Summer 2012

This summer has been full of firsts.  I haven't had such an active summer in a long time, but I think it is safe to say that we are having a blast!  We don't miss homework or being in the classroom one bit... well, I don't miss Jon having hours upon hours of homework.  I love being able to go out with him and explore and do fun things together.  When we moved here to Idaho, I made myself promise that I would try everything at least once (good things that make me better, of course!).  I am proud to say that there have been many firsts this summer and I hope that there are many more to come!!

One of the firsts that I had was floating down the river in an inner tube!  Who knew that it would take me 24 years to accomplish this goal!?  Let's just say that I am not one for river water and the fact that there are fish in it... makes me feel yucky, but I overcame that!  We decided that it would be a fun family trip so we ended up taking our dogs with us...let's just say that it wasn't as peaceful as we were hoping, but a fun memory nonetheless!  (all photos in this post are random from the internet since we forgot our camera on all our adventures... I know, bad us!)

This is what we thought it would be like relaxing down the slow peaceful river:

And this is what it was like actually going down the river (except with our two small dogs on my inner tube and our one big dog on my husband's inner tube):

We laughed our way down the river and had lots of fun soaking up the sun and enjoying the cool water.  We did have a minor set back when Indie got "sea sick" and threw up in my lap while going down the river.  Boy, that was fun, but I can be grateful that we were in water and that we could just go to the shore and use the river to wash off.  It took us around three hours to go down this river just a short distance (maybe close to two miles, yes it was a slow moving river.  I had to start with something I knew I could handle and since my husband knows me so well I thank him for starting me off with a gentle push down the river)  I never thought I would like anything more than the beaches of California, but floating down the river was fun and definitely something I would do again!

After that adventure we knew that our dogs didn't like the "motion of the ocean" and so we chose to leave them at home when we ventured out to try paddle boarding!

Here is a picture of what it looks like: 

If only we were in that good of shape ;)

We happened to choose the same calm stretch of river for this adventure since we were both new at this paddle boarding thing. He got the hang of it right away (or so it seemed), but it was so difficult at first for me because I hadn't been formally taught about how to paddle a floating device by myself.  I am so grateful for my husband's patience in teaching me the correct way to do this so that I could get down the river instead of the winds pushing me back up stream (note from husband: I think I was more confused than she was when the wind pushed her up stream at the same rate she floated downstream, there was like no wind that day).  We had so much fun doing this!  I would totally recommend this for a fun activity!  We took a cooler with some water and snacks and had a picnic with both our boards put together.  Funnest picnic ever!  What made this ride down the river an even cooler first for us what that we saw a real moose!!  With it's scoops for antlers and all!! (note from hubby again: Michelle didn't know how to tell a moose from elk, and the "scoopines" of the antlers was the only way I could help her recognize the difference).  It was my first ever moose sighting and I was so so so excited to see it... I know some people would be scared, but I thought it was cool.  We also had three cows come down to the river bank and drink some water just a few feet from us.  Let's just say our next adventure had big shoes to fill, what will we see in the wild next... a lion?  tiger?  probably a bear! (They are indigenous to South East Idaho after all). 

Jon found a cool place to explore while browsing the internet, and it was free! so we decided to make our way out there.  It is known as the Civil Defense Caves (although we only went in one big long cave).  

Here is the opening to the cave:

We decided that our dogs our probably prefer this trip over the last two since this one was on solid ground.  We were right, to a certain extent.  The big rocks that you see right in the opening to the cave are solid, but our dogs are not rock climbing dogs... they are big wusses.  Once we were over that part and the land became flat then we were able to enjoy the exploring of the cave more.  I had never been cave exploring in  a long dark cave, but it was fun.  It made me a little uneasy in some areas because of how low the cave ceiling became at some points, but we made it a good ways in and decided that we had better come back with coats and a little more than just water so that we could go further in.  

All in all we have had a wonderful summer and are up for many more adventures before school starts.  They all don't have to be outdoors, but they can be filled with fun and excitement for us.