A Vist to Scottys

So Ellie, Mom and I are settling in for our night before waking up at 5:00 in the morning to get to the airport for our 7:00 flight. We made the decision last week to stay in a hotel instead of going all the way to Orem, so we wouldn’t have to wake-up at 3:30 in the morning.

Today was an okay day. For some reason Ellie had a tough day for whatever reason, and she has spent quite a bit of time in time-out. Maybe she got too much sleep last night. Anyway… the day started with me going for a 7 mile run while Ellie wsa still sleeping. Then I came back, finished packing and Ellie and I went out for the rest of the morning with Grandpa.

The first stop of the day was Scotty’s. Scotty’s is the best place in Idaho Falls to get a burger As I told my grandpa, the place isn’t much to look at, but they make pretty good food. So we had burgers and fries, and I got a fresh raspberry shake that was heavenly. Then it was off to the Idaho Falls Zoo.

Not surprisingly the Idaho Falls zoo is quite small. It took us about 90 minutes to walk around it. We saw some monkeys, lions, flamingos and an alligator among other things. Our souvieniers consisted of a few postcards, and that is off to the final stop of the afternoon… the river.

We went to the Snake River just across from the temple, so Ellie and I could feed the ducks, geese and all the other birds that were there. We didn’t have any bread, but Grandpa had a ton of Sun Chips, so we fed the birds sun chips. Ellie liked feeding the birds but at the same time she didn’t like it when they got too close. At one point a goose got in between Ellie and me. Ellie was not happy to say the least. After spending about 15 minutes feeding the geese, we got in the van with Grandpa and went back to his house.

Once we got back to the house, we ate an early dinner, talked for awhile, and Ellie sang songs to Grandma and Grandpa. I was hoping my aunt Eva was going to be able to come over, but she wasn’t feeling well. So we stopped at her house on the way out . Before we did that, I got some pictures of Ellie with Grandma and Grandpa.

Then it was off to Salt Lake for our night at the hotel. The drive was pretty uneventful. However we drove through Preston, home of Napolean Dynamite, on our way to Logan. I wanted to get a better picture of Ellie and the temple since it was raining the last time we went. Thankfully we pulled in at just the right time. They were closing the gates for the evening, but they let us in for a couple minutes to get some pictures. Then it was off to the hotel, where we met Grandma Debbi.

It was great to see my grandparents. I enjoyed the time Ellie and I were able to spend there. The highlight of the stay may have been the 2 hour conversation I had with my grandma last night. We started talking about our pioneer ancestors, and it just went from there. I have never doing something like that with my grandma, but it was really nice to spend that kind of time with her last night. I am so lucky I have the most wonderful grandmother in the world. Grandpa isn’t too bad himself.

So there you have it. Tomorrow we are off to Illinois. Today’s stats – 250 miles 3 hours driving, 1 pizza eaten, 1 zoo, 1 upset goose and lots of time in time-out for Ellie. Hopefully she does better on the plane tomorrow. I am sure she will.