Our Latest Adventure...Sheep Falls, Union Falls, & Ouzel Pool

We survived our latest adventure, barely. Grammy Suzie and Papa (Erica's parents) wanted to have McKinley and Gavin come visit for a few days. Jamison would stay with us. We figured that it would be a good time for a hike. It would be tough packing 43 lbs of McKinley or 35 lbs of Gavin for very far. We had been talking about going to Union Falls for a month or so with Morgan and Sophie and this was the perfect opportunity. We got all of our stuff ready and drove up towards Ashton on Friday night. A coworker had mentioned the rarely visited Sheep Falls which you can almost drive to. We found directions and decided to make the detour, we were hoping to make it to Cave Falls too, but didn't make it there.

Sheep Falls was awesome! You can stand right above it and walk along it and take pictures.


A high clearance vehicle is required! (Note: a Honda CRV is not a high clearance vehicle). We scraped and bounced along about a 1/2 mile before we surrendered and parked the car. The 12" drop off the rock ledge was the deciding factor. We walked the last mile in and enjoyed the view. If anyone wants to visit we would be glad to give directions and tips.

We drove back around to camp near Loon Lake. The campground was mostly full so we camped at the trailhead near Fish Lake. We hiked in to Union Falls (about 6.5 miles one way) which is quite the spectacle with about 250 ft drop. Jamison had fun most of the time. Here he is at the beginning of the trip. He slept a lot.


There are three river crossings that you have to make so we carried our sandals. After enjoying the view for a few minutes we walked the short trail to a warm creek which has a 4 ft waterfall that drops into a deep pool. We spent over an hour playing in the pool. Jamison loved it. He was tired of riding in the backpack and had so much fun playing and splashing in the pool. Sophie had her waterproof camera box so she has all the pictures of the pool on her camera. We'll have to get them from her.


The warm creek joins Mountain Ash Creek were we stopped for lunch. Upstream of the confluence it is still warm and Jamison had a good break from riding in the backpack playing in the water. It was so funny to watch him having fun in the middle of a creek in the mountains. Usually they are really cold!


The 13 miles was enough for one day for us. It was pretty hot on the way in and I knew I was in trouble when I started chafing on the way in. I'll spare you the grisly details but I was glad to make it to the car. Our feet were tired and my back and shoulders were tired from carrying Jamison but it was a fun day. I love to spend time doing things with Morgan and Sophie. They are the best! We love them and appreciate all of the help they give us.

Picture time!

Just descriptions here! Jamison is crawling! I tried to post a video, but it didn't want to work. Anyway, this is just a cute picture of him.
Here is his downward dog/baby yoga pose! He does this to return to a sitting position. Its really funny!
Bath fun with Daddy! He had to have the camera all ready as McKinley's spike would only stand for a few seconds. Her hair is actually starting to get long!!
I wanted to take a picture of McKinley's awesome outfit, and Gavin thought his was picture worthy. I love these shoes McKinley has on. They are hand me down's from one of Devin's friends. Thanks, Michelle! All her clothes this year are courtesy of Michelle and her girls. We'd be poor without them! Gavin is sporting his Buzz light year PJ's. He wore them all day. Who cares that they are jamma's-it's BUZZ!
Jamison's 8 month picture. Its a little blurry, but still cute. He is so much fun! I love my kids! Its so nice to be home with them, even if McKinley wants to play with her friends all the time. At least she knows I'm just inside.

And we're back in the game!

Matthew wanted to title it "and we are back in the saddle again", but I'm typing, so oh well.
So much to tell!
We've officially moved to Pocatello and have renters in our place in Rexburg. Good renters. Anyway, we just barely got internet hooked up today, after spending $120 on equipment. We had to buy a wireless router and a wireless adapter because our computer is too old! It seems to me that everything else on our computer is still up to date. Oh well, it was the adapter, or a new computer, and we can't afford that right now.
We like our location here in Poky! Matthew can ride his bike to work in 7 minutes. He comes home for lunch several times a week and can sleep longer, and is home sooner, etc.....It's heavenly! We live 1/2 mile from lower Ross Park and about 3/4 mile from the aquatic center. We've yet to get to the aquatic center. The kids don't know its there. We do frequent Ross park, almost on a daily basis. It is a really cool place with lots of natural lava rocks, big lava rocks. They are really smooth and can be used as slides. McKinley really likes it! It also has forested trails leading up to upper Ross park. We go on lots of "adventures" through the trees. They have a normal playground, too, but we don't spend much time there. We ride our bikes when going to the park. I pull the boys in the trailer and Mcki rides her bike. Gavin rides his bike occasionally, but there is not sidewalks all the way and he stops to rest multiple times!
We've really enjoyed getting to know people in our ward.......until they changed boundries on us! That's right, we went to our new ward for 2 weeks when they announced a special stake meeting. We are now in a different ward. Luckily, I've made some friends from the other ward that may still carry over! It's funny, every ward we've been in for the past 5 years has split, been dissolved, or been created. This is the 4th time. Its kinda funny to hear people get all upset about changes, but its old news to us. We are very accustomed to it. Its hard to change wards and get to know new people, but it forces us out of our comfort zones. Change is good.
I guess that is all for me right now. I love being at home with the kids. They drive me crazy at times, but I'm learning different coping skills. I find that its easiest to get them outside. This is somewhat difficult with Jamison as we work around his naps/feedings and such, but we do it as much as possible. They are so much better behaved outside!
I don't have any fun pictures to post. Sorry.