Memorial Weekend part 1

Clark is the assistant coach for the Twin Falls Rapids U17 boys team.  They had the State tournament in Idaho Falls over Memorial Weekend.  So we made a little vacation of it.  They had a game Friday night so Clark left work a little early and we hit the road.  We made it to Idaho Falls just in time for their game.  Henry and I watched the first half, then we went and checked into our hotel.  It was right across from the falls and you could see the temple from our room.  It was pretty nice.  Then we went back and picked up Clark when the game was over. This was our first "real" vacation that we stayed in a hotel with a baby.... I don't recommend it.  We brought his Pack N' Play to sleep in, but since it is just one big room we couldn't really "hide" him anywhere so when it was time for him to go to sleep he just stood in the crib watching us and crying.  It was a long night of him finally falling asleep in our Queen bed around midnight, then moving him to the crib, then having him wake up at 3am and coming back in bed with us and then being wide awake at 7am.  The team had a game Saturday morning so Henry and I went and watched.  He fell asleep in the car on the way to the game (luckily) so I drove around Idaho Falls and found the Temple. When Henry woke up we went and "watched" the last half of the game.  Henry mostly just wanted to walk around and pick up garbage and other things off of the grass, or try to walk onto the soccer field. His favorites were a rock and a pine cone he found. He carried them around for a good hour.  The simple things that entertain a child!  At least he was happy.  The team had games on Sunday and Monday but Clark wanted to go explore Idaho so we didn't stay for the other games.  The U17 boys ended up taking 3rd in State, so Clark was a proud coach! All the boys signed a soccer ball and gave it to Clark, and I even saw a few give him a hug.  It was sweet.  We decided to hang around Idaho Falls for the day and went to their local zoo.  Clark's brother Brett and 2 of his kids had been in Yellowstone so on their way home to Utah they drove through Idaho Falls.  We met up with them at the zoo and then took some pictures down by the falls.  It was fun to see them for a couple of hours.  Then we drove to Rexburg to stay the night. This time in the hotel there was a wall where the bathroom was so we hid Henry behind it so he would sleep better.  It was definitely better than the first night.  But still not much fun with a 1 year old in a hotel room.  Sunday morning we got up and drove to the Craters of the Moon National Monument.  We went and explored one of the many caves/caverns formed by volcanic activity.  Apparently eruptions have been happening every 2,000 years and it has been over 2,000 years since the last one... Is Twin Falls far enough away from Craters of the Moon?  I sure hope so.  Southwestern Idaho really does have a ton of lava rock everywhere.  It's kinda crazy.  After our cave hike we made the drive home.  Henry did so well in the car.  He slept most of the time.  Luckily each time we drove it was only a 2-3 hour stretch with long stops in between.  It was a lot of fun to explore Idaho together as a family.  

Now for the pictures:

Cousins in Idaho Falls

Matthew, Liza, and Henry

Idaho Falls Temple 

Idaho Falls are cool since they are right in the middle of town, but the falls in Twin are way bigger (and cooler too!)

I'm not sure why I'm crouching down so awkwardly... I guess to get Henry to stay still.  You can tell in all of these pictures he just wanted to walk around and not bother with holding still or smiling. 

Random photo of Henry in front of the Tabernacle in Rexburg.  In the basement they have a little museum about the History of Rexburg and also about the Teton Dam & Flood.  

 These next pictures are of Craters of the Moon:

It was windy... What else is new?  Southern Idaho is ALWAYS windy.  

Cool Cave.  Henry was in Rock Heaven.  We were bad and let him bring home a lava rock.  Shhh don't tell the park ranger. 

Climbing out of the cave.  We were kicking ourselves for forgetting Henry's carrier.  It would have been nice to just strap him to our backs.  There's always next time. 

Oh look, it's Henry enjoying a rock.  

Pretty views of dark lava rock and then pretty green hills and mountains.

I'm gettin' artsy with the landscape photos, ha! 

More crazy lava rock formations.  

Now I'm sure you all want to drive to Idaho and visit Craters of the Moon.  You could actually camp there (but with the wind, I'm not sure why you would want to) and they had a lot more caves and rocks you could hike to.  It was pretty cool.  On Monday (Memorial Day) we hung out in Twin Falls and went to 3 different waterfalls.  I'll blog about that next.