A Little Family Vacation

When all our friends backed out of our camping trip because it was going to rain all weekend where we were going to go camping we decided to take a little family vacation up to the Bear Lake area. We decided to get a hotel and since there isn't too much up there to choose from we stayed in Montpelier, Idaho. We left Thursday afternoon. It was Raspberry Days this weekend so it was really busy. We were trying to make it to Garden City for the parade but got there right as the parade was ending. However, we took advantage of the bounce houses they set up. Tyson and Eliza thoroughly enjoyed themselves on the bounce houses while Megan was just content to watch and hang out. 

After we finished up all our tickets on the bounce houses we headed the 30 minutes to Montpelier to get dinner and check in at our hotel. It was quite late by this point so we all just went to bed. 

The next morning (Friday) we went to "The National Oregon/California Trail Center" that was across the street from our hotel. It was quite fun to go on this mock journey that included a simulated wagon ride, stories around the campfire and other interesting facts. After the museum we went and played at the park right by the museum and then headed back to our hotel for lunch.

After lunch we headed up the St. Charles canyon to go explore the Minnetonka cake. It was a guided 90 minute tour that took us through a 9 room cave full of stalactites and stalagmites. The kids got cold even with their jackets because the cave stays 40 degrees all the time. It is about a half-mile walk into the cave with just over 400 steps one way so over 800 steps total. The kids did great even with all the steps and Megan fell asleep most of the time but woke up on our way out. It was really awesome exploring this cave.

After the cave we went and got dinner and a raspberry shake then went back to our hotel and crashed because we were all so tired.
The next day (Saturday) we spent most of the day at the beach playing the water, building sandcastles, the kids had mud baths, and we all played water frisbee (excluding Megan who was asleep). Megan slept for a good hour or so after we got there, then got up to enjoy some sun and water.

After playing at the beach,we went back to the hotel and showered and headed to Garden City with the intention to have dinner and watch fireworks that night. We got there and ate dinner and had ice cream/shakes but it got cold and we still had two hours to wait for fireworks and we were already tired so we went back to our hotel and played a couple rounds of UNO and went to bed.
The next morning (Sunday) we checked out of our hotel and started our journey home with a stop in Logan to see the temple and eat lunch then we decided to stop at the Brigham City temple too. (since it is not too far off the freeway). In primary the kids have a summer challenge to visit as many Utah temples as they can. They were each given a temple passport with this challenge. They were so excited to stop at the temples so they could get a stamp in their passport. However, when we got to the Brigham City temple Eliza was asleep.

These kids are such great travelers and Megan was also an excellent traveler. We have the best kids.

We had a lot of fun on this family vacation. It is so fun making family memories. Some of my best childhood memories are of when we would go on our summer family vacations. As parents we hope to be giving our family these fun memories as well.