Monday, June 22, 2015

Father's Day at Bear Lake.

Happy Father's Day!  The kids and I had a great time putting together Father's Day gifts for our dad and grandpas.  For our grandpas, the kids made their own cards so that we could mail them to St. George.  Then we also made fun gifts for Russell.  Here is our funny dad and his funny fish faced kids:

We spent Father's Day on a fun road trip to Bear Lake.  Bear Lake is only about 40-50 miles from our house so it was nice day trip.  The lake was so beautiful.





These pictures were taken at the scenic overlook and visitor's center.  It was the perfect view of the lake.  

Before heading down to the Lake to play in the water, we continued our road trip up to Idaho.  We were going to explore the Minnetonka Cave.  

While we waited for the cave guide, the kids had fun climbing the rocks around the entrance of the cave.  

And here we go into the cave!  Before heading in, we saw a little bat sleeping on the side of the rock wall.  This cave is the home to the Townsend Big Eared bats.  For that reason, the door to the cave has slats so that the bats can fly in and out when the cave is closed. 



This cave was really amazing!  There were a ton of stalactites and stalagmites through out the cave.   There is a group of seven stalagmites that they call the seven dwarfs  because they look like the faces of the seven dwarfs.  This largest stalagmites are located in this cave too.  There are also many other cave formations including straws, cave popcorn, and cave bacon.  The cave bacon was really cool looking.  Like a ribbon going down the side of the cave.  Logan's favorite rock formation was the one that looked like a train engine.  

After leaving the cave, we found a little campground and picnic area and ate lunch.  This mountainous area was so beautiful.  After eating, we decided to continue our road trip up to Montpelier, ID and then back to Bear Lake.  On our way we passed through Paris!

OK, Paris, ID.  There we saw the old Paris Tabernacle.  Next time we will actually go through the Tabernacle.  
We continued to Montpelier where Emily came face to face with a bear at the National Oregon/California Trail Center.  This museum shows all about the travellers of the Oregon trail.  Unfortunately by the time we got there, the Center was closed so we will have to go back and take the full tour.

Then it was time to head back to Bear Lake.  The map we got from the visitor center said there was a road that lead right to the back side of  Bear Lake from Montpelier.  So we followed the map and after a while I thought we should have turned by now.  Well yes we should have turned because a few miles later, we were in Wyoming!  So we turned around and headed back to Montpelier looking everywhere for this road on the map.  We thought we found it when we turned and drove through the little town of Dingle, ID but then the road turned to dirt so we decided this was the wrong road. (Come to find out, this was the right road after all.)  Then we turned around again and drove passed the airport in the middle of these fields.  Finally, we followed this guy with Idaho plates and it took us back to Paris.  Finally we knew where we were!  We decided we had been on enough wild goose chases so we drove back the same way we came.  We drove around the lake and finally found a little beach area to play in the water and eat dinner.


The kids had a blast in the cold water.  We told them to just wade and not get soaking wet.  Well Emily and Colby seemed to understand that but Logan on the other hand took five steps into the water and then jumped (or fell) right in.  Yeah he was soaking wet.  But it sure was fun.  We ate hot dogs and enjoyed the scenery for a few hours.  Then is was time to go home.  We were told that there were deer, elk, and even moose up here on this mountain so we were excited to see them.  We were sure we had planned it right for the perfect time to seem wildlife on our way home but for some reason, we only saw two deer the whole trip.  I was disappointed in that but over all it was a great trip (even the getting lost part!)

Happy Father's Day.

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