Idaho & Yellowstone

We're back from a fantastic weekend! We were in 4 states this weekend: Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah. Crazy, huh? And it wasn't even that much driving, believe it or not.

On Thursday we drove to Rigby, Idaho with Dan & Lisa and Jon & Carrie. I grew up with Dan & Jon, so we thought it would be fun to go away for a weekend together with our spouses. We spent the night and Lisa's parents' house so we didn't have to drive all the way to Island Park that night. It turns out that was a great idea because we didn't get to Rigby until 10:45, and we were all really tired. Plus, Lisa's mom is super nice and had chicken salad sandwiches waiting for us when we got there. And she made us pancake, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. I'm pretty sure that's what heaven is, it was amazing. Friday we woke up and headed to the Rexburg Temple and did sealings. It was a really great experience to be in the temple with some great friends and be able to take part in something that can bring families together forever.


After the temple, we packed up and got on our way to Island Park...but not before stopping for one of the most amazing lunches I've had in a long time: Big Jud's. Not so much low-fat, but definitely delicious. Yep, those are one pound hamburgers on homemade buns. In case you can't tell, they're the size of a dinner plate. And bigger than my head. Would it make you sick to know that Jon ate an entire one of those? And Corey ate 3/4 of one? I was plenty satisfied with my 1/4 of one (seriously, I'm pretty sure it would have killed me to eat more...especially since I just got my gall bladder out and I'm supposed to be careful of eating too much fat). Did I mention they also came with hand-cut fries & fry sauce? Heaven. Also on the menu at Big Jud's? The Hungry Heffer. It's 15 scoops of ice cream, topped with 5 toppings and whipped cream. It's so much ice cream that they serve it in a doggy bowl. Naturally we had to try it (hey, it was only $12, that's only $2 a person, which is cheaper than each of us getting an ice cream cone. You can't pass that up!) I'm pretty sure we only got about half way through the ice cream, but it was delicious.


From there we headed up to Island Park. Dan's family owns a cabin up there, so we were able to stay there for free, how sweet is that? Island Park is in the mountains near the Montana & Wyoming borders. It is an absolutely beautiful, and we were lucky enough to have near perfect weather (except for a half hour of rain on Saturday, and a hail/rain storm for a couple of hours on Sunday). We cleand up the cabin, walked down to the lake, made tin foil dinners, played lots of games, and went to bed exhausted.

We spent the next day at Yellowstone. We drove around and walked to see a bunch of the sites, and took way too many pictures. I used to think that Yellowstone was boring (based on my all-knowing 12 year old opinion of the last trip I took there) but it turns out that it is really fun. Jon & Carrie are good luck charms, so we were lucky enough to see quite a few of the geysers erupt (even if they only erupt every 18 hours!) They had some pools that were so clear and so blue that you could see down them for what seemed like miles, it was gorgeous. We also saw Yellowstone Lake which is one of the prettiest lakes I've ever seen in my life.

"The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River"

Sometimes the hot spots get so hot that they burst right through the pavement!

Enjoying the beautiful Yellowstone Lake

The Sapphire Pool. This was one of my very favorite things that we saw.

Hot Spots

This kind of looks like the Matterhorn Mountain at Disneyland to me...only minus the rollercoaster and plus the spewing top.

Carrie & Jon, Lisa & Dan, Aubrie & Corey.

That night we went to see Footloose at the Playmill Theatre in West Yellowstone. All I have to say is that it was quite the experience. When we got there (only about 5 minutes before it started because we were having too much fun in Yellowstone) they were doing a sing-along with the audience. Then they sang happy birthday / happy anniversary to anyone in the audience that was brave enough to admit that they were there celebrating. Then they did a bunch of random skits (I was really confused, because they didn't announce what they were doing...and I had never seen Footloose before but I was pretty sure it didn't start with a 3 legged man...). The play was pretty good, definitely entertaining, but intermission was the most exciting part. Mainly because all of the actors and actresses came out and sold concessions. It was like being at a ball park but 10 times more intense. They were walking down on the aisles, yelling at the top of their lungs, offering to sell popcorn for half price if you would dance for it, passing food over other patrons...it was nuts. Hilarious, but crazy.

Sunday we spent the day relaxing at the cabin. We played plenty more games, built a fire, had s'mores and pie irons (which I haven't had since I was 8, it was awesome), and spent a little bit of time in the paddleboat at the lake (before it started to rain).

All in all it ended up being a fantastic trip. We had lots of fun with friends and really enjoyed getting away for a little while. Thanks for the fun time Dan & Lisa!