When we first made plans for this Idaho trip, I intended to center it around July 4 celebrations in Idaho culminating in the large (especially considering how small Idaho Falls is) annual fireworks show. Then the coronavirus hit and the July 4 festivities, like most other events, were eventually cancelled. So instead of heading downtown for the parade, the cousins all came over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a bike parade around their neighborhood. Grandpa hooked up a trailer to the four-wheeler and kids got a turn riding on the trailer or the four-wheeler.
Some of the neighbors were outside in their yards and they seemed appreciative of our efforts to celebrate. We had a few bags of candy and on the rare occasion we saw kids out in the neighborhood, we offered them some of the candy from our parade. Under different circumstances, it would be a pretty suspicious and semi-creepy thing for strangers to offer kids candy in their yard, so we made sure to tell them to ask their parents before eating it. When we got back to the house, it was time for the cousins to try and catch the candy as we threw it toward them.
I thought it was funny that immediately afterward, they sat down and set up a candy exchange to try and trade for what they wanted.
One of the many fun toys at the grandparents' house is a child's motorcycle/moped. They had tried for a while to get the older cousins confident enough to ride on it, but could never succeed. Karina agreed to give it a shot, and she quickly was off and away riding up and down the neighborhood streets. Lydia did it too, but the pictures of her didn't turn out as well.
Miles and Grant were comforted enough after watching their cousins enjoying the motorcycle that they grew confident enough to ride and have fun too. For the rest of the afternoon, Karina, Grant, and Miles were taking turns zipping up and down the street. Here goes Miles on one of his rides.
Uncle Kyle and I also got a turn riding - it was kind of fun, but we were obviously too heavy for it to really get going.
Grandma and Brenna relaxing in the shade.
Kyle and Tessa taking a ride on the four-wheeler.
Brenna hanging out in her car.
The girl cousins turned a trailer into their own personal fort and were in and out of it multiple times over the course of the week.
Later in the afternoon, we went to Kellie and Spencer's house for dinner since Spencer was putting together the fireworks show for the family that night. The kids had fun playing some more since they had huge bubbles to chase and pop.
Lydia jumped on this little exercise trampoline and wanted to show off how high she could jump.
Eventually, it was time to assemble in the driveway for the fireworks show. We took advantage of the chance to take some group pictures while we were waiting for it to start. Here are the cousins with Grandma and Grandpa.
And our group (plus Ethan who was too comfortable where he was).
I love this picture of me and Lydia.
And this picture of Karina with Grandpa.
Finally, the anticipation for the fireworks was too much to put off any longer - the littlest cousins were so cute.
Our kids have never had the home fireworks experience with the types of items you buy from roadside stands. I was curious what they would think of them. First, all the kids got confetti popper style fireworks to pull and spray confetti out.
Then our kids had their first experience with sparklers.
Derek seemed especially excited to have sparks flying out of his wand.
Uncle Spencer did a great job with the fireworks show and that night, the kids were all asking if we could come back to Idaho for Spencer's fireworks again next year.
Our last full day in Idaho, we took a walk along the Snake River on the Greenbelt to see the falls, the temple, and try to get some more pictures. The bright sunlight made pictures difficult, but we did our best.
We went further along the Greenbelt to a section with large rocks to climb on and pretty flowers to enjoy.
Karina found a tree growing into the river that she walked along as a balance beam.
Lydia found small baby fish swimming around close to shore.
And Grandma helped Derek walk along the rocks.
Grandpa thought if Karina could make it out on the tree, so could he.
One last picture with the Grandparents.
Derek was so thrilled with the costumes at Allison's house, he kept asking when we could go back to the "costume house". We made one more trip there on our last day and this time he found a dragon costume and sword.
We left the next morning for the long drive back to Salt Lake City to catch our flight. I realized I forgot these two pictures from my phone, so I am including them here. On the way over, Derek slept for most of the flight in a fairly awkward position (not unusual for him as we have found him asleep in many different positions over the years).
He had a zipper impression "scar" from the backpack pillow.
We didn't have the same luck with Derek on the return trip since we were no longer on a non-stop flight, but it wasn't too bad coming back. Overall, it was a good trip and I am glad we had the chance to go in spite of coronavirus concerns.
Great capture of all the events
ReplyDelete