Eagle Rock and Square Ice Cream

The weather has eased up a little over the past week or so, which is the opposite of what many of you are experiencing right now. I hope everyone is staying safe and dry!

It took us a little longer than I would have liked, but last weekend we finally made the drive through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks! We've visited before but the kids were much younger then, so this was to be the trip they all remembered. Word to the wise, if you have a fourth grader, be sure to print out their National Parks Foundation pass. It will save you a ton of money if you plan to visit the parks at all over the course of the year. 2016 is the National Park Service Centennial, so now is the perfect time to go!

I grew up singing that song, "Home on the range" and specifically the line "where the deer and the antelope play." Well we've seen plenty of deer and antelope (or pronghorns, as they're called here) but we've also seen a lot of buffalo. Actually, that's not entirely true. Technically, buffalo only live in Africa. Here in North America, we have bison. And believe me, we've seen a ton! Yellowstone has quite the population roaming about. One word of advice though, don't get out of your car to take a selfie with one. We saw several people do just that despite the warning that they were risking their own lives. Do yourself a favor and buy a camera with a zoom lens instead. Trust me. Taking that risk just to be in a picture with a wild animal is just asking for a place in the Darwin Award Hall of Fame!

These people pulled over to the side to get a better look. That's fine as long as you stay in your vehicle. If you look closely, you can see someone starting to get out....

We made sure to stop so we could see Fountain Paint Pot with the kids. Wow is it strange to see the ground boiling like that! And the colors! So amazing! The ground is unstable, so they've built platforms you can walk on. Steam flows all around you on a cool day.

And of course, we had to visit Old Faithful!

After that, one of our littles had a meltdown, so we decided to keep the activities to a minimum and drove through to Grand Teton National Park. The two parks are connected and you cross a gate to get from one to the other. We crossed the Continental Divide several times that day also, so now our kids are well versed in what that means.

This week we celebrated the 13th birthday of our daughter and had a few regular visitors in the back yard. It's really cool to be able to see these massive animals up close but they are very dangerous. That makes taking the dogs out challenging....

Here's momma up close.

We've also had some phenomenal sunsets this week.

Today we drove into Idaho Falls and ended up at the Museum of Idaho.

I wasn't sure what to expect but it was fantastic! There's currently an American Revolution exhibit with artifacts from private collections on display. When you pay for admission, each person is given a card with a name. You are to find the exhibit about that person and find out what role they played during the Revolution. My daughter was a thirteen year old boy who was arrested and almost hanged before the sentence was changed to prison time. When he grew older he worked on a ship and was arrested again! Each of us had really interesting stories.

I wish I could have taken pictures to show you everything but photography was forbidden. I will tell you that everything was interactive. We were able to smell tea bricks like the ones thrown into Boston Harbor. We were able to play the drums like a drummer boy would have had. We were able to write with a feather pen and ink. We saw authentic clothes, weapons, toys, and documents and were able to get close to them. And that was just in the "Rebels with a Cause" Exhibit!

The rest of the museum has exhibits about the history of Idaho Falls, or should I say "Eagle Rock". That was it's previous name. We learned about the history of nuclear power in the area and there was a complete "city street" you could walk through and look in shops like they would have been in different time periods. I loved the children's discovery area where the kids could make animal prints in sand, or climb "under the water" and see what a fish would see. It was really well done.

At the end of our time at the museum, each of us took a turn "voting for the next President." We stood at the booth, filled out our ballot, and dropped it in the box. The kids were able to get a taste of what the process is really like, which is perfect for the upcoming election.

We capped off the day by driving by the Farr Candy Company where they make "Idaho Spud" and several other types of candy. Then we went through Swan Valley on the way home and had square ice cream, also made by Farr. The flavor I got was "Cookie Monster."

It was a busy, fun day! See you next week!

- Jen