Last day in Elko

On our last day we went to the skate park again so Ava could try out her new scooter. While the boys went to a movie the the girls went to see Charlie St. Cloud. Then my mom and dad took me and my sisters to a basque restaurant called the Star for dinner.





On our way out of town we stopped to see Grandma C.'s grave marker that had just been placed. It is still hard to believe she is gone. We had such a great time on our trip. We missed Derek like crazy but I was so glad we got the opportunity to spend some time with family!

Ava's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Ava's 5th birthday with all of our family while we were in Elko. She has wanted a Hello Kitty party and a pinata since her last birthday so that's what she got. We were able to Skype Derek in for most of the party so he could be a part of it. He had even sent her a special birthday package. She had a great day.

Hike to Island Lake

We went up to Lamoille Canyon, and decided to hike up to one of the lakes. It was a 2 mile hike up to the lake and the kids did really well. We didn't get to stay long and enjoy the water but it was fun.



The dogs got hot. They would burrow into any bit of shade they could find.

Ginger got into the water and then went and dried off in the dirt. She was so dirty.

Back to Elko

We were excited to get back to Elko because my sister Holly and her boys had come to visit. I hadn't seen them in almost 5 years. It was so good to see them and get to know Garrett and Kirkland all over again. Jerrod was in heaven with boys to play video games with! Since there isn't a huge variety of things to do we took the kids to the city pool.





This was Lizzie's first time at the pool and she had a blast. Ava kept coaxing her over to the edge so she could do cannonballs and splash her but Lizzie didn't seem to mind.

We even got to witness Garrett's first date. He went on a date with Kimber who was born on the same day. We grew up with her mom and her and my sister shared a hospital room together after having their babies. We didn't embarass him too bad.

One night we got to go visit our friends Tom and Dawn Olivas. It was so good to see them. They were like surrogate grandparents to Jerrod before we moved away.

Ava and Holly

We also took the kids to the skate park one night.

On the Road Again

Monday morning we headed home. We stopped to take a picture of the Idaho Falls temple where Grandma and Grandpa Wahlstrom were married. We also stopped in Burley to see my grandma one more time. I wish we lived closer to her. The kids had such a fun time at her house.



After saying goodbye to my grandma I took the kids out to the cemetery to see my grandpa's and my cousin Spencer's gravesite. They died within a week or so of each other and Spencer was my age. I told the kids they could smile but they thought that was weird.


We went to another cemetery in town and saw my other set of grandparent's graves and my Uncle's. It was neat to be able to show them where they are all buried and tell them a little bit about them.


We also got to see the Twin Falls temple.

Reunion Day 3

On Sunday, we all gathered at the main cabin to watch Derek's cousin Alex get his high school diploma and we also read a little bit about Grandma C and got to tell stories about her. Derek's Aunt Cindy typed up Grandma C.'s tape recordings of her history and his Unlce Steve printed them into book.


We all gathered for family photos and afterward we went back to our cabin to find a little visitor who ran underneath the dishwasher.


I decided that I wanted to take the kids to see a little more of Yellowstone so we headed out to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and to try and find some animals.

Here are 6 animals I spotted

After we left the grand canyon area we got stuck in a little traffic jam. We were wondering what the hold up was until I looked up the road and saw a huge bison walking toward us.




Thanks to the buffalo jam we were gone a good 5 hours so we stopped to get a little treat on the way back to the cabin.



Everyone was shivering. Nice change from our Vegas heat!