The Rest of Our Family Vacation - Island Park, Yellowstone, Rigby Family Reunion & Departing from Sandy!

Wow, can't believe it has been days and days since I last posted - yikes! Let me fill you in!

Island Park 

After family fun in Rexburg, we made our way up to beautiful Island Park where our cabin rental stood. This place is filled with family memories since we've had reunions here in the past! It's also only 20 minutes from Yellowstone as well. It was a relaxing, vibrant home base to our everyday activities. The kids played and played and played. Vivienne loved to find squirrels up in the trees and was delighted when she heard them calling to each other from various branches.

We had family dinners as most of Michelle and Scott's family was able to stay nearby (nearby meaning our cabin's couch in Krista's case ;) ). Lynn and Cynthia also came up one evening for dinner and playing by Henry's Fork. Spending more time together over delicious meals and gorgeous outdoor scenes was perfect.

Here's a few snap shots of our fun:

Wheelchair-friendly pathways - yes! 

Picnic before kayaking! 

Yellowstone National Park

Wow, wow, WOW. What a magical place. Photos do not do it any justice, but we tried to capture it. We had three cars (Knudsen, Schvaneveldt, Rigby) winding throughout the park, meeting up at various spots. Devin even downloaded a GPS-based audio tour guide (dubbed 'Gary' from one of the app's reviews, haha!). It was fun learning about the park as well as having someone to tell us the must-see spots along the way (with two sharp dings as we got closer to the destination).

Although we didn't see any moose or bears, we did see elk and bison!

The springs and geysers were breathtaking! They are quite dangerous too, so we kept the younger kids very close.

A few more snapshots from the day:

 

Yep, that's me in the far corner, my mom is walking me across this beautiful landscape. 

We also enjoyed ice cream at the Old Faithful Inn and concluded the evening with pizza at Gushers! Mmm mmm!

Last Days in Rexburg and the Rigby Family Reunion

Leaving Island Park for Rexburg was emotional. Not because we were saying goodbye to our cabin, we were officially saying goodbye to Andrea, Devin and the kids...It was hard...

Tears were shed, but overall we are so excited for their adventurous move to Hawaii! They have had a crazy past few weeks living with friends and making this trip happen so we could all be together. We're so thankful that they did! Hopefully we will be able to visit soon. I've only flown once to Oregon when I was much younger, so it'll be an interesting ride! Eek!

We returned to Rexburg for two more days with my awesome aunt, uncle, and cousins. They were so kind to have us again! More games, dinners and good times ensued.

We also went for walks! The cows would come say hello! 

One of those days we went to the BYU-Idaho area to see check out some of my parents' history.

Here is the house my mother lived in while attending Rick's College. She lived in the basement apartment and was literally right across the street from her university!

The best fact about this brick house is that my mom and dad shared their first kiss in the doorway. We made them re-enact it and it was adorable.

 

Awwwww. 

Erin also had to work so we went to the Cocoa Bean so the girls could access wi-fi and get things done. A purchase was necessary to use the connection, therefore we ordered a dozen cupcakes. Go big or go home. :P

Saturday the 30th we said our thank you's and goodbyes to our amazing Rigby relatives. Not only to my mother's brothers' families, but to the entire Rigby family! Everyone drove to Rigby, Idaho for our family reunion. Each family brought delicious food and desserts to share! We haven't seen many of these outstanding people in years, so it was great to catch up with everyone.

Love you all!

Visiting the Price Family in Sandy

From Rigby, we drove straight down to Sandy to drop off Erin and Ashley as well as stay with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rick for one evening! They are hilarious and so fun! We played games and I even got to see my Aunt Lisa, Aunt Julie, cousin Paige and cousin Jessica again! I don't think we took any photos, unfortunately, but it was a great time.

Well, I am sadly back in hot hot HOT Arizona.  I made a lot of great family memories and am very grateful for all of my family members who made the trip as spectacular as it was.

Hopefully I can return the hospitality one day, but I don't think anyone will be wanting to roast in Arizona any time soon... :P

Here are a few more photos I want to fit in:

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next blog post!

- Erik