Island Park-Family Reunion

This past week my family had a reunion in Island Park, Idaho. It was absolutely beautiful there! My parents rented a cabin that was at a place called Bills Island over a causeway on Island Park Reservoir. I had so much fun. The scenery was absolutely amazing! We were completely surrounded by water and pine trees. Weirdly enough, I think I could live in a place like that. It was really cool. It smelled absolutely fantastic in the morning with the fresh pine trees everywhere.
While I was there I went on a bike ride every day. It was so much fun. I loved to ride around the entire island and really decided that I could become an avid bicyclist. Plus, there were wildflowers everywhere and so I took my camera on my bike rides and got some shots of the beautiful wildflowers.
On Tuesday, we went down the road from where we are staying to a place called Macks Inn. They have a place called Big Spring where a spring comes out of the ground and into this huge river. They are rumored to have huge trout and bass there. We were not disappointed There were some huge fish in there. It was pretty amazing that so much water could be coming from the ground. We also went into West Yellowstone and went to the bear and wolf center. It was pretty much a waste of time. I did enjoy looking at the Grizzly bears and the wolves, but felt bad for them that they are basically in captivity for all of their lives.
On Wednesday, my Mom, Dad, Spencer, Caden, Chase and I went on a river rafting trip. We had a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was amazing. We also had our own entertainment courtesy of Chase. The water along the way was incredibly cold (52 degrees ish) Well, Chase wanted to feel the water and was reaching down to touch it when he lost his balance and fell in the river. He was screaming bloody murder (with good reason) and Spencer had to go in to grab him. We took off his life jacket and warmed him up and he was happy again. After the life jacket dried off, I attempted to replace in on his body and he says "oh no, I am not going in that water again, I don't need that" Of coarse all of the adults told him he did need it so he let us put it back on him. Not fifteen minutes later, Chase is having the time of his life rowing the boat when the oar gets stuck on the bottom of the river and literally catapults him like a pole vaulter back into the river face first. It was honestly one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life! My mom and I were laughing so hard that we could not help him back into the boat so into the water Spencer goes for the second time to get Chase. The poor kid absolutely hates water and so it just made it 10x worse. The rest of the float trip was rather uneventful and we had a good time looking at bald eagles, other birds and wildlife. I had a really good time. It was so beautiful!
On Thursday we all went into Yellowstone for the day. We started out at Old Faithful. It was just our luck that it was spouting off as we were walking up to it from the parking lot. So, we waited around for an hour and a half for it to go off again. The kids and grandpa all went and got ice cream and played around while waiting. I have to admit, it is a little anti-climactic. Afterwards, everyone went back to the cabin except my mom and dad, Carter, Allison and I. We decided to head to yellowstone falls and the grand canyon. We had a great time and saw several animals and some beautiful scenery. It was a very enjoyable day.
On Friday and Saturday we enjoyed the day around the cabin. I went on several bike rides and went for some spins on the 4 wheeler. We went waterskiing at Island park reservoir. The water was bitter cold, but it sure was fun to ski.
What a fantastic trip! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The worst part about the trip, is that it came to an end far too soon. Island park is a beautiful place. I can't wait to go back!