Idaho

It’s been quite awhile since I updated, so I’m hoping to catch up. I’m hoping that things have slowed down enough that I can catch my breath, and catch up. Rather than try to go back to where I left off, I’m gonna start with last weekend and work my way backwards.

Although I have to go back a little bit farther……

It’s been a very busy and exciting summer.  Justine (our middle “baby”) got married at the beginning of June – details to follow in a later post. This past weekend we drove with her, her new hubby Josh and Lucy to Rexburg, ID. Josh is attending BYU-Idaho while he finishes his last year of school – and then possibly another 2 years for his MBA. While they are there, Justine hopes to get at least halfway through nursing school, and possibly some other training like phlebotomy. 

Our plans were to leave bright and early Friday morning, trying to get an early start for the 12 hour drive. Things were going according to plan and on schedule, until we made a stop at the grocery store on our way out of town. And this is when we discovered a significant leak from the radiator. We were fortunate to get it into the mechanic almost immediately. That was the good news. The bad news – turns out the water pump was failing, and it could possibly take all day to fix. Ugh….

So, we sent Josh & Justine on their way….no sense them sitting around waiting on us. And we tried to make the best of an irritating situation. The mechanic is in downtown Gresham, so we had breakfast at the bagel shop, browsed the local market, and even went to the library and checked out some books! Next we made a trip to the candy store, on our way to lunch. And, with lady luck looking down on us, they finished the truck and we were finally on our way by 1 pm. Aahhhh….

So a 1 pm start time means we rolled into Rexburg at 3 am. And since we had all their stuff in the back of the pickup and in an open trailer, that necessitated unloading ‘til 4 am.

When we started planning this trip, I had no idea that Rexburg is less than 150 from Yellowstone !!!  So our original plan was a day trip to Yellowstone on Saturday. That changed with our 3 am arrival…. Instead, we spent the day running errands and visiting the Idaho Falls temple. We even managed to run into our niece and nephew who live in Ammon, which is near Idaho Falls.

We also discovered that some really cool sand dunes are only about 20 minutes from Rexburg -- who knew ??? So we also spent awhile scouting out camping sites....

Sunday we visited their new Ward. They live in married student housing, and I believe everyone in their complex belongs to the same Ward. Oh, and the church building is within walking distance, just a few blocks away – which Justine says she’ll have no part of!! And, the Rexburg temple sits next door to their Ward meetinghouse. In fact, you can see the spire from their complex parking lot.

That evening we headed back to the Idaho Falls temple and then on to Joe and Christy’s (our niece & nephew) house for dinner. Ahhh what a great evening. It’s nice that they will have family that close. In fact, rumor has it they’ve already made plans for Thanksgiving.

And then Monday morning, we were back on the road again.