10 July 2016

We spent this week in Idaho with Sarah, Joe and Zina.   The kids wore matching T-shirts for the 4th of July.   

Gib added to the celebration by turning his crepe into an American flag.

Zina has pigs and chickens.  Abe fed the strawberry tops to the chickens.  The chickens are young and were too afraid to come eat the tops.

Zina will be showing her pigs at the county fair next month.  The pink pig is named Hunca Munca and the black pig is named Talulah.

 After breakfast we drove to Craters of the Moon and looked at some areas we haven't been to before.  We hiked out to some tree molds, an area where lava covered over trees and hardened around the trees.  Imagine a tree where Abe is sitting in this photo.  When the tree decomposed, it left behind a mold in the shape of its trunk.

 Here are Abe. Gibson and Helen standing on a lava flow.

 This rock probably shot out of a cinder cone 2,000 years ago.

 Later in the day we drove to Hailey for the 4th of July rodeo.  Here is a photo of Gibson, Abe and Helen waiting for the rodeo to start.

 It was a beautiful evening to sit outside and watch some exciting events.  Our favorite events were the barrel racing, bronco riding and bull riding.  Joe likes the roping events best because he has competed in them in other rodeos.  At this rodeo, he was a spectator and tour guide for our family and the tourists behind us.

On Tuesday, Sarah and Joe took us on a short, steep hike to Iron Bog Lake.  Once we got up the first steep hill, we enjoyed beautiful views of the mountains and wildflowers.

 Iron Bog is a pretty alpine lake.  From the left are Brandan, Abe, Sofi, Gib, Becky, Helen, Zina and Joe.

 Joe brought fishing equipment and taught Abe how to cast.  He also taught Abe the most common knots used for fishing.

 Another hiker found a stray horse along the trail and tethered him next to the lake, thinking the horse had wandered from a camp and the owner would be looking for him.  Horses can get tangled in their halters, so the hiker made sure not to allow too much slack in the halter when he tied the horse to a tree.  Zina fed the horse some grass since he couldn't reach grass on his own.

 Joe thought he recognized the horse and decided to take the horse back down the trail with us.  Even if the owner wasn't who Joe thought he was, it would be easier to pick the horse up at the trailhead with a horse trailer than hiking to the top of the trail.  It seemed safer to us city types to give Joe and the horse plenty of space as we headed back down the steep trail.  Zina followed Joe.

 Gib found a rib bone on the way down.

 At the trailhead, we found a sign advertising for the lost horse.  Joe was right about the owner.  He had given up looking for the horse and posted the sign soon after we started on our hike.  Joe called the owner and told him where to pick up his horse.

 Sofi has new student orientation at the University of Utah next week.  It would have taken us an extra day to drive her Salt Lake before we came home.  Instead, we dropped her off in Twin Falls to take the Salt Lake Express shuttle.  We're pleased to report she made it safely to Salt Lake where Brandan's dad picked her up in front of the temple.

 After Sofi drove away, the rest of us headed home. We stopped at a Lebanese restaurant in Bend for a delicious Middle Eastern feast.  Gib was happy to see chicken strips on the kids menu and was almost spared eating anything unusual.  (Becky had him take one bite of everything we were served.)