The Matusek Family: Our mini vacation

Call me crazy, but I do consider a weekend trip to Rexburg a mini vacation, especially when we can't afford a "real" vacation. Whatever the case may be, we had one heck of a weekend from August 6th to the 8th! It all started in Idaho Falls though, when Corey and Daymi took our kids while Mike and I served in the temple. I felt bad later on when I heard that Zach had been pretty fussy while we were in the temple for an hour and a half. Corey and Daymi were great though, and it was spiritually enriching for us.

They told us about activities that the Home Depot puts on for children, workshops where they can work on small projects. That weekend the project was a pencil box, so we decided to join in the fun. We made it a father/son activity only, and Daymi and I stayed in the cars with Zach and their two girls.

Working on pencil boxes at Home Depot

After their projects were done we were all pretty hungry, and what better way to entertain 5 young kiddos than a large play place... no we didn't go to McDonalds:) Arctic Circle is a little more palatable than McDonalds, at least to me anyways, so I was glad that is where we went. After making it back to Rexburg, we all got rubbed down in sunscreen and donned our bathing suits because we were headed to the new Rexburg Rapids swimming complex!! What a blast, certainly this complex is a great asset to the Rexburg community. The kids and adults alike had so much fun, and even the nursing mamma who had to sit it out on the side lines and not swim or go on the slides or lazy river had fun:)

Testing the waters

After a delicious BBQ at Corey's, Mike and Corey decided to get the boys together and spray paint their projects. While they painted, I watched the thunder clouds roll in, what a show! I just love summer thunder storms and the natural wonder and beauty of dark storm clouds against a clear summer sky with lightning dancing all around!

Painting the pencil boxes

After the kids went to bed, the adults decided to play... Wii that is:) I kind of got addicted to Tetris while we were staying there that weekend, which is why I am grateful we don't have a gaming system at home so that addiction would not last long! The next day was Sunday, the first of the month, and with that is Fast and Testimony meeting at church. I enjoyed listening to the testimonies from the mother's lounge, which was WAY nicer than the mother's lounge in Pocatello mind you!

Our summer would not be complete without a camping trip, and that is just how we decided to end our weekend together. There is a nice little campground near the teton river in Rexburg city limits and that is where we set up camp for the night. We enjoyed brats (the first time I'd eaten them... YUMMO) and hotdogs over the fire. Smores came later, of course! Corey and Mike enjoyed getting the fire going, and the kids had a blast exploring the camp site and getting filthy from head to toe! I was in the car half of the night taking care of Zachary while he had a blow out diaper, a sour tummy, and then when he got hungry. Zach and I also left camp around 9pm and headed back to Corey's house, I didn't want to take a 1 month old camping quite yet. The boys slept great in the tent. The only thing that would have made the trip more enjoyable is having a campground that had not been recently flooded by a river, the mosquitos were horrible.

Talking by the fire