Fourth of July

Happy Independence Day from our red-white-and-blue family to yours. 

It's hard to express my feelings of gratitude, pride, and determination that always come in waves on this holiday. Thinking about the incredible men and women who fought for freedom during the revolutionary war fills me with gratitude and pride. They were so courageous and did amazing and difficult things because they knew that their actions were more important than themselves - they were fighting for their children, and their children's children, for all those who would call America their home. It fills me with a determination to be brave, to do things that are hard, and to stand for what is right so that the generations that follow me will also be blessed. To teach my children what it means to choose liberty and fight for freedom. 

We had a "stay-home day" and just hung out around the house. David had the day off (he's had the whole past week off and it's been wonderful) and he spent a good amount of it holding Caleb so he could sleep because he was having a pretty rough day. Later in the evening we had David's parents, plus Amy and Kevin over for dinner and games, then the Rencher Family joined us while we watched fireworks. I turned on the Star Spangled Banner and was touched to think of those men and women who watched the U.S. flag flying over Fort McHenry while the British forces opened fire to try to knock it down. To think of those who gave their lives in an effort to keep the flag from being destroyed. To those who saw the flag still standing at dawn, though in tatters, as a mark that the United States of America would not be beaten - that they would stand, brave and true. It's a beautiful, heartbreaking, inspiring story of the people who knew this the freedom of this land was of vast importance. This land where the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored. Surely, the Lord was with those people - and all the people since who have followed him and stood for truth, righteousness, and freedom in this country. 

Ether 2:
9 And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.
12 Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.

2017 Vacation: Craters of the Moon

The drive from Castle Rocks State Park is....well, let's just say not a common path. It made for a fun little drive though some little towns. It included some turns down some very unused country roads. As usual, our kids did great in the car. 

First stop was at the Craters of the Moon, Visitor Center. I'm not sure if everyone else really stops and stays at the visitor center, but I'm sure we always will. I remember growing up that we always made our first stop at the visitor center. My dad would go up and talk to the Rangers and get maps and talk for a while. Meanwhile I would wander around, watch the movies and look for some souvenir to buy. Well, apparently things don't change, except now I was the one talking to the rangers while the kids found a bunch of stuffed toys they wanted to buy. Then we went and looked at the exhibits and watched the video. Lydia has wanted to see a "real live" volcano for a long time. In fact, she specifically mentioned that she wanted to see flowing lava. We were hoping that this trip would be enough to satisfy her. She loved watching the video about the volcanoes and got really excited to see the lava and explosions. I think it ended up being everything Lydia dreamed to get the real volcano experience.

                          

                              

                           

The kids also loved making the souvenir pennies. 

We knew that on a hot summer day in black rock, it would be really hot, but we brought plenty of water. We really wanted to go into the caves that are formed as lava flows and so we went to the closest cave called Dew Drop cave. The formations and the endless lava rock were incredible to see.

One of my favorite things is watching Austin walking along trails. He has such a great little walk and he kind of sways back and forth. He always is ready to do things by himself and he walked the whole trail with no problem. It is fun to hear all the things he has to say about what he sees and he has such a fun little smile.

Lydia is such a great little explorer and wanted to check everything out. She would point out plants growing in the rocks and loved looking at anything she could find. 

The cave was perfect. It was the closest and smallest cave on the trail, but it was actually perfect for our little family. There were two sides with two separate caves and we took about 45 minutes exploring them. It was perfect getting out of the hot sun. Both Lydia and Austin climbed down into the cave all by themselves.

Also- props to Shantel for carrying Caleb the whole way, including down into the cave. 

I love this picture! It was so fun helping Austin climb up and I love seeing Lydia up ahead balancing on the rocks. 

How cute is this? Lydia just started doing this where she gives you a thumbs up.

After the cave hike, we had one more big thing on our Craters of the Moon list, to look inside a volcano. Lydia has wanted to look down into the volcano. Most of the hills in the area are actually what use to be volcanoes, but they are pretty big and don't really have centers that you can look down into lava. However, there are also "Spatter Cones" that form as the volcano is finishing it's eruption. These look like mini-volcanoes and were perfect. We went to two of the Spatter cones and looked down into what used to be a volcano. The kids especially loved "snow cone", which was a splatter cone that is filled year round with snow that never melts (which was especially crazy because it was easily in the high 90s if not over 100 degrees - yet only ten feet down there was a whole pile of snow.) 

The Craters of the Moon trip was perfect. It honestly looks like the volcano could have happened two weeks ago, even though the last one was about 2000 years ago.

We hopped back in the car and headed home. We stopped in a small town on the way home and made some little pizzas and let the kids play at the park. Being on vacation with Shantel and Lydia and Austin and Caleb is one of my favorite things in the world. It was such a great trip.