Who Needs a House?

Three hours before we arrived at our house the landlord called to tell us it wasn't ready for us to move in. It needed to be painted, and the carpets needed to be cleaned. We tried to explain to him that we didn't care, but apparently we have the most conscientious landlord on the planet and he insisted that it was not fit for living. (Let me just break in here to say we went through it when we arrived and it looked brand new except for where they had patched the wall from the previous flat screen tv. Seriously, brand new.) Anyway, he agreed to not charge us a pet deposit (he had overlooked the part on our application where we mentioned our 12 pound, three-legged, poodle mutt) if we allowed him to paint and clean the carpets before we actually moved in. So we did what any normal family would do...we moved all our stuff into the basement storage room and garage and then went camping.

Yellowstone National Park is about 2 hours from Idaho Falls and just outside of that is a place called Island Park (not an island, named by some wishful thinker snowed in at his cabin, is my guess). We've camped there before, but not in my kids' memories. My parents, my sister and her family, joined us and we found a couple of campsites together (well, sort of, this is Idaho camping, you can't see your camping neighbors from your campsite) and the sites were right near the banks of the Buffalo River. This is the slowest moving river I have ever seen, and it was more like a lake than a river. My parents brought a raft and it was about 7 minutes after we arrived that the boys headed down to do some manly exploration. That left me, Ben and Evie to set up the Hopkin Hilton Tent Palace. If you've seen my tent you know it is the biggest tent that has ever been and takes a small village to put up, but we managed.



(When we went to buy a new tent we wanted one that 6'3" Ben could stand up in. Apparently they get wider as they get taller. I believe our tent sleeps 14.) The boys returned later, trailing leeches behind them. Karma anyone? Next time, set up the tent, boys.


The rest of our days were spent eating and resting and a taking few side trips. On our last day there, the rains came. Big rains. Thunder and lightening rains. We-are-not-prepared rains. The rest of my family had shown up (with the exception of one sis and her family) for a wonderful dutch oven feast and to spend the night, when our 20% chance of rain turned into a big fat 100% chance. It poured. I wish I had taken a picture of my husband, two brothers and a sister-in-law valiantly trying to hold a tarp over the food table while taking bets on who was most likely to get struck by lightening.
Perhaps they had the right idea as the rest of us were running around looking like drowned rats trying to pack up what accumulates when 22 people camp together. However it happened, we successfully packed up and drove the 1 1/2 hours home where we finally ate our dinner, all crowded around my parents kitchen table...at 10:30 pm.

It may not have ended the way we wanted, but I assure you it's a camping trip my kids will never forget.

Our house was done when we got home. It didn't look any different.