We’re Back!

You may not have noticed, but we’ve been out of town for a while. We were gone for almost two weeks, visited 4 different states, and saw LOTS of friends and family! So, here goes a long post to tell you all about it:

We left on the Fourth of July and drove up to Washington to spend the holiday with my family.  We had a nice BBQ and watched the fireworks show from the front yard (my parents live a few blocks from the fairgrounds). Nathan was pretty wary of the fireworks. He didn’t cry, he just got really nervous and wanted to stay snuggled close to me the whole time (which I loved). He fell asleep pretty quickly in my arms. And apparently I didn’t manage to get a single picture of the day. We were even wearing matching T-shirts! Dang!

On Monday we went with my Mom to the Point Defiance Zoo. I was so excited to take Nathan since this is the zoo I grew up going to.  Nathan wasn’t too thrilled with most of the animals and, quite frankly, neither was I. I think everybody was napping while we were there.

You always have to get a picture inside the shark’s mouth!

We did have a ton of fun in the new Kids Zone.  Nathan loved running around and playing.

He also had a blast with the goats. First he got to help “groom” some goats, then he got to feed them. He loved it! He would take one little pellet of food between his fingers at a time and a goat would come and eat it up. We definitely washed his hands well after this!

 

We didn’t get to stay in Washington long and we took off the next morning for Idaho. We decided to hang on to our sanity and make the 13 hour trip in two days. We stopped for the night in Missoula, Montana. We stayed at a nice hotel and enjoyed our evening. I wanted to find a place with a pool, but it turns out Nathan isn’t a big fan of water (surprise, surprise!) so we didn’t really swim much.

On the second half of our journey, we made a quick stop in Shoup, Idaho to see my grandparents. This was Nathan’s first visit to Shoup and I was so glad we got to go, even though it was brief. It was a good chance for Nathan to run around.

Unfortunately, even though we took things slow, we still managed to wipe ourselves out so much that by the time we arrived in Rigby, Ryan and I were both sick. So the first few days we were there we spent napping. Hooray!

On Friday, we made a trip up to Rexburg to drive around campus and our old apartments, and to visit our favorite pizza place, Craigo’s! They have a yummy buffet there and we always make sure to go when we are in town. I think Nathan really enjoyed it too! On our way back to Rigby, I realized that I had to pee (not unusual) so we decided to stop by the Hinckley Building on campus so I could use the bathroom. I was about to enter the building when I realized I was wearing flip flops! I felt like such a sinner and hustled as fast as I could to the bathroom so no one could judge me. When I got back to the car I was telling Ryan all about it and he said, “Um, Heather, you’re wearing shorts too.” I completely forgot you can’t even wear capri’s at BYU-Idaho! We lived a totally different life when we were there! It actually made me a little sad to drive passed our old apartments. When we lived in Rexburg, I got to do so many things just for me, and I miss that!

On Saturday, we got to go with Ryan’s parents to Yellowstone Bear World. It was fun! We got to drive through and look at all the animals, including bears, of course!

They also had a petting zoo and some fun rides for kids.

Ryan and I really liked the train ride.

On Sunday, we still weren’t feeling real great but my brother Ryan came down from Rexburg for dinner. It was so nice to be able to see him while we were in town. we hadn’t seen him since Christmas.

Later that night, Nathan was running around outside and he fell and smashed his face in the gravel. I knew this was bound to happen someday. My poor baby!

Monday morning we finally felt good enough to travel down to Salt Lake to see some of our friends. We stayed with Devan and Alex and their little girl,  Hannah (baby boy will be born in a few weeks!). Alex and I have been friends since elementary school! Our friends Lisa and Nick, and their little girl Maddie came up for dinner that night too. I’ve known Lisa since elementary school too (she’s having another girl in September).

Alex made us a yummy dinner and we ate it outside. Nathan found a bunch of other stuff to eat outside that night too. Gross!

I tried to get a picture of all three kids looking at once. Yeah, right!

Nathan just wanted to play in the sand.

The dads enjoyed the playground too.

Friends!

We were lucky enough to get to see all of Ryan’s family while we were in town, including his sister Janelle and her five kids. They drove up from Arizona on Tuesday night. Janelle is a brave woman! These kids are Nathan’s only cousins so are always really excited to see them. Nathan especially enjoyed playing with Avery, who is only 10 months older than him.

The boys

Cousins

Ryan and his sisters

We had to get home in time for Ryan to grade a final exam so we took off on Thursday. We stopped in Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, Idaho. Nathan once again was a little wary of all the water. We’re going to have to do something about this! It was a really beautiful place. They call it the Niagara of the West for a reason!

We also stopped near Boise to see my grandma and have dinner with her. I’m so glad we got to stop by!

We were lucky to be able to see so many people that we love and I know that there are so many more people in Idaho Utah that we could have visited. I wish we had time! We even drove down our old street in Bountiful and there are so many doors I would have loved to knock on!

I know this post is excessively long and possibly a little boring, so here’s a video of Nathan to make up for it!

At the Zoo from Ryan Bartron on Vimeo.