Being the family man he is, Hyrum ditched his Anat/Phys class for the first time ever to join us on Tilly's last (yet first to her) field trip to...Craters of the Moon! Hyrum and I have been there together twice now. First, it was just the two of us, 11 years ago, while we were dating, but we didn't actually go into the Park. We just got our picture by the sign. 4 years later we went with Daisha and Edward on our way to Wyoming, just after they got engaged, and while I newly pregnant with Talea, but wouldn't know that for a few more days.
It's an hour and a half drive from Rexburg to the Craters, and on our way, just outside of Rexburg, we passed by the infamous "Beaver Dick Park". It actually looks like a fun place to camp and swim!
Then, in Arco (which is next to the nuclear plant), we just HAD to stop at Pickle's Place to try one of their "atomic burgers" that they're famous for. We may have stopped there with D&E, but couldn't remember, and a place with a name and picture like that just had to be experienced.
This place even serves breakfast until 11:34 am. I guess that's humorous?
I forgot to take a picture of the burger until I was half-way done, so it looks a little gross, but just so you know, it tasted about as fabulous as this picture looks. I would pass on it next time. The rubber mushrooms were a little scary.
Talea was just excited to be able to sit on a bar stool
and Hyatt soon joined her.
I don't recommend Pickle's Place unless you just want to say you've been there before.
We hurried on to the Craters to meet up with the other kids from Tilly's school who came from around the state of Idaho. (Tilly's in the white sun hat on the table.)
We had a Q&A session with the ranger, in which Talea came up with the golden question. She asked why lava rocks have holes in them, so the ranger had her come to the front and perform an experiment to demonstrate the answer (which was from gas bubbles), then we were set loose to explore. (Don't the clouds in the background look like a painted backdrop?)
The kids were thrilled to find the chipmunks and bluebirds that we were promised to sight, and we identified the two types of lava (phonetically pronounced Pah-hoy-hoy and Ah-Ah) and some strange shapes that they make.
We even discovered there was a volcano there named Paisley Cone, so we took pictures.
It was a perfect day there since it wasn't very windy. The last time we explored the Craters, it was blowing so hard you could lean way into the wind without falling. It was only enough to ruffle our hair on this day.
We opted to not explore the caves with the kids until they were all older and able to scramble around on their own, but we did find some mini caves that the kids crawled into.
Tilly, being the adventurous type, crawled through and popped out the top of this cave.
Then Hyrum followed the kids as they ran up this hill, and back down again.
Hyatt was so proud that he won the race back down. Tilly was too fascinated by chipmunk hunting to join the race.
The lava is all black here, so they coat the sidewalks and curbs and roads with black so they blend in. It looks so good.
Next came the climb up Inferno cone, which is next to Paisley Cone. This is the volcano that was so windy on top that you could lean over to what felt like a 45 degree angle and not even fall over when we hiked up it with D&E 7 years ago.
Talea and Hyatt literally ran the entire way up this volcano, which has something like 750 feet of elevation gain in .2 miles if I remember correctly, and Kiersa ran more than half way up with them, until she decided she'd rather lag back with the slow pokes.
(By the way, what looks like the top that you're seeing here is actually only half way up.)
How can Talea have the stamina to run up a volcano when she can't even walk more than a few blocks without complaining that she wants to ride in the stroller? And why don't [all] adults get to have that kind of energy? I thought about trying to run up the hill for about two seconds, until I decided I'd rather die. I'm the gal who needs to hang onto Hyrum's pockets to be drug up a mountain, even when I'm in my best shape.
Talea reached the top first, and when Hyatt made it up right after her, she gave him a huge hug. It was so cute! I had to have them reinact it when I caught up to them (several minutes later).
It's kind of weird to think you're standing on top of a dormant (but not extinct) volcano.
Talea thought it looked like we were standing on top of the world, and it really did look like she was headed to a drop off when she was walking to this tree to sit down. Hyatt and Kiersa were panicking and calling her name and running after her to stop her!
Paisli did pretty well walking around on loose lava rock,
experiencing only one fall.
It looks like she's going to take after Talea with her desire to climb everything now.
The view from up there really was beautiful, in a barren, desolate, Idahoan kind of way.
We met a nice older man up there who took a family picture for us in front of Paisley Cone. A rare treat!
The kids wanted to race back down the mountain, but they weren't so sure of their footing, so Hyrum taught them to sidestep on the slippery parts, all the while holding pine cones for my entertainment center drawer fronts. They said not to collect rocks, but they said nothing about collecting pine cones!
By the time we got back down
two people we'd passed along the way had called Paisli a boy. What the heck!? Why did we even bother piercing her ears! She was in full purple velour-type fabric with a large "daddy's girls" printed across the front and was wearing faux-diamond earrings!
I give up. In the above picture, Paisli is standing in front of Paisley Cone. She's gonna get a lot of paisley stuff in her life, I'm afraid.
We explored a few spatter cones and the kids gave their best impression of being statues in a cave,
I think Hyatt must have thought he was supposed to impersonate someone having a hard time on the toilet. I dunno.
Talea did a great impression of getting her arm ripped off in a tiny lava tube, Roman Holiday style.
Though the terrain here is pretty hostile, with temperatures that can range from 135 degrees to -40 degrees, it really is a neat place to visit.
Shhhhh. Don't tell the ranger I let Talea climb to the top of this rock. She just couldn't bear not climbing something, and all the trees were sappy.
On our way out of the park, we stopped to take pictures by the Craters sign with the two kids who were awake still.
Hyrum and I got our picture taken at this sign in 1999 (11 years ago), but they've updated the sign since then, and it wasn't near so windy this time.
I love family days like this!!! We've resolved to go hiking as a family now so we get more chances for memory making.
3 comments:
VERY cute pictures!! What a fun thing to do. We need to do more stuff like this.
I get asked all the time if Sabreena is a boy too. She almost always has a LARGE flower or bow on her head and a pink blanket and was even wearing a skirt and tights one time. People are nuts! Your kids are totally cute!
Love the photos of the signs! Of course.
Don't remember the pickle place, I don't think we went there. The only food I remember from idaho was the potato flake milkshakes/ice cream and elk jerky.
Looks like a fun day out.
Rich made us go to the Craters of the Moon once - a very lengthy detour from where we were going. Zack was a baby crying in the back seat. I was super morning sick with Maelin... I have to say when we got there I was less than impressed with what we'd driven all that way to see. I vow to never go there again.
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