The cabin life

Island Park is such a fun place to visit. 

On our way in we spotted some deer in the forest. At first I thought they must be elk, because they seemed so big compared to the deer we have in our yard back home. But they turned out to be big deer. 

Ben's mom took us to Big Springs. It's a fun little walking area. We forgot to take any pictures in the little cabin, but the girls really enjoyed exploring it. I love how the water is so perfectly clear. 

We wanted to take a hiking trail up to the cabin, but it ended up leading to nowhere. 

Luckily we turned back before we got too far up. We could tell the trail was going nowhere near our destination. 

Some of us weren't exactly dressed for too strenuous a hike. 

Look how you can see right down to the bottom even from a distance!

There used to be tons of giant fish here that you could feed. The last time we came, they were all gone. Vicky said they got pushed out by the seagulls. 

It was fun to spot this busy little muskrat. He was diving down for sunken bread, and then bringing it back up to eat. 

We did end up seeing a few of the big fish in the shade, but nowhere near the amount or size like there used to be. 

We stared at fish for a bit, and then decided to head back to the cabin. 

The girls wanted to play on the lake. 

It was a lot colder than we'd have liked, but not too horrible. It's hard for the kids being used to a 5ft pool in a city that doesn't get very cold to suddenly jump into a mountain lake where the temperature is in the 40's at night. They got over it pretty quick, and had a blast. 

Every year someone decides to be a mud bug. This year, it was inexplicably Kiersten. 

Lots of games were played. Kara never did get defeated at this game. She declared she wouldn't be, and it held true. 

Ben took the girls out on the jet ski. They sure had a blast. He let Kara and Kiersten drive, and said they both nearly threw him off at some point. 

I also took a quick spin around the lake. I think it's the first time he didn't dump me off. 

They also love being on the tube. 

Everyone got pretty tuckered out playing on the lake all day. 

 We also had to do the kid olympics. They sure had a hard time with the long jump. They all just kept running right over the line. By the end, I think they all got the hang of it. 

 There was also a throwing competition. The kids had to be staggered back by size/age to make it more fair, but Kara still killed it. 

 Ben drove all the kids a mile up the road for a race. Imagine my surprise when Evie came running up for first place. I was shocked. They did give her a 35 second head start, but she beat the other girls by much more than that. 

 And little Whitney came in second!

 Kiersten took 3rd place, and was relieved to beat Kara, since she got second place to her in the short sprint. Kiersten seemed to have the most trouble with the difference in altitude from St. Louis. The other girls didn't seem as bothered by it. 

 Showing off all of her fun medals. 

 It went by so fast, but the kids sure got to do lots of fun things while we were there, and we managed to avoid sunburns, which tend to sneak up on us when we visit Idaho.