Thanksgiving in Idaho

for Thanksgiving, we visited some of Joel's relatives in Idaho Liz hadn't met yet. it was supposed to be a 9-hour drive, but we had to stop every three hours to feed Ian, so it look much longer. we left Wednesday evening and got in Thursday mid-morning.
we drove through some pretty interesting terrain. some of it is similar to what Rachel and Liz drove through in the southwestern states: AZ, NM, southern CA.

click the picture to see Ian better
both of the boys were very good on the long drives.
a shot of the Oregon sign as we were leaving the state passing into Idaho.

Joel's uncle Steve has an apple press, so we made cider while we were there. boy, was it yummy!
Steve uses a blend of apples that makes his cider superb. Joel's uncle Jonas pushing the apples into the grinding wheel.
Ezekiel learned to say "apple juice" while we were there. he had a lot of practice too. we practically had cider at every meal.
Christine, Steve, Rachel, Ezekiel, Grampa H/Dave

Liz turning the wheel, grinding the apples up

Ezekiel with his great Aunt Pauline and Gramma H.
"more?" he knows that word really well too.

the apples get ground up into one bucket, then it's switched over to be pressed where the wooden bucket is sitting, and the cider comes out of there and flows into the white bucket, ready to drink.
Joel's cousin Anna, her sister Cassia's boyfriend, Rachel, Anna's boyfriend, Uncle Jonas/Rachel's dad
we went shooting on some public land while we were there and there were some really cool-looking rocks.

the boys with their great-grandpa Chester.

Grampa Chester and his wife live in a log house that he built with his late wife, Joel's Grandma H. and their kids. it's a really awesome tri-level, where the top is right above the bottom level, but the middle level is to the side and in-between the top and bottom, so you only have to go up half a flight of stairs to go between floors.
we stayed in Idaho Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and left early Sunday morning.

sights on our way back to WA.

there were lots of hills and mountains where there was frost on the shaded side, but the sun had burnt it off on the other.
snow and a town in the valley below the slightly snowy hills and then lots of snow the the mountains behind.

taking a break so Ian could eat, Ezekiel could run around. here, Joel's playing hide and seek with Ezekiel.


Ezekiel pointing out the truck. i really like this father-son photo.

and his one too. Ezekiel was sitting in the tree.



we ran into some snow in the higher elevations, but nothing too bad, and it had already fallen. the roads were clear. we had to go through a few mountain passes as well. we got back home just in time for bed Sunday night.