The best trip yet!

Grandma and Grandpa Thornburg came to visit and we packed the days full of adventures. Tuesday they flew in and while the boys were hanging out we made a quick trip to Porters for some fabric shopping, then ran home to pick the boys up (the boys as in Gordon, Jim and Preston) and headed to Bear World. Wednesday we visited the Legacy Flight Museum. Thursday we headed to Kelly Canyon and stopped on the way at Big Judd's. What can I say...their burgers are massive. We shared one Big Judd Special between Jim, Grandma Joclyn and I, Grandpa Gordon ordered the Double Bacon Cheeseburger, which he thoroughly enjoyed but maybe later regretted a bit. He was told that was his last one for the year! We had made reservations to stay overnight at Cutthroat Inn. The Cutthroat Inn is a really great little place outside the canyon. There are 4 log cabins, with 2 queen beds, a large pond and great picnic areas. I headed to Heise Hot Springs with the little boys while Jim and Joclyn took a ride together through the canyon to some great trails. They did Poison Flat trail and another shorter trail. They had so much fun! We ate at Heise Pizza Parlor which was a neat log cabin turned Pizza Parlor. Their pizza was awesome, or maybe after swimming and wrangling the boys for 3 hours it seemed like the best pizza ever! We ordered the kitchen sink, it was loaded and sooo good! At 7:30 Jim and I left the boys with Grandma and Grandpa and had the first ride alone together! It was so much fun, we tried to find the best view of the sunset, and seemed to just miss it everytime we got to the lookout points. It was a little scary coming out of the canyon at 9:30pm, we couldn't see a thing, and kept riding faster before it became completely pitch black. The next morning we hiked the Cress Creek Trail, which offered awesome views of the Cottonwood forest, Snake River, and farmland on your way to Swan Valley. We visited Heise Hot Springs again and then packed up to head home. We wanted to show them Mesa Falls, so Saturday we visted the Lodge there at the Falls got great pics of the Falls. They have this great area in the back of the Lodge for children to touch and learn about the animals in the area. They had about 15 various animal pelts, skulls, pawprints, hoof prints, claws and talons, and a fish tank with trout. Preston loved touching the pelts. I wasn't quite ready to head back so we looked up a Spring located not far from Mesa Falls, it is called Warm River Spring. A 6 mile jaunt off-road and you've made it. The scenery is breathtaking, crystal clear water, mountain views in every direction, warm smell of pine trees...the warm river is pretty shallow, you can easily wade in it if you are up to numb limbs...it is ice cold. On the way home there were many vendors, and mass amounts of people at the park...it was the annual Celebrate Youth at the Park and it is all about the kids! Vendors taughts about hygiene, physical fitness, nutrition, DARE, and offered families free dinner. They had a horse drawn trolley that circled the park...the line for that was insane. Preston loved watching the firetruck shoot water fromt he top of its extended ladder, completely soaking anyone in its path. The National Guard had a Tank and Helicoptor...a little boys dream! We had great BBQ thanks to Jim, the master of the grill. Sunday we had to say "Goodbye," we were exhausted. It was a great trip with Grandma and Grandpa full of wonderful memories!