En-Route to the Reunion

 Roadtrips are so much fun! Lesson #1: Make sure your license isn't expired BEFORE you leave. Luckily I noticed that Steve's had been expired since his birthday *ahem March* the night before our trip, so we were only delayed in leaving Calgary by an hour or so on the 30th. Our girls did great in the car, it was the release of pent up energy when Steve and I were really exhausted that made for an "adventure". We tried to have dinner at Appleby's in Rexburg- right across the parking lot from our hotel. My parents were eager to feed us, which we appreciated. Kalea was not really in a sit down mood. What got her sent to the hotel pool with very little dinner was her new found love for cups with lids and straws. She discovered how to flick her milk out of her cup with her straw. It was semi-annoying/kinda cute when she was spraying her aunt and uncle, not so much when she ended up spraying the bald man sitting at the booth behind them! Bedtime was way too late that night. Good times!

 On Canada Day, we decided to kill some time before leaving to get to Bear Lake and took the kids to the temple grounds so they could run off some energy and hopefully sleep most of the way to our next stop. Great idea! The Rexburg Temple is beautiful and the girls loved running around, saying hi to every passerby- mostly female (seriously if guys are looking for a place to pick up girls, they just need to walk around there in the morning) and provided all sorts of fun entertainment for onlookers, including trying to climb the gates and screaming/writhing out of our arms when it was time to get back into the car!

Steve thought it would be really fun to celebrate Canada Day with a bang this year- since we can't buy fireworks in Canada why not do it while we're in the States?! It was worth the expense and he really was like a kid in a candy store. We got an "anonymous tip" about where to go to buy the best fireworks- go figure, the reserve! It was fun but I felt hugely out of place and a bit uncomfortable, so I took Brynlee to sit out in the car. When Steve got to the car he told me he had asked about the different tents that were set up, apparently the striped ones are just individuals trying to make some cash, the white one that we bought from was supporting the local CASINO! Awesome! Steve thought it was hilarious, I didn't quite share his enthusiasm about it.
Also, this day was one of our gong show driving days. I am usually a great navigator- hurrah! But not so much this trip. I had no map. I had no GPS. I did have McDonalds free wi/fi so that eventually saved us, but not before my total FAIL. We left Rexburg and wanted to go to Lava Hot Springs/Soda Springs to see the geyser, etc... We left pretty early and I wrote down directions at the hotel and then POOF! they disappeared- so did some other things at that hotel, mysterious? Anywho, I thought I had a good idea of where we had to go and then I second guessed myself- I should never do that. Needless to say we drove over half way to Pocatello and then turned around and went back to Id. Falls (thanks McDonalds) and then drove to Pocatello again and got to our turn-off, it is now our roadtrip joke! Good times again!