Lake Cleveland and Craters of the Moon

 labor day weekend, all of us were able to get together at mom and dad's, minus dad:(  for sunday dinner and celebrating ivy's birthday.  it is always fun to be together!  on monday, we got up and took a hike around lake cleveland and drove up to the windy lookout with eldon and lisa's family and whitney and boys.  then we meandered down to durfee hot springs in almo and swam in the nice, fall air.  we ended by eating at the outpost all together before we parted ways.  our family stopped by heber l's grazing dairy in elba and took a tour and got a LOT of flies in our car.  we made it home pretty late, but enjoyed our outing.  hope we can do it more often!  we sure have fun with our cousins...

 our next adventure was on our way to aunt natalie's reception in firth over conference weekend.  the boys had friday off from school anyway, so they only missed a football game.  we headed the back way and ate in fairfield.  just as we pulled into craters of the moon, the rain picked up and so it was a bit slippery and wet, but fun to explore for an hour or two!  we hiked the cones and then went on a search for the big, underground caves.  of course, it would have been better with beautiful weather, but we enjoyed our time and learned about the history of the area and the pursuit of the infamous sheep-eating bear that was tracked above minidoka to there at the craters.

after the reception, we cruised down to grandma's and spent the nite.  ben caught a ride to get home and get back to work, and the kids and i stayed to watch conference and go to the pumpkin patch together.  always a fun treat to go with grandma!  the messages were inspiring and the weather wonderful.  that evening, we packed up and headed home after picking apples from mom's trees to make a delicious apple pie the next week.  fall is in the air!