Wild & Wonderful World of Whitesides: Island Park Trip

We had a Whitesides family trip planned in August to go to the family cabin in Island Park. Unfortunately, last minute the only ones who ended up going were us and Ben and Janessa's family. We were bummed that not everybody was going to come, but excited that they were still coming too! We all needed to get away and just HAVE FUN!

The drive up usually takes anywhere from 3-4 hours. We ended up leaving just a few minutes behind Ben and Janessa and were excited to be on the road! After being on the road for a while up in Idaho josh mentioned that he hadn't seen any cars coming in the opposite direction for a while. (Me...I'm thinking It's just not busy.) Just then a cop was making everybody exit the freeway and take a frontage road. ??? Weird?! We were only about the fourth car they made exit, and in the middle of NOWHERE, I started to panic! So I called Ness and they had not been forced to exit but were at a DEAD STOP, but didn't know why. So while talking to her we end up PASSING them on the freeway from the frontage road and they had detoured us around a semi that had rolled over. So you're thinking great for us we missed all the traffic, but bad for Ben and Ness (still at a stand still), but no it's not that simple. See they had the key to get into the cabin! So either way, we were ALL stuck until they could get out of the traffic jam.

Since Ben and Ness were stuck we decided to take our time. We took a pit stop and it was at an Indian Reservation. Very interesting crowd...but nice to pay NO sales tax on our purchases! We hung around for about 45 minutes and then headed back onto the road. We spoke to Ben and Ness and after being at a dead stop for an hour they turned around and got off the exit and took the frontage road. So we ended up only being about 30 minutes ahead of them.

THE CABIN!

Once arriving we started to set up camp, then Ben and Ness arrived and while we were still setting up a SURPRISE visitor came...Grandpa Jay! We had NO idea that he was coming. He could only stay one night but we were SO excited to see him!

We set a campfire that night, something we were all excited to do since the last trip up there the fire hazard was too high that you couldn't do a fire. I love the look on Cannon's face in the picture with Jayben. He looks either tired or confused! hehe

The next morning, after some DELICIOUS omelets and bacon (thanks babe for making awesome food!), we decided it would be fun to take a raft down the river. They were sold out until the afternoon so to waste some time we went over to Big Springs. We tried feeding the fish, but I think they were a little too used to being fed and had no interest in us. The water was REALLY clear and beautiful, and the house build by the man that used to live there was awesome. (Sorry no pics of the house.)

This picture just warms my heart. The two most special people to me in the WHOLE world! Oh how I love these boys, and watching how much they ADORE each other makes it that much BETTER!

After visiting Big Springs we got the call that it was our turn for the rafts. So we met up on the river and they drove us upstream so we could go downstream. It was funny at first because Josh and Ben couldn't get the hang of how to control the raft and steer. Well... it was more like brotherly arguing. (They both like to be right. hehe) But they got the hang of it and we even brought along our lunches to eat along the way.

It wasn't exactly the term rafting that I would think of...more like leisurely floating down the river. But it was a lot of fun and we even stopped a few times where it was shallow and got out into the FREEZING cold water.

(I actually stole the above pictures from Janessa's blog, I realized I didn't get any of Ben on the boat!)

Near the end of the line we happened upon a mama moose and her two babies. (Is there a term for baby moose like there is for deer? Who knows?) There was a sand barge in the middle of the river and we decided to go a long the side that was CLOSER to the moose! What were we thinking?! Once we started we realized that and tried to turn back but it was too late. So we continued on... and luckily they didn't seem to mind how close we were.

After our rafting trip Ben and Ness took their kids to West Yellowstone and Josh, Cannon and I just went back to the cabin and hung out. The outdoors is DEFINITELY a boy's territory! Cannon had SO much fun "helping Daddy chop" the firewood. (Meanwhile Mommy had to turn away and not watch because of all the BA-ZILLION things that could have injured him!) But he came away with minimal injuries and a huge smile on his face!

While the boys were outside..being boys. I decided to take some pictures of the cabin. It really is cool, even though it is not equipped with any modern conveniences. It was built in the early 1900's (I think around 1910), by a man who built everything all by himself! Exterior and interior!

The kitchen area is my favorite, because of the original stove! I wish I knew how to use it!

See how everything is made of wood, the guy did it all by himself!

Overall it was a very successful trip and we are so happy that Ben and Ness decided to still come too! The only major hiccup we had was that we got a flat tire there and on the way home we had to leave earlier than Ben and Ness so we could stop in a city and get it repaired. Besides that, the drive home was pretty uneventful. We will DEFINITELY have to go again! So many memories made!

I almost forgot about my attack of the mosquito's! The last night there I apparently missed one of my ankles with the bug spray because the next morning I had 7...yes 7 mosquito bites on that ONE ankle! So I had to take a picture of it to show you. (By the way this proves just how WONDERFUL bug repellant really works!)