Amber wanted to go on a vacation, so we asked everyone if they wanted to go and everyone said yes!
So we were off to Island Park. We found a big cabin that would fit us all.
Mike likes to plan stops along the way, so we stopped at the Potato Museum. It was interesting, the potato salad was good.
Our next stop was Mesa falls, lower first, then we made our way to upper.
The place that we stayed was beautiful! There were little bike trails around the cabin that we rode, we also road down to the river.
On one of our days we drove over to Cliff lake. It was pretty amazing, it looked like the Caribbean.
We kayaked, paddle boarded, rope swung, caught crawdads, and swam.
Our family, Heiner's, and Petersons went to Yellowstone Playhouse and saw Peter Pan.
It was funny, they weren't serving dinner because of covid, but we were able to get some yummy snacks. The cinnamon rolls were pretty good.
We even spotted Big Foot!
What is a trip without some water? We floated down the river. It was pretty shallow in some areas which made for some slow floating!
We were out there forever when we noticed a storm blowing in, there was not much we could do but keep going. With so many people we ended up in three different groups. Me, Mike, Bensen and Vivian hooked up with my parents who had Whitley. My dad was in a kayak and we were moving pretty quick. I kept asking my dad if he wanted to switch, he didn't. I could see the rain coming so I hopped out of my tube and started pushing his Kayak. He decide to get off the kayak thinking he could help push. But he had been sitting in the same position for so long that his legs fell asleep and he kept falling over. He said he was fine so I continued to push down the river. When we turned around he was pretty far behind us and he was still falling over. I sent Mike to help him. Luckily I had a knife in my bag I was able to cut one of the tubes off our line and get it to my dad. I was sure he was having a heart attack. Meanwhile it is poring rain, thunder and lightning all around us. My mom had screamed "He's going to drown!" So all the little ones are more scared and screaming. Needless to say it was pretty traumatic. Once we had my dad with us again we made it out of the river. Me and Mike got my parents and the little kids out of the river then we were franticly trying to get all the tubes and kayaks out of the water. Which is no easy feat when they are all tied together. No soon had we stepped out of the water there was a lighting so close! It was just on the other side of the river. You heard it and saw it at the same time! Talk about panic! All the kids are screaming! We have no idea where Jaycee and Wesley were. Our cars are a good 15-20 minute drive away. It was crazy. Apparently the rest of our group got out or the river further up stream and someone helped them with all the kids. Really it was a blessing.
This is the only after picture that Joy took, and it doesn't do it justice.
Jaycee said she would do it again, everybody else was like heck no!
I'm sure we will be able to convince them sometime.
We are a pretty big group it is so fun vacationing together! Staying up late, playing games, we always have fun!
On the way home we stopped at Mesa Falls again, but only the upper.
We made on last stop at Hells Half Acre. It was hot! We had a picnic, then drove the rest of the way home.
