Stop 2 on our Summer of Firsts

 Destination Two: Cauldron Linn

We live right along the Snake River.  It's no Mississippi, but a decent size river.  Well, little did I know there is an amazing place called Cauldron Linn(again within an hour of my house).  This is where all the water flowing down the Snake River passes through a fairly small opening.  It's not that wide and there is a lot of water coming through.  True, there are high times and low times, we were there at an in between stage.  Not the highest it gets, but plenty powerful for me!  You can stay up top and be amazed enough, but if you climb down a bit and really get close and level with the water coming down it is quite amazing.  You feel how powerful water really can be. Wow!  Ty took each of the kids individually to see it closer, then took we down even closer! It was quite a rush! I'm super glad I got to experience it, and even more so with Ty.  (One benefit to not being to all these places before, I get to only have memories of them with Ty and my kids!)

The rock Ty would take each of the kids to get a better look and feel.

Just another fun little cave!

Future VS model?  Let's hope not, but she has the stance down!

You have to admit, this is an amazing place! Another jewel right here in Idaho!

Stop 1 on our Summer of Firsts!

Do you ever reach the end of summer and think, "I was going to do this and that and why didn't we go here and there?"  Well that was not the case for us this summer.  We took full advantage of summer!  So, I'm 29(I love that I can still say that truthfully, (if only for two more days)) Anyway, I'm 29 and have lived in Burley most of my life right? So why did I not go to or even know about some of these places in our back yard?!  I mean really, most of these places are within an hour of my house and I didn't even know they existed!  Well, I like to call this summer, the summer of FIRSTS!  It's totally understandable that it's the 1st time my kids have been to these places, but me at 29 ;)  Well, I'm just glad we got to visit them this year.  It was a fun filled summer. So let me begin!

(Disclaimer: Mom, you may not enjoy all the seemingly dangerous circumstances I put my kids in. 

Sorry, but at least you know we all made it safe and sound!)

First Destination:  Vineyard Lake

Here we are inside a little cave along the trail.

Have you been here?  It's Beautiful!  A fun trail down to a lake in the middle of a desert.  We kept going passed the lake and over the extremely scary board, across a rocky hill and into some trees where we made a campfire, ate hot dogs and smores and just had a good time.  We actually came here a couple of times and the second time, I saw a deer run right through our campsite! So fun!

Our 1st injury.  Karly decided to Jump of a big rock not realizing just how far of a drop it was, resulting in a bloody nose. :(

I made a little friend on the trail.

The friendship ended when he kept trying to climb up my leg.

Can I just tell you what troopers my kids are!  They were AWESOME! Even the little ones did most of the walking on their own!  But I was glad for Trevik and Tate helping us out!

This is Ty's brother Trevik about to jump into the lake.

Remember my disclaimer.  This was the stressful part of the trail right by the extremely scary board we had to walk across.  Luckily Ty isn't scared and sure footed to carry all the kids across. I was stressed enough just getting myself across with Brock on my hip.

The rocky hill.  Derek especially LOVED climbing the rocks!

This good dad stood IN the water so he could get his kids across without them getting wet.

LITERALLY throwing our kids up on the bank!

At the campsite

Ty having a "Man vs Wild" moment catching and killing a snake!

I hate snakes, but Derek wasn't too bothered by it and wanted to hold it up after it was killed.  As you can see, this is no small snake! Gross!