Sunday, September 30, 2007

Visit to Island Park


I just got back this morning from a short visit to my Aunt and Uncle who live in Island Park, Idaho. It's about 7 miles south of the Montana border and 12 miles from West Yellowstone. They have a beautiful home there and invited to come up for a few days. It's a short drive so I left Friday morning and was there by about noon.

My Aunt is the sister to my grandma on my father's side. My grandma died a year before I was born and I had a lot of questions about her. My dad says I've always reminded him of her and as I grew older, I wanted to know what that meant. There are getting to be less and less people who knew her personally that could answer the myrid questions I had so I took advantage of her relative closeness and went to her to ask the questions.

I spent about 2 hours videoing her answering the questions I had. She also had lots of pedigree charts, really old pictures and several letters and articles about our family. It's all so interesting! This pedigree she gave me shows our family going back to early 1700's. The more I know about that the more I want to know. I just wish I could have seen how those people lived. My Aunt just had so much to share, I was so happy I'd gone to see her.

My Aunt and Uncle have a quiet life there where they watch Jeopardy, do crossword puzzles, and eat breakfast in front of huge picture windows overlooking beautiful Henry's Lake. Sometimes they open up the back door for Lucy, their little dog who runs in and out barking at the chipmunks who climb the deck pillars trying to get into the bird feeders. The crisp fall air blows in and out and feels so good as you suck it into your lungs.

It snowed quite a bit while I was there. I was not prepared so my Aunt gave me a huge red jacket to wear, and I never took it off. Later, I walked down to the lake to take some pictures and wished I could set up a chair, sit and drink in the panorama. The fog was low and peeking from beneath it was snow-covered mountains. But the fog couldn't cover the fall colors that were becoming quite evident. The way the red and orange aspens intermix with the pine trees is breathtaking!

After most trips, I'm glad to be home but I wish I'd have stayed a few more days there. I had to come home because I missed my little pumpkin too much; she didn't come with me. Probably another reason why it was so relaxing for me. We ate, chatted, shopped, napped, read, and ate some more. If the pumpkin had been with me, I'd have spent 90% of my time throwing rocks in the lake. Maybe I'll take the fam next year.















3 backward glances:

Unknown said...

Sounds like heaven- we all need a break like that sometimes:)

Anonymous said...

One day I would love a place on a lake with nothing but beauty surrounding me. AAAHH! The dream! Sounds like you had a great time and learned a lot about your family. I applaud you for that...makes me want to do more family research. Way to go!

Carly said...

Sounds Incredible! I wondered where you were since you hadn't blogged for a few days. Glad you got to relax and enjoy yourself.