Craters of the Moon-Arco, ID.-July 17th.

We started our day at Craters of the Moon. It's a seven mile drive of 2,000 yr old lava if you want to go around the entire park. Mom and I trecking our way up the Inferno Cone. We are about half way up the cone. In the background you can see, maybe our car but also other's as well.

Somewhat of a cliff behind me. The wind was howling so hard it probably could have just picked me up and thrown me over.

Nice picture of mom and me on the top finally. It was soooo windy up there!

Everyone taking in the view on top of the Inferno.

~To the top~ the mounds are all spatter cones we walked to only two of them.

I think dad missed this sign.

"Is that a park ranger coming up the Inferno?" "Nope just another tourist."

~Dad put the lava rock he wanted in the trunk as soon as we got to the car.

Walking along side a Spatter Cone.

Brian & Dad thought Craters of the Moon meant something else. (they almost put

the pants down.) Men.

Inside the Indian Cave. (this is a hollowed out lava tube, we just went in one of the tube's.) We saw a few caved in lava tubes that you could once walk in.

Taking in the wonders of the entrance of the cave.

Dad and Brian going to explore more of the cave. Mom and I stayed behind, we wore sandles to walk around; don't ask why. But it we still got around, it was fun.

This is the end of the dark tunnel they went through! They made it, with no flashlights!

Arco is a very small town about 15-20 min. from Craters of the moon.

(well sign behind us, explains where we are.)

We arrived late for the tour and only self guided tours were left through a pamphlet. That's ok, we had Brian with to expain it. I wish I had only taken a picture of Dad's face trying to understand it and trying to keep up with it.

The road to EBR1 Test sight. I.N.L land-very desert like.

Having a relaxing night at a local Baseball game. (Idaho Falls Chukars)

We had a wonderful time on Wednesday and we were so tired afterwards. The weather was gorgeous and hot at times at craters with all the black lava flow around us but we managed. Craters of the moon has a neat facts about it. NASA's Apollo astronauts learned basic geology there in 1969 as they prepared for their moon missions (hence the name). This area is considered a young volcanic flow, it's only 2,000 years old. Underground this is connected with the "mega" volcano that's in Yellowstone National Park (the part of it that's active). Everywhere we walked we saw what looked like sprinkler heads out of the ground, but they are actually detector's for any underground movement.

Walking through the caves was so much fun. It's so dark and creepy. All the caves are "enter at your own risk," there is no tour guide. Bring your own flashlight and watch your step for loose rock. After we spent sometime at Craters, we started to head back home. We stopped at EBR1 which is the first place in history have a Nuclear reactor running and to generate power to a city (Arco). Brian was excited to teach as much as he could to mom and dad and show them what he knows. After the tour, we went drove through Arco and stopped at a restaurant called"Pickles Place." I had to bring dad there, he loves his deep fried pickles. We had a nice meal there for a great price! Then we went home for a quick margarita and then went to the baseball game to end the night. Phew! What a day. (you can click on any of the pics to enlarge them,especially the cave pic, they are neat.)

We went to Jackson today. Here are some pics.

Mom & Dad found Bigfoot!

Pictures

When we were walking back to the car after the 4th of July parade, Torii insisted on carrying his candy. His bag was really heavy.
The night we had a campfire when mom and dad where in Michigan.
This had to be earlier this year, but I don't remember when. Goofy boys.
Another picture from that night at the campfire. Winnie sat there like she was going to get something.

Soccer pictures

Hard at work...

Here's another cool picture that was snapped by my friend, Cindy.

Field of Flight

So I finally caught up on some much needed sleep. Here are some more photos from the Field of Flight event. It was a lot of work, but I had a blast. I have never videotaped planes or hot air balloons before so it was definitely a great experience! I am so glad to hear that everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

I want to post some video soon. Once we get all of our footage organized and captured into the computers, I will be able to get the footage that I shot, so you all will be able to watch some of it. I took a couple of short videos with my camera too , so I'll see if I can get those posted soon. For now, I hope you enjoy the pictures :)

At the beginning of the airshow, a sky writer came out and spelled airshow and drew a smily face :)

These are the Thunderbird jets in their famous "diamond" formation. I have some video of this for Brian :P


This is the hot balloon I rode in. It's named, Tickled Pink and is piloted by Mike Nelson. His crew is his family, which I thought was really cool.

Me receiving my champagne toast from Mike after my morning flight.

This is the platform that I spent the weekend on. I should have also posted pictures of my sun burns :P

July 6th, trip to once again....Jackson.

Bar stools at the Milleneum Cowboy Bar in town.

( I don't think this squirrel won the battle.)

Stage coach tours. We didn't go but maybe next time. ($6 per person)

Palisades Lake along the way.

On top of the Palisades Dam.

Brian and I had a fun 4th of july. I had to work until 3pm and then came home to finish fixing some snacks for our little party we hosted for a few people brian works with. We served BBQ sandwiches from the crock pot and other various snacks. Everyone came over in the evening and we sat and drank some, ate, and played some card games until we had to go to the big fireworks show along the Snake River. The fireworks show lasted for about 40 minutes and it was very neat, I must say that they did put on a really nice show. After the show we all came back to our place and played some more games. I had to work the next morning and I was so beat on saturday, I didn't want to do anything. So today we decided to go to Jackson to get out of town while we both have the chance. It was a gorgeous day out and we had a great time walking around town again. Well not much else here, it sounds like everyone else had a great 4th also. Oh, and I made white chocolate cheesecake with strawberry sauce and everyone loved it! So I will post that recipe soon. It was so easy to make and it was a nice fresh tasting cake this time, and not so rich and really sweet.

Candy, water and explosions

We had a very full Fourth of July. In the morning we went to the parade. The boys both got full bags of candy. Cordelia fell asleep right before the parade started. The first thing to come through is always the fire trucks and they beep their horns and run the sirens. She slept through that and the Mandan High band that followed. She actually had a very good nap despite the noise. I guess she's used to it though.

After the parade, we went home and I thought the boys might lay down for a nap. They didn't so we went out to Grandpa and Grandma's. They played with their water toys while I took a very nice nap with Cordelia. The boys got very wet of course. Then we had hot dogs on the campfire. The boys didn't eat much, but they did have room for s'mores. Rion had three and Torii had two.

I wasn't planning on buying fireworks, but Auntie Vicki gave the boys money for fireworks so we picked a few up. The boys really liked the parachutes. The wind was just right that they could follow them and pick them up where they landed. They also liked the snaps and really all of the fireworks. Next year I will have to get a lot more.


Last year we watched the fireworks in Lincoln and I wanted to the same this year. About 10:30 Torii said he was ready to go to bed. The poor kid could barely keep his head up and his eyes open. If we hadn't been laughing at him and he had a minute more he would have fallen asleep right there. He was out before we got to Lincoln. Rion was still up so we pulled into DJ's parking lot in Lincoln and watched fireworks for a good fifteen minutes. He sat in the front seat with me while we watched the fireworks. The fireworks were going off non-stop and when you were outside it was so loud. It was great to watch.
When we got home I had to take each kid in one at a time and not a single one moved in the transition from car to bed. Torii slept in until 9am this morning. Rion got up at the usual time, but at 6:00 tonight he said he was tired and laid down with daddy. He was asleep within five minutes.