Part 2 - Idaho

We left Utah on Monday morning and headed for the great state of Idaho. A few days previous we had been discussing our travel plans in the car. Apparently nobody sent the itinerary to Ava because she was shocked to hear of our next stop.

Ava: We are going to Idaho!?

Me: Yes. In two days.

Ava: On this trip?!

Me: Yes.

Ava: Oh my gosh. I am so excited. I can't believe it.

long pause

Ava: Is Idaho kind of like Hawaii?!



Maybe Idaho is the high desert, landlocked version of Hawaii. There were no hulas or luaus, but there was a different kind of beauty some relaxation time as well.

It was meant to be an Abbott family reunion. But due to the crazy airline ticket prices this summer it was cancelled. But then everybody decided to show up anyway. Except for my sister Leah's family and my one sister in law and a niece and nephew, who were missed.

We all corralled ourselves at Chandra's homestead in Rexburg. It was my first time there and we were so anxious to see their new house and their new donut store.


That's my handsome nephew with the red hair, behind the counter,

And Max giving him about 20 new smudgy reasons to wash the windows,

It was very exciting to see (and taste) their new venture.




So much time, energy, and money has been poured into this place. I am so proud of them!

It only took me about 2 days to come to this conclusion: If I had daily interaction with a donut store for any extended period of time, there would be serious trouble. I don't think I could run enough miles to make that equation work out. It's no coincidence that on my first run post-vacation, there was a little extra jiggle around my middle. You might call it a spare tire, I am calling it a donut.

Besides the store, and taking some pictures for the walls, we spent time at home hanging out. It became clear on this trip, if my older two kids had siblings of the same age and sex, and Max had a dog, I could sit around a whole lot more. They played and played and played.

Marin took over the Ava department.



Though maybe I shouldn't have taken my time off so seriously. When I wasn't looking, Ava fell off the trampoline.



Ava was in love with the garden. I was in love with the sweet little strawberries they picked for us.




Luke had Dallin (also referred to as "Allen" or "that boy").



We literally hardly ever saw them. I love where we live, but there is something about being able to let the kids "out" to play that speaks to my insides. Above so many things, I wish I could give that to my kids.

Rexburg has a program where they provide free lunch at the park, every single day, to kids. We found ourselves at the park for lunch quite a few times.

On Thursday, we took a ride down to Lava Hot Springs to meet up with Bret and his family. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera. Dan stayed behind with Max which might have been the wisest decision of the whole trip. He never would have lasted. We spent the whole day at the pool, fully equipped with four huge water slides.

When we finally got in the car to head back, exhausted. I remarked that it hadn't been one of our better days (for a few key reasons, I'm about to explain) when my mom cut me off.

"This has been one of the best days ever. It could have ended much worse."

Which is so true. Overall the day was fantastic. Spending time together, having fun with so much family, etc.

Our first flirt with disaster was when we decided to float the river. Dan and I had come to Lava Hot Springs pre-kids for a Colton family reunion. Floating down the river on inner tubes was easily the best part. And I wasn't leaving without doing it again. Back in Utah, we had been warned about the high rivers and told to be careful, especially with the kids as there had already been a high number of deaths in the rivers this year.

With that in the back of my mind, my mom, sister, two teenage nieces, Ava, Luke, and myself started off on our river floating adventure. Our first mistake was not listening to the lady who rented us our tubes. She recommended we take the hugenormous 4 person tube since we had the kids; the only tube she guaranteed would not flip over. We worried about hiking up to the launch spot with it and also being able to hold onto the kids. So we opted for 2 doubles. I would take Ava, my mom would take Luke, and the rest would ride singles. All I can say is thank goodness we took some life jackets.

Our next mistake was to not have shoes. We knew we'd lose them in the river but hiking barefoot on burning pavement was torturous. Mom burned her sole so bad she had a huge blister. The rest of us took turns carrying tubes and kids. By the time we made it to the river in the little town we were toast.

Setting our tubes in the water, we realized that having the kids was quite the complication. The holes in the double tubes were so large they would fall right through. I had a few moments of panic but honestly, the thought of walking back down with no shoes wasn't an option. We took off with lopsided double tubes as Ava rode on my lap and Luke on my mom's. We grabbed onto each others handles and held on for dear life. The first few rapids were fun.

Then we came over a rise, and I could see some of the guys floating near us begin to paddle furiously to get to the other side of the river. I asked them, "Are we on the wrong side?" He gave me a look of pity and said, "Yes."

All of the sudden my mom and Lukey were totally flipped over. My heart skipped and sank and fell out of my chest. As they came up, I could not mistake the fear in their eyes. In one swift movement, aided by adrenaline, my mom lifted Luke straight up and I pulled him right up out of the water and onto Ava. And I couldn't even see my mom as we were swept on down the river. Chandra grabbed her tube as she glided by.

An there we were, piled three deep on a lopsided tube. Luke was sobbing. And I was scared. I had no way to stand up. I was terrified of another big rapid because if we dumped, there would be no way I could hang onto both of them.

Some lady floating near us, took us under her wings. She stayed with us, slowed us down, pulled us over at the right spot, and lifted the kids off me. Chandra was right behind us. There was no sign of my nieces or my mom. We climbed out, headed toward town and intercepted them. They had all climbed out back at the big rapid when they fell off and were unable to get back on their tubes, or didn't have a tube, in my mom's case.

And by this time, Ava was crying because she wanted to go again. And actually Luke wanted to to do it again too. I told them they were crazy.

We then passed off our tubes to the other people in the family who were wanting to go. I stayed at the pool watching kids. And then a while later, I saw my mom and two brothers congregated near the pool entrance. I was far away, but I could tell something was wrong. Turned out that my nephew was missing. They had gone down the river, climbed out, walked back to the pool but Oliver was nowhere to be found.

The other kids swore they saw him climb out of the water, but no one had seen him since then. The minutes ticked by and I felt absolutely helpless. I had to stay at the pool to watch the little kids. As all who were able went searching.

Ugh. The feeling you get when your child is lost, seriously there isn't much worse. Finally, I heard my brother on the phone with the police.

"He's ten."

"He's wearing a red shirt."

And on and on. Tears and fear welled in his eyes and I was positively sick.

About a half an hour after he'd last been seen, he was found! Apparently he tripped getting out of the water, and as he stood up he began to follow what he thought was our family carrying tubes. Instead of coming back to the pool, he realized once he got back into town, that he's followed the wrong tubes. My mom found him walking on the street looking for some way to call his mom. The reunion was happy and the relief followed but somehow it was hard to feel better. The adrenaline high was hard to come down from.

We packed up our stuff and left. We didn't even make it to the hot springs. But like my mom said, in a way it was the best day.

I was happy to spend some time at the Botanical Gardens were we took the rest of these pictures.











































My sister, Chandra, was like my second mom growing up.



And she still takes such good care of me now. Thank you, Chandra for everything! I love you!

I can't wait for the next real reunion. So good to be with my people.