to school in our school room. I'm looking forward to it tomorrow!

A place for everything and everything in it's place. I'm not a hoarder, but I'm a disorganized messie. I'm hoping by labeling all my areas in the school room that I will stick to putting things back where they belong. The kids too??

My teaching table. Wade made this for me my second year of homeschooling. I do love it! I can still fit three children around it if I need to, but normally the school room is reserved for one on one time with mom. I added the laptop so I don't have to leave the room to lesson plan anymore. I hate lesson planning - but it was kind of fun tonight!

Each child has a shelf of their school books. I'm sorry to say this was the messiest spot before, and the easiest to clean up. My mom gave me the shelf dividers. Each child will be assigned the task of labeling their area and rewarded for keeping it neat! I will credit Rachel for keeping her spot neat all year long. It was easier for her because of the amount of books she has!

We saved the closet for last. I was able to part with things and organize everything else. My mom worked on this last year and really did a good job. She set up the pencil color crayon area. However, without a label to keep me accountable - I quickly fell into my sloppy habit of quick cleanups and stuffing things in the most convenient place.

This area will hopefully be used as a reading nook, or a comfy place to wait for mom to be available.

Looking forward to school tomorrow! We have our 4-day writing class this week, so the school room won't have a lot of use! However, the week after is full speed ahead!