Epic Journey, Part III- Idaho

After spending 8 days in St. George we set out once more for the next leg of our journey. Our destination was Island Park, Idaho, the site of the third Finck Family Reunion. Our family goal is to get together every three years at the site of a different family member. This year was Angie’s turn and my grandparents have a place in Island Park, not far from where Angie lives. These reunions have been great, a great chance to see family and for our kids to get to know each other. The oldest boys have become friends and these reunions have been the major reason why.

The trip was not a straight shot for us; we drove only 4 hours the first day and spent the night at Melissa’s aunt’s house. Glen and Yolanda were excellent hosts and are always so much fun. Glen is so good with kids and kept ours laughing the entire time. The next morning we woke up and took the kids to visit Temple Square. It was hot in Salt Lake, but we enjoyed visiting the temple. It was very crowded, and we kept getting caught up in wedding parties. The best part of Temple Square was at the visitor center we were looking at pictures of Jesus’ life and Melissa asked Savannah what was happening in the picture. Savannah responded that, “Jesus wants to be a Sunbeam.” We also had the opportunity to meet my aunt Sandy for lunch a couple blocks away. We do not get to Utah very often, so it was nice to visit with so many family members. We left Temple Square and drove to the airport and picked up my Dad and then my Grandfather and then traveled the three hours up to Idaho Falls and spent the night at Angie’s house. The next day we were off to my grandparent’s house in Island Park.

This was another great reunion. All the kids got along very well, and as always we all had a lot of fun. When it was over we drove back to St. George, but stopped to look at the campus of Weber State who has a job opening this year. We spend a couple days in St. George and than back to my folks and than all the way back to Texas. It was a long few days driving, but well worth it. We drove a lot, and put a bunch of miles on the van, but look forward to the next reunion. Tami, you are on the clock.

Highlights from Island Park:

1. Getting together with the entire family together and watching the kids all play to well together. The three boys, Jake, Luke, and Colton are separate by three months and are good friends. Savannah and Bree were inseparable.

2. Spending time with my Grandpa Finck. He is a great man, and we were able to spend time talking. He is getting up there in age, and I am grateful to spent time with him.

3. Ridding the ATVs. My grandparents had three bikes and my brother brought up three and Erik had one, so we had plenty of bikes to go around and cover a lot of ground around the area. Island Park is not much of a town and there are bike trails everywhere.

4. Canoeing. I love canoeing; there is something very enjoyable about relaxing down a river. We canoed down the Snake River twice, both time were great fun

5. Seeing the wildlife. We saw 6 elk at various locations. Lots of birds on the Canoe trip. One day as we were heading home a buffalo was just walking through town like he owned the place

6. Sage’s baptism. One of the treats was being able to attend my niece’s baptism. Sage is the oldest of the grandkids and with all her family there and Hailey’s close they baptized her at West Yellowstone. This was a spiritual event. We had a big picnic afterwords with all of Hailey’s family.

7. West Yellowstone. We spent one afternoon walking around West Yellowstone. This is a small town, but has a lot of small shops that are fun to see. My problem is I love the clothes they sell there, but most of them are fleece and long sleeve, stuff that is not good for south Texas. I need to move.

8. Hiking. We went on a couple small hikes. One to Mesa falls, a beautiful waterfall. Another a nature hike with Robert explaining the plants along the way. I learned a bunch, but Jake did not seem to care.

9. The Rodeo. One afternoon we went to the rodeo, it was small but I enjoy rodeo’s and we had fun watching. The kids got board after a couple hours and I had to leave early.

10. Visited Rob’s ranch. My brother works for a multi--millionaire who owns ranches all over. One of them is in Island Park where they have a breath-taking piece of land. One part is the main house, but they also have an original cowboy camp with all the original buildings.