Darby Canyon and the Wind Caves

With Cory and Lisa in town dropping of Katlyn to BYU-Idaho, we took them on an excursion to the Darby Wind Caves.  The weather was perfect and while the fall colors are not on yet, the canyon and caves were beautiful.  It was fun showing our Northwest friends the greenery of Eastern Idaho/Western Wyoming.  We took are dogs Gretel and Charlie and they had a great time.

Virginia City

On Labor Day we were invited by Todd and Kathy to join with them on a quick trip to Virginia City, Montana.  Grandpa and Grandma Davis came along.  We were absent Cindy and Emrie, who were still in Washington.

Isaac loved the old houses and Christopher enjoyed the history of this old ghost town.

Christopher's Latest Drawing

Here is a sketch Christopher completed today.  He is spending more and more time drawing and is taking some art classes this year in school.

Mount Rainier's Spray Park

One of our favorite hikes is Spray Park in Mount Rainier National Park.  This hike really has it all from towering waterfalls, deep alpine forests, and high mountain meadows with hundreds of varieties of wildflowers.  In fact, the name Spray Park comes from the "spray" of flowers" in the high meadows.  This year's hiking group included Roger, Sam, Ryan, Matthew, Matthew, Aubrey, and Isaac.  We also saw Corey and Lisa on the trail.  Here are some pictures from our hike:

Isaac is 7!

We celebrated Isaac's 7th birthday at Lake Tapps in Washington near Matthew and Aubrey's home.  Isaac has been begging for a skateboard for months and Matthew and Aubrey delivered.  For the past week Isaac has been asking when he would turn 7 and for the past day he has been asking "am I really 7."  Joining in the celebration were Brian and Tiffany's and Corey and Lisa's family.  We had a fun day swimming, roasting hot dogs, and a late night ride around the lake.  We didn't give him 7 spankings, but we did dunk him a few times.

Happy birthday Isaac!

Isaac's Soccer Team

Here is the picture of Isaac's soccer team taken the last week of the season.  This team was fun to watch and Isaac had a great time.  And yes, he is the same age as the next boy to his left.

Grand Teton National Park

On Friday, we decided to take a quick trip over the mountains to enjoy Grand Teton National Park.  We hiked around Jenny's Lake to Hidden Falls and then took the boat ride back to the dock.  Emrie is proving to be quite the hiker and Isaac the rock scrambler.  We then drove north to String Lake and thanks to the generosity of some new friends we were able to kayak around the lake.  Isaac, Emrie, and Christopher all swam in the crystal clear water and fed the minnows.

After our day of hiking, kayaking, and swimming we enjoyed a barbecue dinner at Bubbas, with Christopher and Isaac downing large quantities of baby-back ribs.  We accidentally ordered an extra large helping of wings, but we were hungry enough that we had no problems finishing them off.