We had quite an adventure for the 4th of July, driving 12 hrs to
Idaho Falls to visit Matt's family, for the first time with Carsen.
Carsen did GREAT! He ended up sleeping most of the time in the car. We
debated if this is a good time or not to take him back- good because he
just sits around all the time anyhow but bad because he can't run out
his energy at reststops like the dogs can. We broke the trip up by
spending the night in Boise each way. We met up with Matt's brother
Michael and sis-in-law Lindsey for breakfast each morning in Boise,
which was fun.
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| Here we are in Arco. Every year, the graduating high school writes their year up on that hill. |
We started off with a visit to Matt's fav, Texas Roadhouse; their rolls and butter really are amazing. On 4th morning, we went to the Idaho Falls parade. Carsen was a trooper. He seemed interested enough in the parade and didn't even mind all the horns honking and loud music. But then he started getting sleepy. He was nearly asleep in my arms when an antique firetruck drove by and honked right in front of us (gee thanks); Carsen freaked out and it was sad to see him cry. I thought they used to throw out candies at the parade; wasn't that the whole point in going? No candy here.
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| Parade with Grandma Susan |
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| Eating the flag??! This is why Matt says now Carsen will have a hard time running for office |
After the parade, we had breakfast at Matt's other fav spot, Smitty's, where we met up with his brother Martin, Martin's partner Jessica, and their kids Tayden, Colton, Maiya and Teagan. Teagan is 14 months and we were meeting him for the first time. What a cutie! He was really into wearing my sunglasses. He's also into hugging. Actually he's
into everything. Hard to imagine that'll be Carsen soon.
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| When we introduced the boys, Teagan leaned over and grabbed Carsen, pulling him in for a hug. |
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| Meeting Uncle Martin & Cousin Teagan |
Later that day, we beat the heat at Heise Hot Springs. The springs flow into manmade swimming pools. There was also a cold pool and a fun water slide tube. It was Carsen's first time swimming and he had a pretty serious expression the whole time.
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| He did splash a little toward the end of our swim. |
Later that night, we had a delicious dinner at Matt's mom Susan's place and sat outside to watch the fireworks. They shoot the fireworks off the banks of the river and someone actually went missing so the fireworks were delayed an hour while they searched the river for the missing swimmer. He was later found drowned in the strong undercurrent. Sad. ... But the fireworks were awesome. They shot off like 17,000 shells in 30 minutes and claim to be the biggest show west of the Mississippi.
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| Carsen slept through most of the fireworks |
We had a really nice visit. We also frequented Mrs. Powell's cinnamon rolls and Scotty's Drive-In, and took a walk on the greenbelt (riverside).
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| Matt showed me where he was born |
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| Carsen get some good time in with Grandma Susan |
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| He was pretty chipper for not sleeping well at night |
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| Meeting Uncle Michael & Aunt Lindsey |
What a drive though! We listened to a very strange audiobook on the drive and were so captivated, we forgot to get gas, even when we had stopped to change Carsen's diaper. About 47 miles past Burns, with about 80 miles until Bend, our gas warning came on to let us know we had 45 miles left before empty. So we started calling and texting people and NO ONE was around. We finally got a hold of one of Matt's coworkers who agreed to meet us in Brothers with some gas. We ended up finding someone at the Brothers rest area who had gas to spare, wouldn't even take our money for it. It made for an exciting end of the trip ;)
