Another year, another trip to the river....

Bub's family has a cabin in Island Park Idaho, just outside of Yellowstone. Each year we get a turn (sometimes two) to go there. It is beautiful, and we all love it. This year, we were lucky enough to be able to invite two of my sisters to come with us.

DeAnn & Leon came with their miniature Daschund "Winnie"

who wouldn't look at the camera.

Janet & Scott came and brought a camper - which is probably a good thing considering that all together, there were 4 dogs there. Scott and the girls are all allergic to dogs.

We had a great time having them there with us. Aiden and especially Emma enjoyed having their cousins to play with. Emma and Ava played and played and played. Unfortunately, the three days my sisters were there were cold and rainy. We got to go into Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and a few things. We took them shopping in West Yellowstone. We fed the fish at Big Springs, and had a lot of fun with our Father's Day Challenge.

Once they left, the weather cleared up and we had several adventures. While Aiden tried to go banana chair surfing by himself (rather than with his cousins like he had been doing) One of the chairs popped up and cracked him in the noggin. It was a big bloody mess and we debated sometime about whether we thought he needed stitches or not. We decided not. But, he still has a big band aid across his forehead.

We drove a couple of hours to another part of Montana where the Lewis & Clark Caves are, and took a tour. It was fun because we've never done that before. It was an adventure because Aiden wouldn't go potty 'just in case' before hand, and ended up 'dancing' through the majority of the cave. He did make to the end - thank heavens!

We also 'floated the river'. I felt bad that my sisters missed that. It's one of my favorite things to do there. We get in rafts and canoes at the beginning of the river and lazily float a couple of miles down it to our cabin. This year wasn't so relaxing though. We tried to fish along the way, and didn't get out of the way of a submerged tree. We were in an inflatable raft, and immediately heard the loud whooshing of escaping air. Aiden was the first to cover the hole, but I quickly jumped over and stuck my finger in it. That's how I spent the rest of the ride. Which was just starting at that point. Bub took both oars and rowed all by himself. Aiden was so worried that we weren't going to make it. We had to keep explaining the situation to him to help him understand that everything was really okay. Though - Bub and I were pretty much stuck in the same position for quite some time and both have strange strips of sunburn on us.

Last but not least - it would not be a trip to the river without fishing. And we did plenty. Emma loved being out in the boat and 'helping' Daddy to fish. She wouldn't have anything to do with Mommy. But she loved helping Daddy. Each time he reeled one in, she held onto the rod and said "That's Belle." "That's Cinderella" or Dora, or Baby Bear, and named all the fish for her favorite princesses and cartoon characters.

Aiden caught a minnow and played with it in a bucket of water for a while. Bub convinced him to let the little fish go back into the river with it's family. The second Bub put it in the river though, a big seagull swooped down from the sky and snatched the little fish up. ---Luckily, Aiden had his back turned and was already on his way into the cabin, so he didn't see it.

It was a fun trip, and soon I'll have lots of great recipes to share from it. Scott's apple dumplings were incredible! They have about 8 pounds of butter in them! (stay tuned)