It Might Have Been Slightly Past Due

We moved into our house in December of 1998. When we bought the house, we thought the carpet should probably be replaced at some point because it was little old. And...fast forward 22 years. Maybe we should replace it now? That's what Troy said when I told him we were thinking of taking all the furniture out of Chase's room and rearranging it. His room is the biggest bedroom in the house - we made it that way because it was also the playroom. And because of that it was pretty darn stuffed with stuff. Lots of toys that only come out when little cousins or friends are over, lots of old puzzles we don't do anymore, lots of stuff stuff stuff. I just had the idea to rearrange a bit, clear out some stuff, and hopefully tidy it a bit. That's how it always goes, right? That you get an idea for one small change and then the creeping begins. You decide to just a little tiny bit more than you planned on. Then a tiny bit more after that. And suddenly your little idea for a simple project becomes a massive undertaking. That's how it goes for me, anyway! And Troy was totally right. If we were going to the trouble of removing all the furniture, why not rip out that nasty old carpet and pick some new stuff?

I was very lucky in that my interior-designing friend Mary told me where to get carpet remnants. I spent some time digging through tons of icky oatmeal-colored carpet before finding what I instantly knew was perfect. At first I was really unsure of what I was looking for. (I'm really bad at interior designing.) But when I touched this silky soft, brownish-grayish stuff, I knew I had found the right thing.

We were between our trip to Yellowstone and our upcoming trip to the Green River, which was basically going to be a backpacking trip with canoes. It was a major undertaking to get ready for that, but we were so excited for the carpet that when they had an opening for putting it in the week before we were leaving we accepted. We spent a Monday night emptying out Chase's room, not bothering to start the process of sorting through what he wanted to keep yet. Tuesday morning, the 20-somethingth of July, our carpet man showed up right on time and single-handedly removed the N.A.S.T.Y. old stuff and got the new carpet put in. 

I was very curious to see what was under that carpet. I was half hoping and half afraid that we would find some sort of cool wood floor that we would suddenly be tempted to clean up and use instead of laying carpet, but luckily and also hilariously, there was no wood. There was super ugly linoleum that was made to LOOK like a Victorian carpet. So ugly! I wonder what that room looked like when it was first put in....

We then spent the rest of the day painstakingly choosing what furniture was going back in, where to put it,  and what we would get rid of. Thank you Facebook, by the way, for being the easiest way EVER to find takers for all the furniture we didn't want, all the toys we were ready to let go of, all on the same day we were still cleaning! It was awesome! I was a little sad to let go of a couple of things - especially the playmobile toys, but the kids never really loved those like they loved other things which we now have saved in our official "grandparent toy" collection. 

Chase's room now looks amazing. It still has red walls and a weird sloped ceiling. I can be blamed for the red walls which we painted like 20 years ago. I told you I was bad at interior design. The sloping ceiling is someone else's fault, and we will rip it out and fix it someday. But not yet. The room cleaning crept as far as new carpet but not as far as new paint, walls, or ceiling. Chase ordered some very funky remote-control lights that he attached around the top of the walls. They kind of give me seizures, but he loves them. We also caved and got him a giant LoveSac bean bag that he adores. We really owe the girls a re-do on their room, but their room really will require the ceiling and walls to be torn apart. So....maybe next time we are getting ready for a big trip I'll tear into their room. 

Chase's room is a pleasure to visit now. With the reduction in storage furniture and buckets and buckets of toys, plus the amazing carpet, it's pretty great. He gets a lot more visit from family members than he used to.

Retreat to Island Park

Because we had so much going on this winter and spring, and I was so preoccupied taking care of my dad's estate and helping the kids manage home-schooling, we didn't make many plans for this summer. Really, we kept thinking that the covid peak would pass - first we thought it would be after a couple of weeks, then we thought by April...then May.... by summer we realized that we had no idea what was going on with all of this. Summer felt just about like Spring - we were all home doing whatever, but instead of schoolwork we had ...nothing. So Troy and I started talking a bit about finding a way to take a vacation. 

Usually Troy and Chase have their annual trip to Yellowstone - they go with a couple of Troy's brothers and some cousins, whoever can make it. But that trip was not happening this year. I'm not sure if that was a pandemic thing, or due to the fact that Sam's son Noah had been called to serve as a missionary in New Jersey starting in early August. Noah has been a very good friend to Chase - he's such a good kid and the two of them have had a lot of wonderful times together. We decided to find out if Sam and his family could join us on a vacation this summer partly because we love them and partly to give Chase and Noah a last hurrah together.

Of course this required a planning dinner. We got together just to hash out ideas (oh and also eat something delicious). At first we were thinking of Bear Lake and we starting searching for available places to rent in that area. But then Kathleen remembered that she had a cousin with a big old cabin in Island Park, Idaho, not too far away from Yellowstone National Park. She checked with her cousin who gave us some dates that it was available, and also gave us a screaming deal on renting this very LARGE and really fun cabin for a weekend early in July. So the Yellowstone trip would be happening after all, just in a different form (no paddling!) and with our whole family instead.

We hit the road on a Friday morning. It was lovely to get out of the house and run away together. SLC was starting to get really hot and the highs in Island Park were looking to be in the upper 70's and low 80's. Heaven! Make room for us! We decided to stop along the way for an early lunch - we had heard of the famous chicken spot,  Maddox. We had never eaten there before so we thought it would be fun to try it out. It's like an old-fashioned carhop kind of place so we could just stay in our car. You know, the food was good. Really super good fries. But none of us were totally blown away. We realized later that none of us got the actual chicken that they're so famous for. We think we should try it again and get the chicken. The burgers just sounded so tempting!

On our way North, we decided to make a post-lunch stop. Troy's paternal grandparents were very dear to him, and they have both passed away. They are buried in a sweet little cemetery in a small town called  McCammon, Idaho. Troy's grandma passed away before I met him. He still talks about how tough that was, to follow the funeral procession up to the small cemetery in the freezing cold snow, lay her to rest, and to drive away and leave her there. I've always thought about that. His grandfather, on the other hand, passed away shortly after we were married so I was there for his funeral. I remember being together in the cemetery and gathering around his final resting place. Troy hasn't been able to visit since that time, and so it was a pleasure to stop for a visit along the way to Island Park.

It took us a little time to figure out where the actual headstone was. It's not a large place and we were all spread out hunting for the spot. It was Emma who found it, funny enough, right by where we parked our car. I was so relieved when she did find it because we were starting to fear we wouldn't. I have no idea, by the way, what the inscription on the side of the marker means. The suckers are on the bank? No clue.

We arrived in Island Park a little while before our cousins made it - we enjoyed some time exploring a pathway and dock by the river. The skies were just a wonder to look at - so beautiful, and filled with birds and huge clouds. Too bad Emma couldn't open her eyes for any pictures. 

Not too much later, Sam and Kathleen and the crew caught up with us. We had driven ahead to a restaurant to get our reservation for 10 going, and were waiting on the porch for them. I love how Emma always gets a massive bear hug from her Uncle Sam.

The boy cousins were so happy to be together

After a tasty dinner of all sorts of good things like seafood alfredo (Chase) and regular alfredo (Emma) and some other stuff that I totally can't remember, we went of in search of the cabin. It was quite a ways off the main road - 13 miles before turning off into the area. We were so pleasantly surprised - the cabin was quite spacious and had a lot of fun things for us to do like play on swings, compete in games of horseshoes (which I did not, just to protect everyone from my weak arms and bad aim). There were bedrooms everywhere and the kids all spread out happily.

Also we had a talk about not picking wildflowers. After the wildflowers were picked. 

It felt like we saw at least as much wildlife around the cabin as we did on the day we visited Yellowstone. We had bats around all the time, and our best moose sightings were around the cabin as we drove in and out of the area.

On Saturday, after a big huge breakfast and some flopping on couches, we took a day trip into the town of West Yellowstone. We wanted to go the grizzly bear discovery center, and were happy to find out that we could reserve tickets for their last entry time of the day. So we found a way to kill some time - walking around, checking out some trains on display, getting injured and bleeding, and getting milkshakes from McDonalds. All the other ice cream places had lines out the door, so we figured drive through treats were good enough.

After downing our very posh Micky-D Milkshakes it was time for us to visit the grizzly bears. We arrived at what turned out to be a very perfect time of the afternoon - we got there just as two grizzly cubs had been released into the bear pen and they were so cute and hilarious. (These are two adjectives I would definitely not be using if we had come across the same sight in the wild.) They were full-on romping. Frolicking. Running to their hearts' content. It was so fun to catch them in that moment. The discovery center was great - it kind of took the pressure off seeing any animals at Yellowstone - we got to see these animals - bears, wolves, eagles, otters - up close and personal, and then just enjoy the sights of the park when we went the next day. 

After our lovely evening at the discovery center the kids were all begging to go swimming. We zipped home as quickly as we could, grabbed suits, and headed back almost all 13 miles of our road to get back to the river. It was tricky finding a place to swim because it seemed like most of the riverbank was occupied as private cabin property. We did find a little trail by the bridge and went down to the water, where we immediately discovered that it was cold, buggy, slimy and really much better for skipping rocks than immersing yourself. Emma got part way in but mostly we just sat on the rocks, took pictures, and enjoyed the cool evening.

I love this picture. Lotta people in one house who all love each other a lot and also bring a lot of shoes.

Sunday was our day to be in Yellowstone park. I was proud of us for getting up early and arriving at the park shortly after it opened. It was a really great day - there were definitely plenty of other people there but the crowds were much thinner than the last time the boys went on the tourist loop a couple of summers ago. We never had trouble parking, we found a picnic table when we wanted it, we didn't have to wait too long in the ice cream line at Old Faithful Lodge. And what can you say? The sights to see at Yellowstone are simply amazing. You don't quite feel like you stayed on your own planet. I mean, you're out in the middle of the mountainous woods, which is common enough for us Rocky-Mountain-Dwellers, but then you look over at this amazing sight of bubbling mud and pools with crazy colors. It's so other-worldly. We had a very long but very great day together - out in the park much longer than we had expected to be, using much less sunscreen than we should have been using. 

We definitely made sure to make a stop at Yellowstone lake - just because the boys wouldn't be paddling across it for five days didn't mean they didn't want to at least put their feet in the freezing cold water - they haven't missed a year of at least dipping their toes in since Chase was 12.

We saved the massive waterfalls for last. It meant that we were quite pooped by the time we got there but they were so spectacular it filled us with renewed energy.

That was a long day. Emma crashed rather hard at the end of it.

Monday was just enough time to clean the cabin from tip to top - that's partly how we got such a good deal on it. We did the cleaning ourselves! Then we gathered for a final picture on the porch before we headed for home.

The cabin treated us very well. I was very grateful we found such a fun place for us to make these great memories together, especially knowing that Noah would be leaving for his mission soon. I fully support us going on a trip together every year.