Craters of The Moon

We finished the last of our promised four games of the tournament with four straight losses. It's not that we are a bad team, it's just that the best of the best are usually willing to drive that far so they can win the tournament and we just threw our hat in the ring because we were afraid we wouldn't have opportunities to play in Utah. As it turns out, we are looking at a full season that finishes up the end of July.

Most of the team went home on Saturday night, but we decided to make our trip into a mini vacation. On Sunday morning, we gathered up and checked out of the hotel. I'm not sure I ever told you that we had Twizlet with us although you probably noticed in the pics. Sport and Crafty stayed home so they could both work and Grandpa was happy to stay with my sister for the weekend and do family history work. So that made 6 of us.

My sweetie bought me this cool Craters of the Moon hoodie.

On Sunday morning we took off for Craters of the Moon. We had taken our older kids to this national monument years ago, but Scout, Baby Doll, and Curly had never been there.

Looking for lava bombs on Devil's Orchard trail.

We went on several hikes. The first one was flat and easy and the kids got to look at the rocks made from lava up close. The winds were blowing, but they weren't terrible as we climbed back in the van to eat a sandwich before we made our way to the next trail.

Climbing the Inferno Cone trail

By the time we got to the Inferno Cone trail, the winds had picked up considerably. We paired off to try to make it to the top. Scout had Twizlet with her when her favorite FRIENDS cap went flying with one gust. Thankfully, she opted to save the granddaughter rather than the hat! Right before we reached the summit, the wind was gusting so high we decided to turn around before we lost anything else.

Making stretched pennies at the visitor's center

One last short hike took us to see the "sno" cone and the "spatter" cone. Yes, there was actually snow in the bottom of one of them. The spatter was not nearly as exciting, but the steep trail was pretty brutal for those of us who are hopelessly out of shape.

We all enjoyed dinner at the hotel grill.

Once back in the car, we drove the rest of the way to Twin Falls. We got really nice, spacious rooms for our $69 Hotwire price. The kids came in and we played card games and Monopoly on our bed until it was time to send them off for sleep. We still had big plans before we were heading home.