Edwards vs. Edwards

LeRoy and Louie

July 2-5th

It was a great to have Louie, Donis and Lilly with us for a few days. Little old Rexburg doesn't come close to California but we had a great time together. Derek and Lilly were once again inseparable and silly to no end (just like last summer during the Edwards family reunion in Texas). And it was quite obvious that Lilly and Erika are related. They could be sisters.

Day 1: LeRoy, Louis, Donis, Lilly and Derek went to Jackson Hole to play tourists. LeRoy worked there for a couple of years so is quite familiar with it and makes a very good tour guide.

Day 2: we loaded up our families and headed to Yellowstone Park. The older kids and I hadn't been there since Derek was a toddler and we had gone in on snow machines so it was like visiting a completely different place during the summer.

We started with a picnic lunch near the entrance of the park. The kids had a blast splashing in the river. . .

while LeRoy made up the traditional Edwards' picnic lunch of peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

We spent the entire day wandering through only the first 30 miles of the park yet it never got boring. The scenery was beautiful, the weather was perfect and it was so great to be out of cell phone range. We were mesmerized by the paint pots, steaming "whistles", animals, remains of the Yellowstone fire of the 90's and the beautiful new growth since then.

After about 4 hours of walking, the older kids parked it on a bench on one of the trails. They (mostly Lilly and Erika) donned random accents and started asking everyone who walked by where they were from, trying to get the same question asked of them so they could wow and impress with their linguistical talents - or lack thereof. Most people kept walking and ignored them, some would simply answer where they were from as they walked by and there were even a few who stopped to chat - they were the ones visiting from other countries.

There's always some kind of competition with these two. Even to see who can handle a camera the best. Louie won. He just had a better camera, even if it was brand new and he didn't really know how to use it yet. This is the result of them staring each other down in a photo taking contest.

On the way home we stopped to see Mesa Falls. The mosquitos were so bad, swarming actually, that we literally ran to the falls, took a quick picture and ran back to the cars. It was torture standing still without swatting hands while being eaten alive! I was so thankful that Erika had volunteered to keep the younger boys in the car. There was a lot of panicked "Shut the door! Shut the door!" yelling going on as we loaded up as fast as we could.

Day 3: We went to the Rexburg 4th of July Parade. Donis and I had a great time sitting back in our lawn chairs to soak up the sun while LeRoy and Louie made sure the kids didn't get run over while snatching candy out of the road.

The Edwards boys put on an evening fire works show for us. They seemed to have fun even with the burned fingers, deafening noise and a cold Idaho evening.

By the time they got ready to leave I had to make sure that Louie or Donis didn't sneak Hyrum into their car. He took quite a liking to the two of them and they were so enamored by not only his adorable smile and fantastic hugs but his complete lack of teenage sass that I was afraid they'd take off with him.