Getting to spend two weeks in Idaho was an amazing gift.  Arthur and I came a week early so that I would have extra time with my mom and to help her. But it also meant that I had extra time with my sisters Heather and Holly, which was fabulous. We tried to squeeze in time together as much as we could.  After getting us from Terrie, Holly dropped Arthur and I off in time for us to attend church with my mom, which was wonderful.  And then we had a lovely Sunday with her, and had dinner with Stuart and Shariane next door, which is always fun.

Monday morning, Holly and I started things off with a morning walk through her neighborhood trails.  What a great way to start the day.

I spent so much of the week doing projects on a list for my mom – starting with yard work and getting the oil changed in her car.  It felt so good to be there helping and serving her!!  Sometimes it is very difficult to live so far away.  Arthur helped me a bit, but he spent most of the week playing with cousins every chance he could get, especially Shariane's son, Weston.  They are the same age, and he is just the kindest kid.  They had a blast.  Arthur also also got to hang out with his cousins Joseph and Samuel too.  And of course, he got to see all of my sister Heather's goats – good times.

On Tuesday night, Holly and I went out on a walk on the canyon rim, which is one of my very favorite things to do in Twin Falls.  It is so beautiful.  Plus, I always love having time with Holly.

Wednesday was a very exciting day.  Months ago, after texting with one of my high school besties, I had the idea of putting together a little mini-reunion with us ladies.  I may have had to write my friend Ashleigh a letter to get her cell number, but it all came together, and only my friend Carrie wasn't able to make it. None of them live in Twin Falls anymore, but luckily they are relatively close, in either Idaho or Utah, and so those that were there first thing on Wednesday, we got together to do the canyon trail together.  It was so amazing to see Ashleigh, Jill and Kendra again.  My heart was seriously bursting.  Wow, I love these ladies!

Around 10am, Leslie arrived from Ogden, and we met up at my mom's and talked and talked.  I swear, it has been about 29 years since we had all been together, but not only did look like they hadn't aged, but it was like we had never been apart.  I loved hearing all of their stories – we have lived a lot of life in almost 30 years, and they are all so amazing.  I am so lucky to have their friendship and love.  It really was the most wonderful day and a gift to be together.

We finished things off with lunch together, and then said goodbye, planning to do this again sooner than later.  When I got back, Arthur, my mom and I played a game together.  Arthur has also been obsessed with watching murder mysteries, and so each evening, we were picking a different movie to watch.  He had wanted to continue watching all of the Hallmark Hannah Swenson movies, but we convinced him to watch some old classics as well.  One night we watched "Wait Until Dark," and Holly came over and joined us.  Another night we watched "Rear Window," and Heather and Gracie came and watched it with us.  We also watched "Charade," which is so good.  Although Arthur decided that we needed to stop watching them at night right before bed, because he was having a hard time sleeping.  Oops – 😬 .

Another thing that Arthur has been spending a lot of time doing, is playing with Dakota, Stuart's dog.  He would go next door and play with him for an hour or more, and was soaking in all the animal time.  Then I would have him get all showered, because he was usually covered in mud.  Nice.

Most days, I didn't make it to the canyon for my walks, so I would walk down my mom's street down to the wheat field, which I love.  Someday, I am sure that farm field will get sold and they will build a neighborhood there, but until then, I will enjoy watching the sunrise over the wheat.

On Thursday afternoon, Holly and I had an adventure.  We took her kayaks down to the Snake River and had the best time kayaking down to the bridge.  It was hot out, but the river was cold, so it was perfect.

We seriously had the best time, between the adventure of getting the kayaks tied to the roof and taking them down, avoiding the swarm of yellow jackets that decided to hang out in the parking lot right where we had to park, paddling down the river, etc.

And we even saw some baby ducks and a Great Blue Heron – so cool!!

And of course, we had to take pictures of each other.

We talked and laughed, and really just enjoyed getting out in nature and getting some exercise.  It is such a blessing to have one of your best friends be your sister.  When we got to the bridge, we hung out in the shade under it for a while before we paddled back to the dock.  It was so wonderful!  Such a gift.

Friday morning was a field trip day for Arthur and I to visit Lily in Rexburg and help her with her packing.  We decided to make it a temple day as well, and so we left before the sun was up and drove to Pocatello for our first stop of the day.

We arrived at the gorgeous Pocatello Temple at 7:45 am, just in time for our appointments.

I got Arthur settled at the baptistery, and then I went to my appointment to participate in inniatories.  It was such a wonderful experience for both of us, and I am so grateful we made it happen.

Not everything went smoothly, however.  Right after getting on I-15, in the last ten minutes of our drive, my mom's car started making an awful noise.  I knew it wasn't the engine, and it actually sounded like something was dragging under the car.  Luckily, we were getting off the freeway right then anyway, and so I drove extra slow through the neighborhoods until I got to the temple.  After we parked, I looked under the car, and saw the whole undercarriage cover thing was off, except for maybe one screw.  I said a prayer with Arthur, and then we went into the temple, knowing there was nothing we could do that couldn't wait until we were done.

And then, as I waited for my turn for inniatories, I felt strongly prompted to ask for advice from the woman who had just arrived and the temple worker in charge.  The kind woman said that her husband was with her at the temple, knew a lot about cars, and they could help me figure things out after we got out of the temple.  Wow. They had actually made their appointments to come to the temple that day at the last minute, and just happened to come in right when I did.  It was a miracle.  Once we got outside, he not only looked at my car, but got down on the dirty parking lot in his nice church clothes to check it out.  Turns out that the part that had come loose was just to direct air, and wasn't actually protecting anything under the car, and so he pulled it off, I put it in the back of the car, and was able to go on with our plans without any worries.  What amazing angels, and what an answer to prayer.

Because the car was okay, we were free to head to our next stop, the Idaho Falls Temple.  This is a special temple to me, because this is the temple where I received my own endowment back when I was 21.  I took Arthur to the baptistry, and although I didn't do baptisms, I was able to do confirmations, which was awesome.  And wow – that baptistry was busy!!  So many amazing youth in a never ending flow coming to the House of the Lord to do work for their ancestors.  It was beautiful and humbling, and I loved that Arthur and I were there to be a part of it.  I asked the woman at the desk if this was normal, and she said it was that way every day in the summer that the temple is open. Wow!!  

When we finished up inside, we had a little bit of time until we were meeting my sister, Cheryl, for lunch, and so we went to the visitor's center.  Arthur loved it, as they had a fun little scavenger hunt for him to do, and he won a little prize for doing it.  Then we met up with Cheryl at Culvers.  It was so good to see her!!  We only had about an hour, as we had to get to Rexburg, and she was packing to leave for a family reunion with her kids at Lake Tahoe, but it was so great.  I love her so much, and we only get to see each other once a year, if we are lucky.  I may have had to remind Arthur of that, as he kept trying to get us to stop talking so he could get to his sister ;). Good times, and definitely another special gift to be able to spend that time with her.

After saying goodbye to Cheryl, we drove to Lily's apartment in Rexburg.  I got right to work helping Lily organize her belongings into what she wanted to store at Grandpa's house, and what she would be bringing home to Texas, since she will only have one semester back in Rexburg, and it won't be until January.  She is taking fall semester off to hopefully do an internship, but even if she doesn't get one, she will just have some time off at home and get a job.  We worked for a couple hours on packing, and then we changed to head to the Rexburg Temple together.

I had never been in the rexburg Temple before, and so it was one more temple to add to my list – and it was the 8th temple Arthur had been to over the summer, beating his goal of five, and the 11th temple he has been to in all since turning twelve.  Pretty fantastic, and I love that his sister got to be there with him.  While they did baptisms, I got to go and do initiatories, which was awesome.  Especially because I was able to spend time in the Celestial Room and see other parts of the temple.  So beautiful and so peaceful.

After we finished there, we drove a few miles down the road to where they are building the Teton River Temple, another temple in Rexburg.  And it is crazy, because from the site of the one, you can totally see the other.  Wow!  Oh, and another thing I found amazing at the Rexburg Temple, was how the majority of the temple workers there were BYUI students – so cool!

We went back to Lily's apartment and changed, and then had an early dinner at one of her favorite places in town, The Hickory.  

Then it was back to her apartment to work on packing and organizing some more, so that she could easily finish things up, heck out of her apartment  and drive to Twin on Monday.  It was so good to see my girl, and the only reason I was okay driving away, was because I was going to see her in three days.  Arthur felt the same way – oh, how he loves his sister, and she is so amazing to him.

On the drive home, only about ten minutes into the drive, Arthur fell sound asleep.  He desperately needed the sleep, especially after the eraly start and full day we had, and so I had him sleep the whole drive home and then get straight into bed, and I listened to my audiobook and enjoyed the spectacular Idaho sunset as I drove back to Twin Falls.  It was the perfect way to finish off an amazing gift of a week with family.