Memorial Weekend...Island Park Cabin

This is becoming a fun tradition going up to our neighbor's cabin over Memorial weekend. We have fun whenever we go up there and it is so pretty! We expected it to be pretty rainy, but it ended up not being too bad. It sprinkled on and off and rained hard at night, but didn't really rain out any of our plans.

We left after Ashton's county program on Friday and got up there that night. The driving part is never the most fun for us, but we survived.

We got there and got a fire going...it was chilly!

And the boys got out their legos that they brought and played for awhile before bed...

The next day we got up and got ready and went on a fun hike. Ashton was excited to bring his metal detector along :) 

 Then we went over to fish pond and fished for awhile, and the boys

found stuff with the metal detector.

I love these pictures :)

Playing around before bed that night... 

Sunday we got up and got ready and drove into Yellowstone for the day.

On the way during a game of license plate tag, Ashton accidentally knocked out yet another one of Gunnar's teeth! :/

We went the opposite way of Old Faithful this time and went on a hike that morning...After we'd been walking a few minutes we spotted some bears...a long way away, but watched them in the binoculars for awhile.

 We ran into an older couple from Belgium and asked them to take a picture...

Everytime we would go anywhere I would walk the wrong direction so Lars told me I could get lost in a phone booth...haha, so I couldn't resist when there was a phone booth in Mammoth...

 Elk in Mammoth...

There are always plenty of buffalo!

Their favorite place we stopped...they hiked all around these huge rocks.

 Grand Canyon of Yellowstone...

 And finally getting lottery tickets on our way back to the cabin...

We stopped off at a pizza place in West Yellowstone...everyone else who'd been in Yellowstone for the day wanted to eat there too apparently, so it took a long time, but it was really good...

Hot chocolate back at the cabin, made by Ashton...

Lars got up and went fishing on Monday and I cleaned up most of the cabin and got stuff packed up and then we headed home!

 

End of school year!

I still can't believe how fast this school year went by!

At the end of 4th grade, the big thing is that the kids do a county float and have a parade that the parents can come watch. Ashton's county was Beaver and he and I put his float together one night, then Lars and I went and watched his parade. He chose to drive his on his remote control car...

 He also had a field trip that last week that I was asked to go last minute,

so I rode the bus with him and the rest of his 4th grade class over to the Golden Spike Historical site in Promontory. It was SO rainy that day on the way over and the school bus was leaking...

And Ashton was mad at me because almost every other kid on the bus had some sort of an electronic device, but I'd told him no when he asked me if he could bring his kindle. I really can't win most days!

In the end I think he was glad I came...

 ...and it made my day when he left his friends and brought his lunch over and ate it by me sitting on the ground :)

The field trip was actually really obnoxious...His teacher put me with all of the most obnoxious boys in the class. They wouldn't listen to a word I said and I really don't think they learned anything! I couldn't wait for the hike part to be over and I just kept thinking how in the world does his teacher deal with these kids every day?!  

I was still glad I went though...I know it won't be long before he doesn't want me to.

 It was also super kids day that day...

Gunnar was most excited about getting his face painted :) 

The next day was the last day of school...

This was Gunnar's French teacher, Madame Abouo...She was really sweet and did a great job.

And Mrs. Miller who he went to the other half of the day...

Loved her!! I had gone in to his class this day to have lunch with him because he got to have "lunch with a teacher" for getting so many AR reading points. He got a subway meal :)

Ashton with his teacher, Mrs. McNeil...we really loved her too, she was great for Ashton and like I said, I totally admire her for doing such a great job with a huge class...

 Picnic at the park after the last day...

 And then they begged to go to the JumpZone, so I took them

with Ashton's best friend Jake...

 And our last day of school treats I made that night...

These little Molten chocolate lava cakes...they turned out perfectly

and were SO good!