Garden Valley

Last week we spent a few days at a cabin in Garden Valley Idaho. It's a beautiful place and we had a lot of fun. It was a long drive. Especially since Kiara had an upset tummy so we had to stop A LOT. But luckily she was feeling better by the next day.

Here is Delma swinging on the tree swing. They kids loved this swing. But it scared me a little (when they were on it) because when you got high you were out over the edge. Delma didn't go very high though.
Here is Jason and Brennen fishing in the river. Idaho has had a lot of rain too, so the river is pretty high.
Here is Brennen playing in a tree

This is right behind our cabin. If you look closely you can see Jason fishing out there.

We saw several deer. Delma got so excited, she would talk about how they are "hind bush" which means they hide behind the bushes.

We took the kids fishing at a pond and they all got a chance to catch a fish. Delma insisted on catching a fish on her very own pole so we put a hook and bait on it for her. (usually it has a plastic fish on the end so she can cast herself) She even helped with the worms.

wait for it...wait for it!

reeling it in

got one! She was so funny after we threw the fish back she would do an imitation of how the fish was wiggling around on the end of the pole.

Brennen of course caught several fish

Kiara was able to hook one and reel it in all by herself.

Great job Kiara!

Brennen caught a couple of tadpoles that we ended up bringing home. They are still alive.

It was so beautiful outside. Not too hot or too cold. Here we are eating dinner out on the deck and watching for deer.

Brennen fly fishing

The girls playing in the sand while the boys fish. It didn't last long though. There were too many ants.

Hanging out at the fire pit and making smores

Kiara and Delma playing in the loft

Jason's sister and her family came up for a day. We went on a short hike to some hot springs.

I think she would have sat here all day if we let her!

Parker and Delma

She was surprised it wasn't freezing, she didn't want to get in so we just stuck her in. Then we couldn't get her to leave.

After lunch we drove up the rode about 6 miles to put in the raft and float down the river back to our cabin. It took us a little over 2 hrs. to float down the river.
When someone said something about figuring out how to get the raft down the few steps to the river Delma said "I know, toodles can help us, ooohhhhh TOODLES"!! Hilarious!

Laura, Danny and Parker were in one raft.

Jason and the girls and I were in another raft and Brennen wanted to float on a tube but just to be safe we tied a rope to our raft so we wouldn't lose him.

It was a ton of fun! It was a very calm river but when there was a little bit of white water we would try to steer into it.

For about an entire hour Delma just kept saying over and over "This fun, mom"!
The dog was a little scared at first but then she got brave and would just walk around on the edge of the raft.

Delma liked holding onto Kiara when she got nervous.

about an hr into our float a dog started following us. He would swim a while then walk along the bank for a while. A couple times he would even swim out to our rafts right in front of us. Drove our dog CRAZY!

The dog would chase the geese and other birds out of the bushes and trees and even killed a few. It was quite the show. Later on another dog joined in so there was a dog on each side of the river and when they would flush the birds out they would both go at them from opposite directions. It was kind of weird!

Before!
After!
She slipped while walking around the edge of the raft and fell in the water. Luckily Brennen wasn't far from our raft and she swam to him and he was able to get her back in our raft

Floating down the river was SOOO much fun! We had a BBQ later that night then Laura, Danny and Parker headed home.

The next day we took the kids swimming at a geothermal swimming pool. It was a little chilly in the morning but the pool was nice and warm. I didn't get any pictures of that.

After swimming and lunch the kids begged us to take them down the river again. I didn't take the camera this time. We were about an hr into it when Jason and I heard a little bit of thunder off in the direction we were headed. So instead of just floating along we kept paddling. We were pretty close to the end when it started raining hard, thundering and lightning and then the wind started. The wind was blowing so hard (of course it was blowing the opposite way we were going) that it started pushing us backward. Putting the oar in the water was like sticking it in cement. I had the girls sit down in the bottom of the boat in the front and they were getting wet and were crying. Luckily just before the storm hit Brennen had said he wanted to get in the raft so he was not on his tube. His tube that was tied to the boat was clear up in the air like a kite! It was crazy. So Jason and I managed to get the boat turned around so we could steer us to the bank and we were able to get out. There are cabins all along the edge of the river so we were kind of in someones backyard. We tied up the raft and walked a little bit up the road until we found someone that was home. We knocked on the door all soaking wet with crying kids and the kind lady took pity on us and drove us back up to our van. We then drove back to the spot where we tied up the raft and got it loaded on top of the van to drive back to the cabin. By the time we did all this and got back it was nice and sunny again! An adventure we will never forget! Delma does a good imitation of Jason and I rowing as fast and hard as we can.

We drove home the next day. On the way we took a small detour and stopped at Shoshone Falls to have a picnic lunch. It was beautiful!