The Last Hurrah!

We just got back from summer's last hurrah. And boy was it fun. Here is where we ended. But I'll get to that in a bit. But isn't it pretty?!
We'll start here. With Daniel's bu.... Just kidding. We went to Lava Hot Springs. After getting camp set up we walked into town to explore. We found this cave.

We found it in the Sunken Gardens. These guys didn't want to go all the way in. Up there, Daniel was showing them how easy it was. But he got stuck and bumped his head. So these guys felt vindicated.

The Gardens were right above the Hot Pools. See 'em down there? We didn't go to the Hot Pools this time. I think we will definitely go next time.

A picture with some of the gang.

I finally caught Isaac and held him down for a picture. That's why we look so serious. "Stay!"

This tic tac toe game was on the other side from where we were. We eventually walked over to them.

The gang walking to the tic tac toe game.

A look at the other side. Where we just were. Isn't it just pretty?

This pleasant bench surrounded by flowers became a pretty picture spot. Aren't these guys cute?!

All because two people fell in love...

Okay. I'm over that!

Here is the river we went down many times. We rented a tube and rode down then walked up then rode down then walked up.... It went until we were too hungry to keep going.

And you'll notice I only have pictures of an empty river. No one was going down at the time. But more importantly, I WAS ON THE WATER!! Yessiree folks, I went down the river on the tube. And I had a marvelous time! So I didn't get any pictures of us going down.

After the river we had lunch then headed to the Olympic sized pool. Oh yeah. The kids were in heaven. I got over being in water very quickly and just spent the afternoon on a chair protecting our blanket. I tried to read, but mostly watched people. Especially the guy in the orange speedo. Oh, that was interesting.

At one point I looked up on the ladder leading to one of the slides and saw these people. Ruthie and Daniel rode all the slides and had a blast.

But mostly they all swam in the indoor pool. Hey! There I am. And you can see my swim shorts to know that I did, indeed, hit the water.

Isaac doesn't ever stay still enough to get a clear shot. But he had fun.

Hey Sam!

And there's Ruthie.

Now here I'm going to share something very disturbing with you. We had a lovely camp site. Lovely! But then this thing happened. A Train. See it? But it wasn't just one. It was one every 2 to 3 hours. Including through the night! Just oil the tracks! Pleeeeeeease! I wanted to put something on the tracks so they'd have to stop sending them through. Oh how I hate trains.

Okay. Back to more pleasant things. Here's our home away from home. We love this tent. We can stand up in it. Hi Ike!

And the chair set up. Hi guys!

This year we added the pup tent for whoever wanted to sleep in it. Ruthie spent the first night by herself. I didn't sleep because of the trains. Daniel didn't sleep because his little girl was "out there". Long night. The next night we all slept in the big tent.

Okay. Here comes some fun. Last week at work, a co worker, Randy, came to Daniel to invite him up to run the Snake River on Saturday. He said we'd be in Lava and couldn't. Hey, you're almost there. Come on up. So we packed up and headed close to Jackson to the Snake River.

And let me tell you. Again there are no pictures of us in the raft going down the white water! Why?

Because I went down, too. Oh yes, people. I went white water rafting! Randy said he got some shots of us at Lunch Counter. So when I get those I'll post 'em!

So that was our last hurrah! Hurrah! We've decided to do the same last hurrah every year. Lava and Snake River. We are now on our last week of summer vacay. It will be filled with school shopping and planning. And some more hurrahs! From me. Not the kids.