Day 1: Island Park/Yellowstone...

**This is long and probably more detailed than anyone cares for...lol...but I wanted it like that for journaling...so feel free to skim or skip over it all!**

October 2...My grandma and Merlin had a dentist appointment that they had scheduled way in advance and couldn't get anything better, so they went to Rexburg for that on Friday morning. While they were gone, we decided to all head over to Mesa Falls. Mesa Falls is awesome! They have a nice little walkway down to the Upper Falls...which is just beautiful! We bundled the kidlets up and headed over to the walkway. The walkway was slippery because there was frost on it...crazy...so Bridger held Josh's hand tightly. I took Kenna, who was in her stroller, around the handicap access route...when I got around I realized it doesn't take you very close to the falls at all, so I carried her stroller down an insane amount of stairs...seriously, you would have died if you saw how many stairs there were...so go me! Oh and my end of the walkway wasn't slippery because the sun was shining on it, so that was a bonus! The waterfall was spectacular as always, but Bridger didn't stay impressed for too long...lol...nor Kenna! So, after admiring the fall and snapping photos, we headed up the pathway...Josh carried the stroller up this time...woo-hoo for me! There was a lodge that had a little museum in it, so we decided to go in. It had pictures and history facts about the area, and was quite interesting. There was also a room that had animal paws, furs, skulls and nasty little bugs in vials...kind of gross! We looked at it all and headed back to the car.

On our way out, we saw a sign that said "Trail to Lower Mesa Falls". I had never been on this trail, so we decided to check it out...it was a mile each way and wasn't bad at all. They have markers along the trail that identify various plants, etc...you can grab a nifty little guide at the beginning of the trail and it tells you more about what is at each marker. We thought this would be fun for Bridger, so we started making a game out of finding the next number...he thought this was cool for the first few numbers (there were 16) and then started complaining...it was actually kind of funny, he would say things like, "Okay, we're done now. How about we head back to the car" or "I'm done now, let's go back" or "This is boring, let's go eat something." It was funny that he was complaining because he never does about walking. We made it to the end of the trail and it overlooked an even more stunning waterfall. Josh decided to be crazy and climb down this cliff...it was super steep and he wanted us to all go down with him....good thing I put the brakes on that one! We watched in oh so carefully make his way down the cliff and then we couldn't see him any more. I walked around with the kids, trying to keep them amused and keep Bridger away from the ledge. When Josh finally came back up, he said it was the most spectacular thing he has ever seen...the pics were awesome! We then headed back to the car and back to my grandma's. It was a fun and beautiful walk!

That afternoon, after Kenna's nap, we decided to take the kids to Big Springs to see the fish and ducks. My grandma made some popcorn for us to take so Bridger could feed the fish and ducks. Bridger was pretty excited about all the little critters he was feeding! Once the popcorn was gone, we walked around a bit and then headed back because it was freezing! That evening we just enjoyed each others' company again.