After bidding adieu to Utah, we piled into the car for an escape to Island Park, ID. When I was younger my family would go to Island Park every other summer for the Iverson Family Reunion, and those drives were so long. But after driving all the way from Chicago, a quick 4 1/2 trip seemed like a breeze, even for the boys! Amazing how your perspective can change.
Lori works for a doctor who owns a cabin in Island Park, so we had a great place to stay right by Henry's Fork. It was so much fun to spend a few days with these wonderful people:
Our first day there we went to beautiful Yellowstone. My memories of Yellowstone as a youth were mostly gushing geysers and smelly hot pots. I had totally forgotten how beautiful Yellowstone is! Here we are at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, with Yellowstone Falls in the background.
I think I had also forgotten just how huge buffalo are! Of course, if you were riding in our car and called them buffalo, a certain 8-year-old was quick to remind you that they are actually bison, not buffalo. Thanks for keeping us on track, Henry!
Fun fact: the rocks are such amazing colors because of the geothermal activity in the area, which brings different minerals to the surface of the Earth's crust. And no, this is not a postcard.
So good for these indoor-loving boys to get out in nature now and then.
We loved getting to know James and Blake better on this trip. Here we are waiting for Old Faithful to go off.
Thar she blows! It turns out that Old Faithful isn't quite as faithful as she used to be, so now there is a 20-minute window within which it might go off. At a random time while we were waiting, Brady, Henry, and Ellis started counting down very loudly, "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1!" Then, there was dead silence among the crowd, everyone waiting for the geyser to blow. Of course, it didn't go off (why would anyone think that we knew exactly when it would go off?), and there were more than a few groans when people realized they had been duped. Ellis and Henry thought it was absolutely hilarious.
Taking in the show.
Another Brady-inspired prank: Standing at the side of the road pretending to take pictures of non-existent wildlife just to see how many cars they could get to stop. Never a dull moment with the Griffin clan! (And, yes, we got a few to stop, or at least slow down)
Each morning Brady and I snuck out early to get in a few hours of fishing on Henry's Fork, which was just down the road from our cabin. Most of the fish we caught were itty bitty guys, but here is Brady with a good-sized whitefish. The best part was that every now and then a new hatch of flies would come out and all of a sudden the whole river would be rippled with fish rising. That's when it was time to switch to dry flies. We had a ton of fun catching them every 4th or 5th cast.
On Day 2, we loaded up the Jeep to raft the river. I don't think this picture quite does justice to how high those rafts were stacked - nearly as tall as the Jeep!
We can almost never get Henry to not pull a weird face in a picture, so we are required to post any picture with good smile, even if he's wearing a huge orange life jacket.
Henry and Grandpa Dave in the inflatable canoe.
Brady, James, and McCall
Sam, Jenn, me, and Ellis. We tried fishing with worms as we floated the river, but didn't have any luck. However, Ellis was the most determined little fisherman, never taking his eye off the bobber, and setting the hook hard anytime it bobbed at all. :)
Also, you should feel thankful that you're able to look at these pictures. Jenn's phone fell into the river, but luckily (1) it was in a Ziploc bag and (2) she has a husband willing to jump in and chase it downstream.
Sam was mostly terrified at the prospect of actually catching a live fish, but he thought the bobber was pretty cool.
When we didn't have luck with worms, Ellis decided he would just net one of the many fish we saw hanging around the dock. Alas, they were too fast for him.
We saw lots of wildlife on this trip, including this bald eagle.
Ellis did this puzzle completely by himself!
When he was done, we had a great time tracking where we had gone and where we would still go on our road trip.
Playing games in the cabin.
On Day 3, we went to Bear World, which is a place in Rexburg where you can drive through a compound that is FULL of bears. Apparently, some guy wanted to re-create what Yellowstone used to be like with all of the bears, and Bear World was created.
The bears were seriously all over the place, some right next to the car. We were even instructed not to stop driving because they sometimes like to climb on top of the cars.
At lunchtime, Brady and I zonked out due to late game nights and early fishing mornings for 3 nights in a row. Henry and Ellis thought they'd be real funny and pretend to be asleep like us. :)
As you can see, Bear World was a hit!
Bear World also had other wildlife, such as this rare white elk.
Brady and I had had so much fun fishing the river that I decided we had to get the boys out there to see how much fun fly fishing can be. Here is Ellis' first fish ever on a fly (and the first one he can remember, period). He was nervous it would flop out of his hands, so he had me hold it for the picture. Have you ever seen a look of such pure excitement before?
Here's Henry's fish!
Documenting a special milestone in the Iverson family: we're all just tall enough to be each other's head rest! It won't last long; Henry is shooting up like a weed.
James getting in on the head rest action!
And just like that, it was time for us to pack up and head home! After going to church in the unique A-frame building at Mack's Inn, we said our goodbyes to Brady and McCall and Jenn's parents, and piled into the car for the 1,400-mile trek home.
Since it was Sunday, the DVD collection was a bit limited on our first driving day. Ellis was inspired by Grandpa Dave and insisted he wanted to do a crossword puzzle during the drive. We thought he would just write in random letters, but he wanted to read the clues to us and fill in the correct letters. Didn't he do a good job? And we really knew it was meant to be when we got to the clue for 40-across: "New York Island." Serendipity!
The best part about driving home from Island Park was that it was far enough north that we didn't come home on I-80, but instead took I-94. I-94 just happens to go through North Dakota, a state that I had never been to. This was my 48th state to visit! Jenn nearly missed getting the sign as we flew by!
Jenn had an even harder time catching the sign for my 49th state, but if you squint hard you'll see that we also went through Minnesota, my 49th state! My last state is Hawaii. Guess we'll have to plan a trip, eh?
This is about how we felt after 19 hours of driving. We thought that one of the main benefits of driving over flying was that we wouldn't annoy other people on the flight with our noisy kids. Turns out we found plenty of people to annoy at restaurants and rest stops.
Eventually, though, we made it home! We didn't see anyone for as long as we wanted to, but it was so fulfilling to see some many people that we love and miss dearly. Thanks to everyone for making our vacation spectacular. Come visit us soon!
