Cabin Fever

Not literally... I have actually been blessed with the contrary! We have been out and about so much that my body is exhausted and in serious need of some sleep! I have been taking advantage of the "waiting for the IRB to give me the green light to continue my research" period of time and Kyle and I are on the vacation circuit this month! We began by taking off last Wednesday for Idaho to visit with my brother, Nate, who is in town from D.C. The following morning, we took off for our cabin near West Yellowstone, MT. We spent three busy days relaxing, painting, fixing the roof (from all of the snow!), 4 wheeling, hauling dirt for my dad's latest driveway project, and just goofing around together. My favorite events from the weekend included a trip to the Playmill Theatre (a long time favorite) to see Hello Dolly. So fun. I am completely in love with all things related to musical theater and not performing myself leaves me with a bigger ache to watch other people perform. Another favorite moment involved floating down the river with my parents, Kyle, and Nate. The last time I floated this lazy river, it was so shallow that I ended up walking and dragging my tube through a good portion of the river. This year, there was enough water from the snow melt to actually carry a decent current through most of the float. One part was actually so deep that none of us could touch or even see the bottom. Of course, this happened to be the place where my dad decided to be "chivalrous" and "help" my mom who refused to get her arms in the icy water to paddle and relied on a stick to get drug by her children or to push off the banks when she got into trouble. Mom was headed towards a big over grown bank and there were tube popping logs looming in the distance, so my dad paddled over to her to try and help her out resulting in him somehow tipping in his tube and going completely under... not a big deal in the usually thigh deep water, but he disappeared and did not reappear for several seconds! I felt so bad for him, but it was difficult to not laugh my head off at his shrieking and shivering. He lost his sunglasses, but miraculously hung onto his hat. I am sure glad that I left my camera at home... it may not have survived the outing! We all came home drained and sunburnt, but the memories are great (especially that I got hit on by a few local fisherman... I still have it! **Yes!**) It was sad to say goodbye to Nate yesterday, but we are glad to have more adventures to look forward to this month: Kyle's families arrival this week to drop his sister Melissa off to USU for school, another combined parent's cabin trip (stories will follow... and hopefully pictures!), and then our anniversary the weekend afterwards! It almost makes the pain of beginning school again bearable!