Island Park Adventures

Wow, what a day! Matthew and I both got work off on Monday to spend with Brooke and she really wanted to see Island Park since she had read a book set in Island Park and we are pretty close. So Matthew and I thought it would be fun to go to Mesa Falls as well since they are practically neighbors and get some lunch at Frostop which is seriously my favorite place in all of Idaho. We got to Frostop around 12:30pm but decided to just run up to Mesa Falls and see that first and then come back down to Frostop since it looked really busy at the time. So we are driving up and there is still tons on snow on the sides of the road so Matthew puts the truck in 4-wheel drive and we keep going. We keep going and are doing fine until we see a school bus stuck in the road ahead of us. It was a small school bus and there were 3 people with shovels trying to dig it out. So Matthew and I get out of the truck to see what is going on and Brooke stays in the truck because she was freezing! Turns out they had been stuck like that since last night and spend the night in the bus! Crazy! So we hooked them up the the truck and pulled them out. It felt so nice being about to help them. They were really nice people taking a cross country trip from Maryland to California. So we get them out of the snow bank they were trapped in and start backing out. We are not going to see Mesa Falls today. Then Matthew stops because a small car was trying to make it up all the snow and we knew they wouldn't be able to. Unfortunately while Matthew went to talk with them, the truck started sinking into the snow. It was a warm day so all the snow was super slushy and turning into really wet ice as soon as you walked over it. So we got stuck. Then the bus got stuck again trying to reverse out. Now we were both stuck. We tried and worked and shoveled and pushed dirt and gravel under the tires and finally got the truck unstuck, but the bus wasn't going anywhere. We wanted to help them, but if we tried to get back up to them - about 60 yards away - we would get stuck again too. I was getting so nervous for them. They kept digging and trying and a few times it looked with the bus was going to flip over into a ditch. Luckily it never did. So we took on of the passengers with us back into town to a towing company to go get them out. It was such a roller coaster ride of emotions. I was so happy to be able to pull them out since they had been stuck for 24 hours at this point, then we get stuck, then they get stuck, then we get free but cant help. I just felt so bad for them, but they were thankful for what we could do for them. So finally after all of that, we got to the Frostop around 3pm. That just made it all the more delicious! Then we drove into Island Park for Brooke to see. Honestly at this point, I don't think any of us really cared, but we went anyway. Then on the way back home Brooke fell asleep and I was not far behind her! We finally got home and watched The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. I thought it was really good, but Matthew and Brooke said it was nothing like the book. I definitely understand how frustrating that can be, but I still think they enjoyed it. I fell asleep at the end and after the movie was over, I went to bed. I love visiting family, but I tell ya, going out for a full day makes me so tired! And this was no normal day! But it was still fun!

Before all the crazy started. We stopped to look at the trout swimming up stream.