Craters and Bears

We're going to mess with the timeline a little bit here. Our mini-vacation for April was April 29-May 1st. It was such a great trip that I feel like it needs it's own post. So we'll do this dense post about the trip. Then I'll back up a bit and do a post covering April 26th to  . . . whenever I get that post done. 

Looking back it's kind of amazing how this whole trip came together so perfectly. It certainly didn't start out as a fully planned out weekend. 

At the beginning of January I booked 5 mini vacations for our family to do. Due to COVID and Brandon's work schedule, we chose to do an overnight trip every month rather than one weeklong trip like we normally do. We figured if we stayed fairly close to home we could take the money we would have spent on gas and stay in cabins rather than use the tent. The cabins made Winter and Early Spring trips possible. 

I knew that one of the places we wanted to visit was Crater of the Moon National Monument. This has been on our list of places to visit since we first moved to Idaho. But we couldn't ever time the visit right. We either didn't have the time to make the drive up from Pocatello, or it wasn't the right time of year. The kids' daycare did go to Craters of the Moon as part of Adventure Camp in the summer of 2018. I planned to go with them and bring Veronica, but that ended up being the day that Derrick's autism re-evaluation was scheduled.  So Charlotte and Lydia went to Craters with the daycare, but Derrick, Veronica, and I went to the doctor. 

We tried to visit Craters as a family in March of 2019. This was a day trip that we took during Spring Break. Well someone forgot to tell Craters of the Moon that it was spring. There was at least 2 feet of snow on the ground when we got there. We were able to go in the visitors center, but we couldn't see much of the landscape. The trip wasn't a total bust though, we ended up driving to Twin Falls that same day and realized that we really should be including that city in Brandon's job search. 

Last year I'd hoped to visit Craters of the Moon in the spring. But it was literally shut down during the pandemic. And by the time things opened back up it was too hot to visit.

So I was determined that we'd visit Craters of the Moon this year. There is a campground inside the monument, but it didn't have a lot of shade. Plus I couldn't get the image of all the snow covering the ground out of my head. So I started looking for a cabin nearby. The closest town is Arco which is about 30 miles away from Craters of the Moon. That town has a KOA so I was able to book us a stay in a Kamping Kabin. 

The first weekend the campground was open was around April 23. But that would have been the night of my Symphony Concert. So I booked the trip for Thursday, April 27. Brandon took Friday off of work (because this was his vacation -remember) and so we could leave Thursday night when he got off of work. It seemed like a waste to drive all that way and only stay one night so I made sure to book us for two night.  

At some point I realized that we could add Bear World to this trip.  Bear World has almost been as elusive as Craters of the Moon.  The kids and I went there with Adventure Camp in 2018 and had an absolute blast. The kids all wanted to come back sometime with Brandon. And then Veronica added that we should bring Bestemor and Bestefar (Brandon's parents) with us. She asked them to come and they said that sounded like a great idea.

At first we talked about going to Bear World that fall. But before we could solidify our plans I got hit by a car, dislocated my knee cap, and effectively cancelled anything strenuous for the fall. 

A few months later I was walking fine again so we started planning a trip for that spring.  Somehow I thought we should go on the Friday before Brandon's graduation in May. But that ended up being bad idea because Bear World wasn't even open on Fridays that early in May. (Thankfully we figured that out before we drove all the way to Rexburg.) So we moved the trip to June. But the Monday before the trip, Veronica biffed it on her bike on a big hill and broke her collar bone. 

Veronica was heartbroken about not being able to go to Bear World so we made promises to go in the fall after we moved to Twin Falls. But Brandon lost his job right as we moved so that threw our finances into survival mode. A trip to Bear World was definitely not a priority. 

Things were looking better in the early part of 2020 and I started talking about putting a trip to Bear World together for sometime that year. But before that plan good too far COVID hit and shut everything down. 

So after all that, I was a little hesitant to try to plan another Bear World trip. But I knew it would be easy to add Bear World to the Craters of the Moon Trip. Rexburg is only an hour and a half away from Arco - that's the closest we would have been to Rexburg since we moved to Twin Falls. I'd already booked the cabin for 2 nights so it would be very easy to visit Craters on Friday and then get up on Saturday and drive to Bear World.  Also I realized that Saturday May 1st would probably be one of the Half Price weekends Bear World does during the early season. We could go to Bear World for a lot cheaper than we could at any other time of year.  

I very tentatively put Bear World on the calendar. In pencil. With a question mark next to it.  

Brandon invited his parents to come with us to Bear World. They decided to do the whole trip with us and were able to book their own KOA Kabin for Thursday and Friday nights. The kids were so excited about having their grandparents along on a trip. 

Brandon and the kids helped get everything packed on Wednesday night. On our previous trips I've tried to pack everything during the day on Thursday, but that just led to a super stressed out Mom by the time we actually left. So this time we all worked together to pack.  We even packed the roof bag (we call it The Hat) and I just drove around with it on the car when I went to work on Thursday. That worked out much better. 

Another thing that worked out really well was taking Marcia to a kennel. She could stay in the kabin and go to Craters, but she wouldn't be able to go to Bear World with us. So it was just easier to leave her home. We found a kennel where she could stay. It was a good deal, but we had to make sure she was up to date on her shots.  That was kind of pricy.  But it was worth it to not have to worry about her for a few days.  Brandon took care of dropping her off before he went to work on Thursday. I'm not going to lie, it was nice to come home to a dog-less house when I got home from work that day. 

Brandon got home a little before 6:00 on Thursday and we were driving toward Craters of the Moon within a few minutes.  I'd made Hoagie Sandwiches and we ate those as we drove.

The drive took us about two hours.  The kids watched Boss Baby on the TV screen the whole way there. Most of the drive was pretty unremarkable. But it did get interesting when we drove by parts of Craters of the Moon. We could see the lava rock. It was pretty but part of me was like, "Um, there is lava rock all over southern Idaho. What makes this area so special?"

We pulled into the KOA a little after 8:00.  Brandon's parents were already there. They'd been there since about 1:00 and had been exploring Arco. They were in a one bedroom cabin next to ours.  

Here's our car and our cabin.

There was a playground across from the cabins and the kids immediately went over there.  They played there for a long time. 

Here's the outside of our cabin.

This is the view through the front door. 

This is the first room. It had a full size bed where Brandon and I slept. 

And then the kids room was the next room. It had two bunk beds. The kids took turns sleeping on the top bunks. Our last three cabin trips had been to one room cabins, so to have walls and a door separating us from the kids felt down right palatial. 

There was also a mini fridge and a microwave. These made our meals super easy. 

The kids went to bed around 9:30. We didn't have the heat turned on, but their bedroom heated up pretty fast from their body heat.  I went in to check on them and Veronica was still awake because it was so hot.  I opened the window and then brought her out onto the porch swing to cool off. We had a really nice time swinging and talking.  After she was cooled off she went back to bed and slept well all night. 

Brandon and I stayed up talking with his parents for a while and then we went to bed.  I realized - much to my horror - that I have got into the habit of falling asleep while watching Youtube. That's what I'd done to wind down all during my crazy month of April and I guess it was turning into a habit. It was really strange to fall asleep to my own thoughts.

 Friday, April 30

This was our day for Craters of the Moon. We started the day with Fruit and Microwaved Egg sandwiches. Around 9:00 we left the campground and went into town to go to the store. I'd completely forgot to pack sunblock and I didn't have any stashed in the car either. So we bought sunblock at the cute little store.  Then we drove the 30 minutes over to the entrance to Craters of the Moon. 

We made a brief stop at the visitor center to use the bathrooms and grab a map.  Then we drove into the Monument.  Our first stop was an easy loop trail in what was called the Devis's Orchard. (Fun fact, my mouth cannot handle the difference between Orchard and Orchid and so I was constantly calling it the Devil Orchid even thought I knew better.) 

Right off the bat I was impressed by the number of trees.  I'd assumed there wouldn't be any trees within the whole monument.  

We saw this cute little chipmunk. It's been a while since we've seen a chipmunk so Derrick called it a Baby Squirrel. 

Here are all the kids. 

The rock was interesting, but again I was thinking, "Up we have rocks just like this in Twin Falls. What makes this place so special."

Here are the kids on a bench.  Jacque was very impressed by all the amenities of the park. The last time she'd been here was in the 80's. Brandon had been about 5 years old. According to them there had been nothing here.  Just a dirt road and a bunch of lava rocks. 

Here I am.

The twins next to a big lava rock formation. 

Even though I was only mildly impressed by the scenery I was still having a good time. The weather was perfect. It was warm enough that we didn't need jacket's but it wasn't super hot either. 

We got back in the car and drove by some old lava fields with small plants growing in the rocks.

Then we rounded a bend and came to a parking lot at the bottom of a large cinder cone volcano. There was a trail that went to the top.  Charlotte and Lydia had started the trip saying they couldn't remember a thing about coming here 3 years ago. But then they'd said they remembered walking to the top of one of the lava hills. When they saw this they said, "Yes! We did that!"

They got out of the car and were speeding up the hill within seconds of us parking. 

The hill was steep, but the trail was only two tenths of a mile so we went up it. 

Here's Derrick about halfway to the top.

Looking back down.  This is when I started to acknowledge that the lava rock in Craters of the Moon is cooler than the rest of the lava rock around Southern Idaho. 

Veronica loved all the rocks, but knew she couldn't take them home, so we took pictures instead. They were very sparkly. 

Here's the view looking down again.

We made it to the top and were greeted by one tree. 

Steve took a family picture for us. 

Here's the far away view. 

And here are the kids. I love all that open scenery in the background. 

They had fun pretending like they were going to jump off the edge. 

We hiked back down the hill and got back into the car. Then it was a short drive over to the Spatter Cones. There were some paved trails that took us to the back of one of the cones.  It was named "The Snow Cone." 

The kids got there first and told me, "Mom it's really neat."

And they were right. There was snow in the bottom of the cone. 

Here's a slightly different view. Charlotte's hat is covering the snow.

Then we went on another short trail to another spatter cone.  A lot of the trails had pictures like this to show what things would have looked like when this place was an active volcano area. 

Here's the trail up to the cone. 

This one was also fun to look inside. 

Here's Veronica. 

I was getting a lot of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" vibes. 

We set up the camera and took a group picture inside the dead volcano.

We went back to the cars and kept driving. The kids were switching back and forth between our car and Steve and Jacque's. Every time we got back in the cars they switched who was riding in which car.   Here's some scenery we drove by. 

There was a picnic spot marked on the map. I was skeptical about what kind of picnic accommodations would be available in this lava field. I pictured us getting blown by wind and baked by the sun. But I was very impressed by what we found. There was a picnic beach under a tall tree next to a large rock outcropping. 

Here's Lydia with a giant pinecone. 

We had a yummy snacky lunch. Then we got back in the car and drove a little farther to the end of the road. There was a large parking lot and two trail heads.  One trail was a 1.8 mile loop and the other was a 1 mile one way trail. By this point it was about 1:00 in the afternoon. It wasn't exactly a hot day, but it wasn't really cool either. This wasn't a good time of day to go on a long hike.  So we just took pictures. 

Here are Charlotte and Lydia pretending to come back from one of the long hikes. 

We got back into the cars and started heading back to the visitor center. Veronica piled all our hats on her head to pretend to be the guy from the book "Caps for Sale."

If we'd been here this time last year we would have had one more stop. Craters of the Moon has some pretty amazing lava tube caves. Charlotte and Lydia had gone in at least one when they were here on their field trip (That Daycare was incredible) But the caves are currently closed. There was an earth quake here last year and it caused some instability within the caves. So they are now closed.  And the rangers aren't taking any chances. They had everything closed off starting with the turn off to the parking lot. 

We drove back to the visitor center to check out some of the displays. 

I had Derrick stand where we'd taken a picture last time we were here. 

Quite the difference

I realized we could see the cindercone hill from the visitor center.  

We finished up at the visitor center and then headed back to Arco and our campground. The rest of the day was deliciously lazy. I took a super long nap in the cabin. While I was asleep Brandon and Jacque took the kids to the playground in town.  When I woke up I called my parents and talked to them for an hour. 

When the kids came back we continued lounging around. I love this picture of Charlotte and Lydia on the porch swing. 

Jacque had bought a puzzle for the kids.  Here's Veronica working on it. 

We had hot dogs for dinner.

Earlier in the day Brandon and I had decided that we'd like to go back to Craters and do one or both of the long hikes that evening.  Steve and Jacque agreed to watch the kids so we could do the hikes as a date.  So after dinner we got in the car and drove back to the monument.  We followed the trail all the way to the parking lot at the end.  Then we started on the 1.8 mile loop trail. 

It's been a really long time since Brandon and I have gone hiking by ourselves.  It felt like old times to be heading out on a hike together.

The scenery was really pretty. 

We went up on a hill and could see a lot of the area. I was using the zoom on my camera to try to view the cave area. I *think* this is the entrance to one of the caves. 

The trail had lots of markers that corresponded to a trail guide. But we didn't have the guide so we just made up what the markers were about. 

It was funny to come up with silly things and try to make them sound legit. 

This sign marked the end of the official trail. If you went past it you were entering the back county and needed to be prepared. Brandon and I walked a little ways past this sign just to say we did.  

Behold, the wilderness. 

Then we turned around and went back to the part of the loop trail that would take us back to the parking lot.  The trail straddled a crack which was cool.

Here's Brandon on the crack.

It got bigger. 

We came to Buffalo Cave.  This is also closed. 

But we could at least peek inside. 

This whole area was like a lava tube sink hole. Brandon liked looking around at it. 

I love this picture of our shaddows. 

Here's a cool lava feature. 

I liked how there were different types of lava rocks on either side of the trail.

We made it back to the parking lot and had a decision to make about the other trail. It was to the "Tree Molds" and the sign said the first tree mold was a mile down the trail. That meant we had to hike two miles before dark. I wasn't sure we had enough time.  Brandon suggested we hike as far as we could until the sun set. Then we'd turn around even if we hadn't reached the tree molds. We'd still have enough light to follow the trail back and if it happened to get too dark Brandon had his flashlight.

So we set off down the trail.  It went up a hill for a while and I was wondering if this was really worth it.  Then we made it to the top and there was a huge sink hole type structure. 

It was so deep. I told Brandon the hill was worth it for that. 

We went down the other side of the hill and onto a flat plain.

We had fun hiking and talking.  I guessed we'd gone about 3/4ths of a mile.  I asked Brandon how far he thought we'd gone.  I figured he had some sort of Army Land Navigation training that would help him know how far we still had to go.  He confessed that while, yes, he had been taught land nav, he'd developed other skills in the Army that made it tricky for him to gauge distance.  He said that his way of coping with really long ruck marches had been to over-estimate how long a mile was. He'd pick a landmark way in the distance and when they passed it he'd be like, "Okay that was a mile."  So in his mind he'd be on mile 7 or 8 when they finished a 10 mile march.  He'd be like "Oh that wasn't so bad. that felt kind of short."  Then he told me that we'd probably only gone a half a mile. 

The sun was nearly setting and we figured we should turn back soon. there was a sign in the distance so we decided to go to the sign and see what it said.  When we got close we realized it was a sign for one of the tree molds.  

The tree molds are made from where lava flowed around living trees. The trees died and rotted away, but the stone surrounding them stayed in place. 

Just past the tree mold sign was another wilderness sign. Brandon says he wants to come back here and go into the backcountry. 

Here we are at the end of the trail. (I'd switched to my "backup" glasses as the light was dimming and I couldn't wear my prescription sunglasses.) 

And here's one last look at the trail. My camera had a hard time focusing in the dimming light. 

We went back on the same trail and made it back to the car before it was fully dark. Then we drove 30 minutes back to Arco. It was fully dark by the time we made it back. Steve, Jacque and all three girls were waiting for us on their porch.  Derrick had already put himself to bed in our cabin. 

Veronica and Lydia went to bed soon after we got home, but Charlotte stayed up talked with us until at least 10:30.  Then we finally went to bed. 

This had been an absolutely perfect, wonderful, awesome day. I'm so glad we finally made it to Craters of the Moon.

On Saturday morning I woke up super early and decided I wasn't going to fall back asleep. So I went to the bathrooms and took a shower. I'd needed one the night before, but I hadn't wanted to sleep with wet hair. It felt so good to be clean. 

I sat on the porch and tried to hammer out a blog post for East Idaho Moms because I still needed to submit a post for May and it was now May 1st. But I didn't get very far on that before Derrick woke up. He was so excited for Bear World and wanted to have every one get up and get ready right away. I was able to explain that it was still only about 7:00 and everyone else needed to sleep a little bit.  

Derrick was willing to sit on the porch swing with me and we had a good time out there together. I think Veronica was the next one up and soon after that Brandon got up. We had yogurt, cereal, and pop tarts for breakfast. Lydia got up at some point, but Charlotte who had been all, "I can stay up super late because I don't need a lot of sleep" the night before was suddenly, "I'm so tired, please let me sleep."  I basically handed her a yogurt and her clothes and told her to eat and get dressed in bed. 

We packed everything up and put the "hat" back on the top of the car. Brandon's parents were packed much faster than we were and they helped with the last few things. 

We were on the road around 8:30. That would get us to Bear World right at 10:00 when it opened (or so we thought.)

We basically had to drive straight East from Arco to Rexburg. We had a really great view of the Teton mountains off in the distance.

We made it to Bear World at 10:00 and I realized 2 things. 1. Since this was the Cub-pooloza weekend the park opened at 9:00 instead of 10:00. And 2. We weren't the only people who were taking advantage of the half priced tickets. There was a huge line of cars slowly making its way into the park.   We waited in the line and could see the area with the rides.  There was a new Ferris Wheel that all the kids were so excited to ride.  They were hopping in their seats and wishing that the car would go faster through the line.  

We were in line about 15 minutes. We paid and then finally made it into the park. We went through the gift shop out to the area behind the gift shop. There was a little area with all the cute bear cubs.  

We stopped at the rest rooms and then got in line for the rides. The kids wanted to do the roller coaster first. Each child doubled up with an adult buddy. Veronica and I were buddies.  I had a goal to ride the roller coaster with each of the kids that day.  I'd done that on our last trip to Bear World and I wanted to do it again.

Here's the rest of our group in line. 

The roller coaster is really interesting.  It doesn't seem like much.  It just goes in a figure 8 and it only has 4 cars that each hold 2 people.  But it packs a secret wallop. The cars spin independently.  So as you are travelling in the figure 8 the cars are spinning around.  That makes the ride a different experience depending on where you sit and who is around you. Veronica and I started out in a car with Charlotte and Jacque sitting in front of us.  But quickly we spun around so we were looking at other people. 

Here are Veronica and I waiting for the ride to start. She had been waiting for this moment for nearly 3 years. 

I took this video of the roller coaster later in the day when it was just the kids on the roller coaster. You can hear Veronica screaming and see her put her hands in the air. She loved it so much. 

After the roller coaster the kids went on the Huckleberry Drop. Somehow Charlotte got separated from the other three. 

So she ended up riding it by herself. 

Our next ride was the Ferris Wheel. Charlotte and Lydia rode with Brandon and me while Derrick and Veronica went with Steve and Jacque. This ride had the longest line we had to wait in yet.  That's because loading each basket took so long.  Here are Charlotte and I in the basket. 

and Brandon and Lydia. 

All 4 of us. 

And here is the other basket with the other four. 

It was fun to see them as we went around and around the wheel. I'm slightly terrified of Ferris Wheels, but this one was small enough that I didn't get too scared. 

Next we went on the spinning bears. 

And the kids went on the bouncing cars. 

They were having so much fun. One reason I wanted to make sure we came this year was that I felt like this was the last year that Charlotte and Lydia would legitimately love the little rides. They turn 11 this year and I think that riding in a little bouncy car wont seem very cool for much longer. 

Here's Veronica.

That was it for all the little rides and the lines were starting to get longer and longer.  I think we went on one more ride on the roller coaster. I sat by Derrick this time. 

Then we gave up on the rides for a while.  We went out to the little petting zoo.  I'd been telling everyone about the last time I'd walked into this zoo.  Charlotte and some of the other kids had already gone in there with one of the daycare leaders and I was coming in with Derrick. I walked in and it was like walking into a Disney Movie because Charlotte was petting a deer.  Basically the same thing happened this time. 

Here's Veronica with a very pregnant goat.

Geese.

There were some moose across the road. 

Here's a peacock.

More goat time. 

We were in the petting zoo for a long time. When it was time to leave we took this picture of the kids. 

Then we went to watch the baby bears.  But they were all taking a nap.

All 6 of them were in this cave. One woke up, stuck out its tongue. Then laid back down and went to sleep. 

Derrick stood by this height chart and I realized he is 5 feet tall.  What?

I love this picture of all the kids. 

We went over to a covered pavilion and Brandon went out to the car to grab our lunch food. In the back ground of the picture are the actual bears of Bear World. 

We ate lunch.  During lunch the kids kept wandering over to the bear cub enclosure to watch the cubs who had woken back up.

After lunch it was time to drive around the drive through zoo part of Bear World. Derrick and Veronica drove with me and Brandon and the twins went with Steven and Jacque.  The drive starts out with the more docile animals. These are the elk.

After driving past Elk, bison, and deer you come to a spot where a worker instructs you to roll up your windows and to proceed with caution.  Then you are let into the bear area.  First up are some grizzly bears in pens. 

Then there are black bears that roam a little more.  But apparently I didn't care enough about those to upload a picture. Honestly, the animal part of bear world feels slightly exploitive and I try not to think about it too hard. 

When we got done with the bears we pulled over and let the kids switch cars so Derrick and Veronica had a chance to drive through with Steve and Jacque.  Derrick was mad that we weren't riding rides so he didn't switch cars, but Veronica did.  Here are Charlotte and Lydia looking at animals as we drove through a second time. 

Here's Brandon driving. 

Antler and Cubby were loving the tour. 

After our second time through the drive through we parked the car for real. We'd had a fairly close spot that morning, but now we were directed out to the overflow parking lot.  Steve and Jacque had a long drive home ahead of them and they were planning to stop to see some friends in Idaho Falls so they opted to say goodbye at that point.  We were so happy that they'd been able to share in our adventures that weekend.  

So we said goodbye and headed back into the park to play on the rides some more. It was probably 1:30 or 2:00 at this point. The park was full of people and the lines for all the rides were long.  The day had started out overcast, but by this point it was warm and sunny.  The kids were willing to wait in the long lines in the sun, but I wasn't in the mood to. So the kids stood in line while Brandon and I sat on a sunny bench and waited for a shady spot to open up.  

It was really cute to watch the kids stand in line and talk with each other. Its moments like this when I think, "Hey having four kids super close in age was actually pretty smart because they can do stuff like this together."

When it was their turn they were so cute in the little basket.

I took this video of them.

When they were done with the Ferris Wheel they got in line another ride and waited patiently again. Brandon and I were able to snag a shady table while the kids were in line.  We hung out there and I got into a rhythm with the kids. Every time they finished a ride I'd find them in their new line and bring them more water.  I told them to keep drinking water because it would help them outlast the other people who were standing in lines.  I told them, "only the strong survive the 3:00 hour.  If you can make it through 3:00 this place will clear out and you'll be able to ride the rides without as long of a wait. 

Here they all are on the berry drop. 

And here is a video, with shoe drops that may or may not be accidental. 

Brandon and I took turns looking at the gift shops while the kids were in line.  I bought a little figurine of a bear to put on our living room shelf. 

As predicted the crowds thinned out as 3:00 stretched into 4:00. I felt like it was worth my time to stand in line again. Brandon stayed in the shade and took a little nap. I rode the roller coaster with Lydia. 

The Spinning Bears with Charlotte. 

And the roller coaster with Charlotte. 

And another roller coaster turn with Veronica. 

The kids got back in line for the Ferris Wheel. Brandon was up from his nap by this point so he waited with them. But I didn't want to wait in like for the Ferris wheel.  Around that same time Derrick started having a little bit of a meltdown and I realized he was probably hot and hungry.  So we went over to a table and I pulled food and water out of my bag. Veronica came along and had a snack too. Derrick ate an apple and drank a lot of water and seemed to do a lot better after that. 

We went back to the group and Derrick rode a few more rides.  I noticed Charlotte wasn't in line for anything and then realized she was over by the bears. I went over with her and she took several pictures with my camera.

The cubs were so cute. 

Here she is with them in the background. 

Then we went in the petting zoo area so she could see the animals again.

Total Disney movie.

Charlotte wants a farm with lots of live stock, but she says she won't have pigs like this. She wants cute pigs. 

We could see some of the bigger black bears from the petting zoo.

Then we went back to the rides and I think Brandon and the kids were finally on the Ferris Wheel. Earlier Charlotte told me she hadn't minded the long line for the Ferris wheel because it gave her a chance to really study how it was constructed. She was figuring out how to build one out of legos. (And then she did build one from memory when she got home.)

The crowds really thinned out around 4:30. The park closed at 5:00, but the rides would stay running until 6:00. We were determined to stay until closing time.  We had a ton of fun going around and riding as many rides as possible. 

Brandon and I were able to ride the roller coaster together.

At 5:50 Derrick remembered that there was a little train ride.  We'd all deemed this a "baby ride" and none of the other kids would ride it. But Derrick wanted to ride it at least once.  He was so excited and kept saying "Mom, I'm on the TRAIN!."  I was like, "oh, I should have given you more opportunities to ride this today." And then Derrick stuck his hand out the window and tried to reach the track and I was like, "Nope, once was probably enough. You are already bored."

The train ride ended with just enough time for me and Derrick to run back over to the roller coaster for the last ride of the night.  All three girls and Brandon were on the ride too. There was a group of teenage girls on the ride that had been getting on, riding, then getting off and getting right back on again. They'd been doing this for about the last half hour and the crowds were so thin they weren't stealing anyones seats or anything.  When the ride ended they asked if they could ride it one more time.  And the teenage boy who was the ride attendant asked everyone, "who wants to go again!"  Of course everyone said yes. So we got to have one last ride without exiting and reentering.  It was the perfect ending to our day.  All the kids thought they were the luckiest kids in the world because they got one extra ride. 

We got off the roller coaster and realized we were some of the last people in the park.  We took one last look at the baby bears. 

Then we walked out the gift shop and stopped at the penny presser that is outside the door.  We got our pressed penny.

Then we took this picture with the bear statue in front of the gift shop.

I took one last picture of all the rides that were now done.  The kids were all talking about how we would definitely be back.  And we might be.  But I took this time to say goodbye. Even if we do come back I don't know if the next visit could ever live up to how special this day was for two 10 year olds, one 9 year old, and a 7 year old. 

We walked back to our car which was now one of the only cars in the overflow parking lot.  

It's become a tradition for us to go to McDonalds at the end of these mini vacations. We could either back track to Rexburg or start heading home to Idaho Falls. We opted to go to Idaho Falls. It was about 15 minutes away and the kids constantly reminded us of how hungry they were. 

When we got to Mcdonalds we ordered 6 drinks, 6 fries, and 12 cheeseburgers because Veronica is always asking for two.  We were all very happy to have the food. 

So were Cubby and Antler.

And here's a picture of how the kids were in the car on this trip. Most of our stuff was in the hat so we were able to move Veronica to the back.  This is the best way for the kids to sit on long trips.  Otherwise they just get really annoyed at eachother. 

We'd driven on back roads from Twin Falls to Arco to Rexburg, but for the drive home we were going to take the interstates from Rexburg to Pocatello to Twin Falls. 

Since we would be going through Pocatello we knew we had to take a detour into the town. The was the first time the kids were back in Pocatello since we moved over 18 months ago. Brandon and I had each been back once.  

Our first stop was the nearly finished Pocatello Temple. 

It looks so good!

Then we drove through town. It was surreal to be back and doing things like driving through the tunnel.

Here's Old Town. 

Then we drove by our house.  The kids were so surprised to see other cars there. I have told them plenty of times that other people probably moved into our house, but they had to see it to believe it. 

Here's the Cre Act building right by our bus stop. 

And our church.

We drove out to the elementary school and were stopped by a herd of deer that came down from the hills. 

Just like old times. 

Here's the school.

Then we went by ISU. There is an I on Red Hill now.  The I was down the whole time Brandon was a student there. 

The ELC and the busses. 

When we saw the ELC Derrick started to ask where Miss Wenda was.  He was very distraught that we couldn't just go see her. I think he assumed she lived at the ELC. 

We went to the McDonalds across the street from the university.  This was for icecream for two reasons.  1. There had been really expensive icecream at Bear World and I'd told the kids we'd get some at McDonalds later.  and 2. My parents had given me money for ice cream after my symphony concert the week before. 

Well the ice cream was good, but it wasn't enough to make Derrick happy. He literally was holding his ice cream while crying big tears and saying, "Miss Wenda where are you?" It was the saddest sweetest thing ever. 

I told Derrick we would text Miss Wenda on Sunday and see if we could call her sometime so he could talk to her. I told Derrick we could talk to her about meeting up when we come to Pocatello for a longer visit (tentatively planned for the end of June.) That helped Derrick feel better.  He calmed down and ate his ice cream. And on Monday we were able to get ahold of Wenda and Derrick had a good talk with her on the phone and yes we will be seeing her this summer. I think it's so sweet that Derrick wanted to see Miss Wenda. She was a huge part of our lives when we lived in Pocatello I'm fairly certain when he was in Kindergarten he spent more waking time with her than with me. They were really good friends.  Also she planned the Adventure Camp trips to places like Craters of the Moon and Bear World. So in a way this whole weekend had been due to her influence. 

Honestly I'm not surprised Derrick got emotional in Pocatello. This is the first time the kids have EVER been back to a place that they remember living in (if you don't count when we lived with my in-laws, which I don't). We've never been able to drive by our houses in Texas or Alabama. We haven't even been back to Yellowstone since living there.  So to suddenly drive by all these familiar places was a new thing for them. All of them were saying things like, "I wish we still lived here" and "Oh I remember that place!"

They are all looking forward to when we come back for a visit. 

The kids watched the movie "The Book of Life" the whole way home. It was around 10:30 when we made it home.  The kids were so sleepy I'm not sure they even changed into pajamas. 

Brandon and I were pretty exhausted too. Usually we do a good job of cleaning out the car soon after we get home from trips.  But we left nearly everything in the car and just went inside and went to bed.  

It had been such a great weekend. You'd almost think I'd planned it this way all along.