We just had the most wonderful week up at my sister’s family cabin outside of West Yellowstone – in Island Park, Idaho. We’ve been going up there numerous times every summer for the last 16 years and every time has been wonderful! This summer was quieter than normal since we only had Jason and I, my parents, my little brother Bryan, and my sister Athena’s family. I drove up with my parents and brother-in-law on Sunday and Jason and Bryan came up the next day. It was so relaxing!!! That’s the best part about going to the cabin. It is right on Henry’s Fork River so you can go canoeing, kayaking, fishing (lots of fishes), or take walks by the river. We did a little of everything except the kayaking – it was only in the 50’s temperature so it was a bit chilly to try Kayaking.
On Tuesday everyone piled into the vehicles and we drove into Yellowstone Park. That is always one of my favorite things to do. We saw a bear, lots of Elk, a bald eagle, buffalo (they walked right next to the Jeep – I could have reached out and petted them), Antelope, a couple of Coyotes, but no Moose. The cabin Moose that I see every year didn’t even show up this time, although we saw his droppings and prints all around the cabin. We had a great time in the park!
Jason always complains that he is not the best fisherman so I was really hoping that this year would be different. My sister Athena and I had found a great little fishing hole that we were catching a ton of fishes at so I took Jason out to it. I caught the first couple of fishes but nothing for Jason. So we moved down a little and boom – he was catching them like crazy. We started having a little competition to see who could catch the most and ended up tying. It was pretty funny because one of us would catch a fish and then minutes later the other person caught one and it was tied again. We had a lot of fun. When we went out the next day Jason’s luck wasn’t as good and I ended up being the fishing champion – although his fish were bigger than mine. My 10 year old niece beat us all by catching the largest rainbow trout of the trip. It was a good 10 inches bigger than anyone else’s fish. She was so proud of her big fish – it was so cute to see. My nephew and sister also caught 2 big fishes but they were white fish which we don’t really like.
The hardest part of the time up at the cabin was seeing my dad not being able to fish. The high altitude affects his breathing and he really struggles to breathe while we are up there. But he really wanted to go up there with us and so he did it anyways. It broke my heart to see him up there and not able to fish as much as he wanted to. But the time we spent together while there was priceless! I was flooded of memories of my dad teaching me how to fish on that very river, my dad running into the house every year declaring that the Moose was outside the window or chasing him on the river. My 6 year old niece thinks that the best part is playing the game Pit with Papa while up at the cabin. The evenings at the cabin are filled with game playing and movies. We all laugh and play. That’s the best part of going up to the cabin every year – the memories with family that we make.
We also added a new memory this year while up there. We went over to Mesa Falls (only a few miles away from the cabin). It has a beautiful water fall and a very nice visitor’s center that has the furs/skins of about 20 animals that you can touch and feel. We had a good time looking at everything and taking a little hike down to the waterfall.
Overall it was a wonderful vacation with my wonderful family!
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