What the Hail?

T'was a great fourth of July weekend. It started very early and ended late, and we were very very tired by the end of the day. It all started with this:

My dad is hiding on the end.

My dad decided that our ward should have a pancake breakfast and flag raising at 7 o'clock in the morning. :) But it turned out to really fun. Daniel even dragged himself out of bed to come see. (Although, he was late) My dad, along with other men and young men in the ward came together to make a rather decent band for the flag raising ceremony. And it was very cool to see my dad playing his trumpet in public again. It's much more entertaining that way than in the basement at weird hours of the morning/night. It was also cool to see everyone else in the ward participate. Then we had a most scrumptious breakfast of pancakes, and then Daniel and I

headed off for the mountains.

There's something great about living in Idaho, it's the outdoors. Admittedly, our summers are short, but oh how they are worth waiting for. We decided to go hike up Palisades, northeast of Idaho Falls. The drive up there is even beautiful. The farms rolled over the hills like lush green carpet and the mountains are so crowded with pine trees, it's amazing they can breathe.

And the sky in Idaho has to be one of my favorite things. It turns the most gorgeous blue in the summer. It's the color I want to capture for my wedding. It's a refreshing and happy blue. (And don't get me started on our amazing sunsets, haha). It really makes me appreciate the beauty of this earth.

My trusty guide. I quickly learned to just follow in his footsteps.

The Lower Lake. We really need to hike to the upper one when we have more time.

So we hit the trail head under blue skies and lots of sunshine. We had a lot of fun hiking up to just the lower lake and having lunch. Due to time constraints (and my fear of becoming crippled), we didn't do the upper half of the hike and just headed down. It's a very good thing we did. Not even an hour into the hike downward menacing clouds filled the sky and the thunder started rollin'. And when you are neatly sandwich between two mountains it really shakes your whole body. Cool, yet frightening. So we continued downward, running intermittedly. Then came the rain. And oh did it rain. It started as a sprinkle and we actually enjoyed the cooling effect, but not before long we were completely soaked through. The ground was already wet from a storm the night before so water pooled and pooled and ran down the trail as a nice sized little stream. Needless to say we were very wet, very cold, and very muddy. And I only slipped once. Haha. The storm was not content though. About a mile or two from the trailhead we started getting pelted by hail. Hard. Decent sized hail, coming down hard enough to make you flinch. Luckily we were crossing a bridge at that time and took shelter underneath it with a nice couple from St. Anthony. We eventually made it all the way down, remarkably still in good spirits. For that I give credit to Daniel. My inner girly girl just wanted to whine and complain of how cold and wet I was, but he keeps me happy. And as tradition calls for, we picked up some square ice cream in Swan Valley, along with a steamy cup of hot chocolate. :)

Rain is hard to photograph, but this isn't even the worst of it.

Looks innocent enough, doesn't feel so great.

After extremely needed and wonderful showers, we met back up and had dinner with Daniel's parents. Bratwurst, ahhhh, an American classic, from Germany. Haha. Then we headed off to the fireworks. We hung out with some friends on the river and ate lots more good food. The weather was great, even though the possibility of rain lingered. And that's it. We watched the show and went home extremely exhausted. It was a great weekend. And I have to admit it is really really great to live in this country no matter how much I rave about France, England, Italy, Germany, Australia, or whatever other country I am at present in love with. Those places were meant to make great vacations for one happy little American. :)

In other news: The announcements are out!!! I put them in the mail myself today. It's official, the whole world will now know that we're getting married. And that's the way it should be. Haha. We are both very excited. The wedding seems close enough that it might actually take place. Hoorah!