Rockland, Idaho

After saying goodbye to everyone in Heber we drove to Rockland, Idaho. We hadn't been to Rockland in many years, so long in fact that I don't think any of our kids have any memories there. Maybe the older 2 vaguely remember. But it was definitely time to go again. It's a beautiful little farming town where Kenny grew up. His parents moved into that home when they were first married and haven't moved since. Wow! That kind of permanence is mind-blowing to me. We went on a little ranger ride before it got dark so that Kenny could show us around their old farm, show them where he used to play, etc. We got lucky and saw some really neat birds like 2 falcons in a nest (very up close) and some owls too. Probably my funniest, and most terrifying memory will always be when I got totally ambushed by millions of grasshoppers. Kenny starts driving totally off road into these tall bushes. I'm in the front with Briggs in the carrier and all of the sudden they just start jumping into the ranger ALL over me! In my hair and my face, on my dress, on my BABY, just seriously EVERYWHERE. it was horrifying and disgusting and I couldn't get them off fast before more kept coming. I'm sitting there screaming and bouncing around with my arms flinging and the kids and Kenny all started laughing so hard at me! I realized in that moment how ridiculous I must look and I started laughing too, but I kept screaming as well until they were gone. It was really gross. Probably worse than what I imagine the plague of locusts in Egypt to be! My children thought it was so funny that I would act so childish. Tyler said "Mom I never knew you were so scared of a little grasshopper!" Well if it had been one, no big deal. But when I'm getting showered with billions of them all at once, then yeah that's freaky. You never know where they're going to bounce next! Anyway it was quite memorable. Other than that we had a really nice evening together. I should have taken more pictures of the kids playing with their cousins because they had such a good time with Joshua, Jaycee, and Weston. And we always love time with Shariane.

The next day, Monday the 27th, we went with Shariane and her kids to the fish hatchery in American Falls, Idaho. We met Rick and Shalean there with 2 of their girls. It was fun to see the fish in all their different stages of growth, and even feed some others. They could stick their hands in and feel them as they swam by. Some of them (ahem, my grown up husband and his grown up brother) tried to catch a fish with their bare hands for quite a while. To their dismay, it didn't work. From there we hung out at a park for quite a while just talking and letting the kids play. Then we said goodbye to Shariane and went to Pocatello to stay with Rick and Shalean that night. They fed us a super yummy dinner and we stayed up way too late talking them. We always love to be with them and admire their family so much. They're great people and good examples to us.

pelicans!