Busy but fun weekend.

August 28th, Ilyse came up to visit. We were able to do a lot while she was here. Here are some of the highlights of the extended weekend of Aug 28 - 31st.

We were able to spend the weekend up at the cabin. We brought up the dogs and Ilyse and Buddy were best buds.

On Sunday Val, Coy and I were able to throw a be-lated surprise birthday party for Ilyse with all of her friends from the Idaho Falls potato industry. We had Karen, Shayla & boyfriend, Andrea & husband from Potandon, Sue from Idaho Potato Packers, and Jeremy and his little family, Chris Taylor and Val, all of course from Kingston.).
We had made dutch oven chicken, potatoes and cornbread for dinner. Then had cake and huckleberry ice cream for dessert. We had a great time surprising Ilyse. The look on her face was priceless when she came back with Coy from an errand (wink wink).

Monday I took the day off, we packed a picnic and headed up toward central Idaho.
We went fishing up at Meadow Lake. It was cold but beautiful. The lake was crystal clear, but the only one who caught a fish was Coy. Kelle tried to keep us warm by building a fire, but she wasn't able to get it going until we were about to leave, because of the damp wood and kindling. But she gets an A for effort.

After the fishing trip up at the lake, we headed down the mountain for a little history tour of the Lemhi valley. We stopped first at the old Chinese kilns.

These big ovens were built in the late 19th century. They used the kilns to make charcoal for smelter for the near by silver mines in the town of Viola. After a little over a decade of running, the little towns of Gilmore and Viola ran dry of silver and so did their little towns. The little towns can still be seen and it is sad to think, way back when, those little towns were bustling with life and now they are no more.

After the kilns, Coy knew of a location where there are petroglyphs dating back as far as 10,000 years. It was a bit off the beaten path but we were willing to walk a bit to see these ancient drawings. I was in awe. In one picture you can see hands of the artists, buffalo, suns and even a warrior holding the head of his victim as his trophy. We also found a cave where you can see they used to live or to seek shelter during the harsh winter months. The dark smoke still lines the ceiling of the cave.

Here are a few random pictures of us at the drawings. Chris and I are pointing out the beheading and the warrior, Johnnie is showing us his impression of the brave warriors that used to pass through this valley. Dang he is a cutie. And the picture of Kelle is when she was hiking up the spot. The scenery picture is of Diamond peak that hovers over this valley.

After our little history tour, we headed to Birch creek to see if we could have better luck in the fishing department. The scenery around us was beautiful, but like that of the lake, we still didn't have any luck in the fishing department. We spent several hours fishing and enjoying each other company. We finally decided to pack things up and head back to Idaho Falls. It is about an hour and half away from where we were and it was getting pretty late.

After we opened the door to car, Maverick jumped in so quickly and laid in Johnnie's car seat we didn't have time to react. Both our little guys were exhausted from the long day. But we all had a great time and Johnnie was such a great sport. He loved that he was able to finally go fishing with Uncle Chris.