This weekend we headed to Idaho Falls to a Biorn Family Reunion (Mary's family) and to hang out with James' mom, dad, and sister Annie's family. Last year we went up and back in a day for the reunion, but this year we decided to turn it into a little 3-day vacation (since we hadn't really planned any other summer vacations).
On Friday, Molly and I got all ready and waited patiently for James to come home from work so we could leave. Eventually he did get home and we left around 7:00 p.m. We hit invisible road
construction and 1-lane freeways in a couple of spots on our way up and pulled into Idaho Falls around 10:30. James worked all the way up in the car. He stayed in the parking lot of the motel working for another half hour while Molly and I got settled in our room. At midnight she was still wide awake and not sure what to do with her new surroundings. I suggested to James that if we were to just turn out all the lights and be quiet, she'd probably fall asleep in a couple of minutes.
Unfortunately, my husband and I have communication issues sometimes (lots of the time) and
whatever I said was then interpreted as, "I will leave the room with my computer and go hang
out with the Cotton Tree employees in the lobby all night long while I work and watch them
prepare breakfast at 2:30 in the morning." Molly was asleep in literally 2 minutes. James was back in our room when we woke up around 7:00 and he was tired, but oh well.
We headed to the reunion around 10:00 and were at the park where it was held for most of the
day. It was hot, but otherwise a nice day. Molly kind of likes to do her own thing and just
wanders around, but she is always pleasant when other kids are around.
She did fall several times. The step from the grass to the concrete of the bowery was tough and she has a bit of a raspberry on her face to prove it. She survived, though. I think I said this last year, but Molly definitely blends in to Mary's family. She really resembles a lot of them. In fact, here is a picture of Mary as a little girl. I think you can see the resemblance.
After the reunion, we invited Annie and her family over to our motel for a swim. I think the kids had a lot of fun. James and Annie were trying to give RyAnn and Issac swimming lessons. Morriah only wanted to hang out in the smaller hot pool. Molly squealed at everything. Elizza even got in the pool after Grandpa let her play with a tootsie pop (she was pretty sticky and a
quick pool bath did her good).
We left the pool, picked up pizza, and had dinner back at Annie and Jared's house. The kids played with bubbles, LaRon tried to fix their tiller and lawnmower, Jared rigged up a wire for giant bubbles, we ate, and had a good time. Molly had a lot of fun, but was pretty dirty, though. She had a spit bath in Annie and Jared's kitchen sink and rode back to the motel in her undershirt. Needless to say, she and James were both pretty wiped out and were asleep fast once we got back to our room.
On Sunday, we headed out of Idaho Falls on a longer ride home. We drove to Arco, the first
town in the United States to ever be powered solely off of nuclear power (and also near Jared's
hometown). It was just outside of Arco that my car hit a major milestone of 200,000 miles (but that gets a post of it's own).
Next, we stopped at the visitor center and drove through Craters of the Moon National Monument. Neither of us had ever been there and it was interesting. It's just a dark, sullen black landscape in the middle of nowhere in Idaho. It was caused by the lava runoff and underground volcanic activity thousands of years ago. Interesting.
Afterwards, we drove to Twin Falls over this enormous bridge and ate dinner at a Perkins.
We visited both Shoshone Falls (pronounced Show-shown even though the Indian tribe is pronounce Show-shoney)
and Twin Falls (which used to be two matching falls on either side of this rock, but one of the twins was assassinated and turned into hydro-electric power)
After the falls, we stopped in Snowville, Utah for gas and then continued on. We got home a little before 9:00 p.m. Did you know there is a Mollie's Diner in Snowville?
It was a good weekend. I like to go for drives in the car. With the exception of a few minor meltdowns, Molly was really good. It was fun to hang out with our nieces and nephew who we don't see too often. It was great!
Maybe next year we'll make it a 4 day weekend and go to Yellowstone on the way home. We haven't been there for quite a while.
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