A strange day at the lake

We had a bizarre day of boating. Don got in the boat, we unhooked it and I pushed it out in the water. The kids got out of the boat and were walking over to the dock. I got in the car and drove about 25 feet and I heard something. I looked in the rear view mirror and I could see Don standing in the boat behind me. What the hell! I was so confused. I slammed on the break which sent Don flying. The tow rope in the boat was wrapped around the trailer so the boat was off the trailer but still attached so I was dragging it up the docking ramp. Fortunately no one got hurt and with the help of about 10 people we were able to load the boat back on the trailer, relaunch and proceeded to have a pleasant day of boating.

We have a new Chinese teacher. She arrived the day before. Her name is Mao Yu. She is from China and will be teaching 4th grade for up to 3 years. She is not an intern. We have an intern coming as well in a couple of weeks. Mao Yu is in the basement.

She doesn't swim but was brave and got in the water.

The water was really warm.

Don's birthday and a visit from Jacob

Jacob came for his first visit with his father in 18 months. His mom has effectively kidnapped him, gained custody and is making it almost impossible for his dad to see him. She posted on Facebook that Jacob was going to see his dad for 4 days and her heart hurt so hard she couldn't stand it. I wanted to ask how she thought his father must feel after a year and a half. But I was nice and said nothing. We really wanted to see him but didn't want to take precious time away from his dad so went swimming and bowling and Clayton came to both. Golly, I miss that little boy.

Vally was quite the bowler. She was really annoyed by the heavy balls.

Don turned 58. Holy crap we are both headed to 60. We went to a restaurant with great atmosphere and lousy food but had a fun evening

The girls love to catch the fish.

Bear World

We left Yellowstone about 10 and drove the 90 minutes to Bear World. Nate's dabbing and Khloe is doing an ice skating pose.

The petting zoo.

Feeding the bears from the back of a trailer.

After bear world we drove the 4 hours home and slept really well!

Yellowstone

We left Ketchum and made the five hour drive to Yellowstone. We stopped in Rexburg for lunch. It was a Sunday and I had forgotten that everything is closed in Rexburg on Sunday. We found a place built to feed the people staying at the hotels. 

There was a mom and baby bear romping in the field.

Sister fight

And the loser was, or at the very least, them most dramatic was....Valentina!

Old Faithful erupted 20 minutes early for which I was grateful. We got back to the hotel about 10:30 and went to bed. I was ready to strangle Sean and Nate they kept talking about swimming. "When are we going to swim" over and over and over? It's not like they don't swim almost every day at home.

The main event

Khloe was nervous but she skated like a champion.

Tita and Giany came to watch her skate.

Sean and Nate came to watch her skate but I don't think they really watched. Nate asked if Khloe got judged on her skating ability or being cute.

Super star Khloe, was the youngest again skating in level 4 and she won 2nd place. She was really sad and we weren't sure why but AJ found out later she thought she had gotten last place.

Little Miss Vally is starting  skating lessons next week.

Botanical Gardens and Cold Spring River

The Saw Tooth botanical gardens were pretty lame. It would be a really pretty place for a wedding but other than that it's not a very interesting place to visit.

There was prayer wheel, donated and blessed by the Dahli Lama.

The kids wanted to walk in a stream so we went to the cold spring river.

The water was icy cold like maybe it came from a cold spring or something. They decided pretty quickly they didn't really want to wade in the ice water.

I figured out I can make my camera take pictures by saying the word smile.