Shopping and lunch and bears OH MY!!

The other day Chris and I ventured off into the Big City,  and by big city I mean Idaho Falls, so we could get a few things for the house. I'm not going to lie when I say my eyes lit up like Christmas morning when I saw the Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target signs (it really is the little things in life that make me happy).

 

So after spending a small fortune at both stores, enjoying a HUGE lunch at Carino's, Chris finally got to do what HE wanted to do. BEAR WORLD!!

 

I must say the sticker price when you enter the park is shocking. BUT when you realize that you are literally just driving around in THEIR (and by their I mean BEARS, DEER, BISON, etc) homes, you really do get a lot for your money. 58 bears!! 58 wild, unleashed, uncaged bears just hanging out, doing their thing. AWESOME!!

 

Luckily the price of admission covers the petting zoo and kids amusement rides.

 

Perk, he's my grizzly!

This goat at the petting zoo doesn't need you to hold the food for him. Just put the quarter in the machine and he'll take it himself thank you!

 

This pig lives up to its name.

 Anna absolutely loves chickens. She keeps trying to talk us into having some here but I don't think I could do it. She tries to convince me that SHE'LL take care of them.

"Mom.. I PROMISE".

Ya I was a kid too once and instead of chickens, it was kittens.

Nice try Anna.

The good thing about Bear World is that you can enter the park as many times as you want in a day. The second time we did, a big black bear was laying right in the middle of the road, forcing us to drive around him. Anna was a little nervous at times during the park. She kept asking if the Bears would eat us if they got close enough. We of course did our best to keep her calm and try and convince her of how safe we really were.

 

So this same night Chris is watching JAWS on TV. Of course the kids come in just at the final part of the show where the 3 guys are actually battling JAWS. Remember the scene when JAWS actually eats the boat captain?  Well there was a lot of screaming, hiding under blankets (that was just Anna) and yelling "OH MY GOSH!" (that was Abby).

So it was no surprise when Anna climbed into bed with us at 1:00am after having scary dreams about human eating animals!

Getting to know home

Slowly getting settled into the country life here. It's definitely an adjustment as when I'm bored I can't just pick up and run to Target to walk the aisles and browse thousands of things I really don't need. (Would love to have....but don't need.)

Do people who live in the mountains really hike EVERY.SINGLE.DAY? Or go for never ending bike rides when there is nothing else to do? Do they NOT have kids who aren't exactly eager to go on a 16 mile bike ride?

We've been slowly exploring out little tourist town when Chris is off to work. There really are a lot of things to do here, but I need either A) a babysitter or B) motivation money to do them. It's like you have to pay for a summer pass to do anything. Want to ride the chair lifts at the resorts? $15 a person/each time. Want to swim? Buy a season pass. Summer camps for kids? Half of one pay check. Since I'm still putting in a few hours each day at work, I've been trying to find things to do with the kids that is close to the home and FREE.

I really do wish I was more of an outdoor sportsman, it would be so much easier to just grab a fishing reel and head out to the Snake for an afternoon. But I'm not a fan of fish. Alive or dead.

So here's a little bit of what we have been doing to keep busy:

Going to check the mail requires tires and/or a good pair of walking shoes. Since the weather is great right now we are taking advantage and riding our bikes to the post office.

About every other day, we strap on our helmets, grab our bikes and make the 2.5 mile round trip the post office (at least the route we take is 2.5 mi)

 

 

 

There are a number of fun little deli's and restaurants I want to check out.

The Goat Shack serves all type of hot dogs AND has live goats in the back you can pet! 

 

And of course you can't pass the Victor Emporium and NOT stop for ice cream.

Their chocolate shakes are so yummy. Good thing we ride our bikes there, helps to work off those pesky calories!

 

This is a picture board just outside the emporium.

Anna cracks me up!

Every Thursday night Victor hosts Music On Main. The awesome thing...we live close enough that we can just bike right to the park! OR if we don't feel like attending, we can sit on our back porch and listen from home. They have different live bands every play every Thursday night through summer. Last week they had a band that resembled The Dave Matthews Band. Really wishing I would have attended that one!  They also have a couple of food, beer & wine booths and local business vendors set up.

Yes, my girls hanging on the crowd barriers. Little groupies I think!

We've been doing a lot of exploring around our own yard too.

 

 

 Horses. Horses. Horses 

Need I say more?

 Even Bear likes the horses.

The city also has a huge park they use for all the Nordic activities and in the summer it has a great walking trail. I think the kids would love the playground while Bear and walk the park. It's really been warm here during the day so we've been avoiding the heat just as if we were in SLC.

I'm hoping that I can get myself on a schedule of keeping up the home / work / kids so that we all have a good balance and really get to enjoy our little country life here.

 

First week at home

The most beautiful drive to Victor is through Swan Valley. Crossing the Snake River is one of my favorite parts. It's so pretty and peaceful.

 

I'm pretty sure the sign on the other side of town reads "Victor: End of the Line". That makes me nervous. Should that make me nervous?

The first morning in the new home and this is what I wake up to. Abby does not like having her room in the basement and we're having a helluva time getting her to sleep in her own bed. Anna has been kind enough to share her bed with her, on the hopes that it will help Abby transition into her new room. So far it hasn't worked at every morning at about 2am we hear her little feet shuffling up the stairs and quietly making her way into our bed.

The weekend I moved in, we had our friends Pace and Jan and their cute girls come stay for a few days. It was so nice because Anna and Abby had instant friends to play with all weekend so I could unpack a bit and Perk could rest.

We headed to the Huntsman Springs for their annual Celebrate America Event which would have been great except for the fact that A) we got there too late to really experience the food booth, or bounce houses, B) EVERY person in SE Idaho was there and C) small town Idaho police do NOT know how to manage traffic at these events. At the risk of bring out my truckers mouth that reared it's ugly head this night, I'll refrain from reliving the traffic situation. Let's just say it took us over an hour to get from Driggs to Victor. Which is only 8 miles from one another.  I will say that the fireworks show was awesome and totally comparable to what you'd see at Murray Park in SLC on the 4th.

 

There is a little restaurant in Victor called Brakeman's that I took the girls to for lunch one day. I figured we needed to start venturing out and seeing what Victor/Driggs have to offer. The service was horribly slow and the chicken was a little dry. Not the best first impression. BUT I keep hearing from all the locals how good the burgers are so I'm willing to give it one more try. For the burgers sake!

Another "new" thing to me is having to deal with a propane tank. Luckily the guys who came out to fill it and do the safety check were very nice. I'm learning that the locals here are all very nice. Luckily the tank is underground and not some ugly white eye sore! Bleck!

Lots of weird weeds here too. Anna and her new friend Maren (pronounced M-ren) collected weeds looking like dandelion blow-seeds and are hoping they turn into Fairies. As in they put the "fairy weeds" into containers and are expecting to wake up one day and see Fairies come flying out of the mason jars.  Not quite sure how I'm going to pull off this one. Pinterest was no help!

 

This was our first week at home. Nothing too exciting. Just trying to unpack, find places for things, get everything set up so we can just be a normal house, on a regular schedule.

 

And get Abby to sleep in her own bed.

 

Oh I crack myself up!!

Saying Goodbye

 

I have officially moved out of Utah! The past 2 months have been wildly crazy with finding renters for our home, moving everything out, temporary living spots, back and forth and training my replacement at work and of course saying goodbye to everyone and everything. I know

 

But it's all done.

 

Other than a trip to SLC the first part of August for Anna's birthday party (she totally suckered me into letting her invite THREE of her friends to Lagoon for her birthday gift), I have no other trips planned to the Beehive state any time soon.

 

We've had a couple visitors up here so far and a few more scheduled to come. I'm excited to show off my little town (see mom we DO have a gas station!!) 

 

Saying goodbye to so many great friends and coworkers was definitely hard. I've built some really great relationships.  

John started Varsity one month after I did. We quickly became great friends. We like to think we're each others therapy because we can take walks, complain or vent, enjoy a good meal together and then get back to work and be productive. I'm really going to miss him. Good thing we have Skype!

For my last luncheon together, John took me to the Garden Restaurant at the Joseph Smith Building for lunch. I've never been there and it was wonderful.

 

Our view from the restaurant.  

 

On Tuesday night I planned a dinner with my mom, sisters and niece. We of course went to Canton Wok, although I always feel bad that my sister Tannia is suck a PICKY eater that she'll only eat ham fried rice. Well she's gone 42 years being this picky, I guess she knows what she's doing right?! And since my oldest sister Steph is moving to Mississippi in August so I thought this would be a great way to get all of us gals together one last time.  

The last day in SLC I planned a play date for Anna and her BFF's. She's REALLY missing them and having lots of friends around to play with all the time. It's a big transition for her going from a neighborhood LOADED with kids, to having just 2 close neighbors.  If the new neighbors can't play, she gets bored. It will be nice when school starts so she can meet new friends, and hopefully once we get set up in our ward, that will make for new friendships as well. We need the play dates!!!

Anna, Ashlynn and Lauren. I think I miss having these girls around as much as Anna does.
We had never been to the Roy Aquatic Center before, and I must say it was really fun and pretty dang cheap too!

The few days I came back to SLC we once again stayed at my mom's. The girls have had enough of the back and forth but made the best of what time we did have. They were able to see our Nina again, spend some time with their friends, cousins and of course my mom.

 

I had to take this picture! The weekend I finally moved back I was checking out brochures at the local RV park in my tiny little town and came across the flyer for the Museum of Clean. This place was created by the founder of the company I work for.