"Idaho-pe" you enjoy this post... :)

Soooo, we drove to Idaho all squeezed into the FJ on Sunday afternoon, a 4 hour trip lengthened to over 6 1/2 hours due to a necessary clean-up & laundry round after Autumn barfed (Peter let her eat too much donut, we think) just before we got to Jeanine's to drop a couple of things off, and then due to a few spots of uncleared road in the fast lane, so we got stuck behind frustratingly slow semi-trucks (no offense, Wade) for a little while. We spent the night for free (using Peter's points) at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Idaho Falls...The boys were so excited when they found out that they got to sleep on the other bed in our room, exclaiming, "Finally, we get to sleep on a grown-up bed!" (They usually sleep on the sofa bed.) Unfortunately, the arrangement was too tempting once it became time to go to sleep; they deliriously whispered and giggled and cackled and snickered and then whined "you're taking all the blankets!" despite our threatenings. (Peter said they sounded like a couple of girls. What exactly does that mean, huh Peter??) :) The next morning, after me & Peter had not slept very well and after a decent continental breakfast, we went swimming....MUCH to all three kids' pure delight!

Shortly after getting in the warm water...Autumn was quite uncooperative about looking at the camera at the right time, if at all...and don't mind Peter's "glare from the window" eyes...... :)

Thought this one turned out cool.....

Finally got her to look at the right moment--after I'd asked her if we should take her picture and she agreed to it. :) Thought she looked cute!

"A picture is worth a thousand words"!!! :)

Swimming while THIS is what it looked like right outside the thin windows!



Don't think I've mentioned the reason for our harried trek to Idaho...well, as you can see below, we (Peter and I) wanted to attend the Rexburg Temple Open House. We thought it would be a great experience for our family. And I think overall it was, though Autumn won't remember it.

Our dear, sweet children trying to smile at the camera (well, except for Autumn, of course) but looking rather silly since they were facing the sun, which was oddly bright--there was a blanket of clouds covering the sky!

Now the whole fam squinting for the camera... :) (If I had been the one behind the camera, I would've told myself to fix my hair so it wouldn't be poofin' on the side like it is--oh well!)




Me and Peter in front of the temple, doing one of our infamous 'self-shots'...can you tell that Peter's concentrating on taking it?? :) For those of you who don't know or for some reason forgot, Peter and I met in Rexburg at Ricks College (which is now BYU-Idaho). The dinky town holds a really special place in our hearts, so that is largely why it was important to us to get up there and behold a temple now, right near campus. So amazing. ......Plus, we got to show the boys (don't think Autumn understood) where I used to live, where I went jogging, where I played tennis, where we had some of my classes, where Peter used to live, a few places we'd hang out (including the parking lot by my dorm where we would "talk & kiss", I told them)...and Peter and I waxed extremely nostalgic while the boys asked a few questions/made a few comments but were generally of the 'what's the big deal?' attitude. :) ...Oh, Ethan said something funny. I was telling him about the sledding at the sand dunes (if you don't know about the sand dunes--sorry...that's another story, but you can ask me and i'll enlighten you) and how we used trash bags and he innocently asked, "Was that because there weren't sleds back then?" ...HAAA!! :)

One final pic...I snapped this just for my sister-in-law before we got back on the highway after a 'pee stop'. :)