"i learned from john taylor how to tie a blood knot"

i'm finally getting around to blogging about our 4th of july weekend! yay!! and i'm just going to say up front...it was the shiz. this year we were supposed to be up at priest lake for the 4th, but because my dad just got a kidney transplant...the doc said no camping and such for a while to keep him away from germs. so...we didn't end up going this year. TOTAL bummer and i miss it so bad since we didn't get to go last year, either. but all is well...we still had fun.

norman's mission buddy, trevor came to visit us for about a week all the way from deleware! we picked him up on the night of the 3rd...talked til about 2:30 am and then the next morning headed to poky for some 4th of july fun with friends. we went to lava to go swimming, this was grant's first time swimming (and my first time in a swimming suit post birth...ugh) he seemed to enjoy it...he fell asleep while we were wading in the pool. it was very cute. after lava we headed to poky to shower and get ready for a BBQ at our friends house. hamburgers, brats, shishkabobs, fruit, chips, ice cream, redneck horseshoes, chatting with close friends...it was fantastic. we then went to stake out a spot for fireworks (which grant also fell asleep during). it was a great end to the evening!

the next morning we headed for island park with norman's family to stay for the rest of the weekend. and lets just say...island park is the land of no need for filters. it is all beautiful on its own. trevor (norm's mission buddy) is more of a city kid and hadn't really camped much so it was fun experiencing island park in a new light..seeing it through his perspective. it made me appreciate the beauty that we have here in idaho so close to us. it really is breathtakingly beautiful.

at island park we fished, ate, went boating, played games, took a hike, ate some more, fed some huge fish some pancakes, saw an otter AND a muskrat AND a mama moose with her calf, made s'mores, talked around the fire, and did all things that create a great trip to the cabin. 

it was a great little break and breath of fresh air....literally. then we came back home, trevor headed out, and norman went back to the grind (we hate summer school). but it's almost over!! that's the good news. hope everyone had a great 4th of july weekend and celebrated their pants off!