Back on the Road

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Well, we are at the Hampton Inn in Idaho Falls tonight. We stopped to eat dinner, and decided we could not drive any further. It's amazing the amount of energy we have had when we were doing all that family stuff. It's like we are coming down off an incredible high, well, we kinda are!We just decided that it would be a good idea to come on to a hotel, chill out and go to bed early, so that we can hit Yellowstone tomorrow. It's 8:15 here, but we are in lights out mode!

I didn't really tell you much about yesterday. It was a good day. Marlowe got to visit more with Aunt Maida. Josie and Ty went to play golf with a cousin, Tristan, and Jake and I hung out at the hotel for a while. Then Marlowe and Mona came back, and we just looked at pictures and visited a bit, then Liz and Bradley came to say their goodbyes, since they would be gone today. She brought some videos that were SOOOO much fun to watch. She had managed to get so many of the Hinson aunts and uncles on video. There was also, as there is on most Hinson videos, a whole storytelling segment by John. We laughed and cried!

We went to Dierke's Lake for the reunion afterward. I have never seen so much food in my life!!! We had a great time visiting, and Aunt Maida was able to join us! I was so glad! She is such a prize!!

At one point, Mona, Trina, Lisa, Kelsey and Leah decided to go for a "walk," and they invited me to go too. We went to see the hidden lakes. It was amazing! However, it was not a WALK like any walk I've ever been on IN FLIP FLOPS!! We hiked trough the rocky terrain, but it was worth it. Suddenly, out of mowhere, there was a beautiful lake! That's where we saw the cliff jumpers!!

When it was over, the Jenkins girls, Mona and James, and my crew decided to go walk across the bridge - the one in all of my pictures. I am not sure if I cold have done it in the daylight, but in the dark, it wasn't so bad.

Then this morning, we went to Aunt Maida's for breakfast, another amazing meal, complete with Loretta's HOMEMADE CINNAMON ROLLS with ALMONDS!! OH MY STARS!!!!! These things make IKEA rolls taste like generic pop and fresh rolls!! So, then we dragged out our visit as long as we could. Last night, I made a slide show with all my pictures, so we watched that, and we looked at some old pictures, and we just had a good visit, planning for the next time we can all be together. We finally left, with some tears. I think Josie would have stayed if I'd have let her! A couple of her cousins have been texting her ever since we left! She slept most of the way to the next stop, but when she woke up, she started crying again!! We just aren't good with goodbyes!!

You know how I've said this whole trip has been like a movie set? Well, as we are leaving town, crossing the bridge over the canyon, Ty says, "Look, they're about to jump!!" Sure enough, there was a group of base jumpers getting ready to jump!!! We turned around, parked the car, got out, went to the spot to watch, and they started to jump!! It was crazy!!

So, we went on down the road toward Yellowstone, but had to stop when we had dinner, and now we are crashing!

Just a note - When I get home, I will go back and label these pics. For now, this is all I can do. :)

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