Cody flipped over and excitedly said, “Good Morning Sammy!”  Sammy the dog was near our tent waiting patiently for us to wake up.  The kids were already digging in the dirt this morning.  After all the discussion of volcanoes with the Newberry Volcanic Park and the caldera of Crater Lake the kids have returned to creating volcanic eruptions out of mounds of dirt.  No one would know they had showers less than twenty-four hours ago.

“Good Morning Sammy!”

We left Dixie Campground by 9:15 east on Route 26.  Only 330 miles to our next stop Craters of the Moon National Monument.

“Mom you should see what’s coming up.  You are going to love this!”  Brooke comments as she watched the GPS.  The family gets great entertainment out of seeing how long it takes on the curvy roads before I turn green.  “You’re in for a treat Momma!”

The campground last night was a free National Forest Campground.  Although it provided nice sites and a pit toilet it was a dry camp, no water.  As we were going through a small town Scott spotted a hose just on the side of the road in a culvert.  Water fill up.

Brooke just lost another tooth right before we turned onto route 201 in search of 84. She was eating a nectarine and knew it needed to come out. With a little assistance out came tooth number six. I hope the tooth fairy does vacation visits.

At quarter after twelve we reached Idaho!  A quick rest stop and down 84 across Idaho we go.

We stopped in Boise for groceries, gas, and lunch.

The kids played at the park while Scott worked on fixing the pump cup on the ancient Coleman stove.  Thankfully Wal-Mart had the replacement part as ours was cracked and not pumping anymore.  Thankfully Scott was able to fix it mid-vacation too.

I think it is a great sign that should be accompanied with: Life – Be Prepared

Brooke and Cody played house.  Brooke was the mom and Cody the kid.  As other kids came to the park they became the dad or the “wild teenager” who wouldn’t stay still.  I wanted to correct the kids and remind them that they are the wildly active ones, but I didn’t want to interrupt.  The picture of the sign up above and to the right was on the way to the park from Wal-Mart.

We were able to camp right in the Craters of the Moon National Park.  The kids loved the “trails” around our site.

Without knowing it Scott picked one of the coolest sites ever.  It came with a cave perfectly sized for some junior rangers.  There was a junior ranger program at the campground amphitheater at 8 pm.  First Ranger Lindsey talked about what five symbols are on the National Park emblem.  The emblem itself is an arrowhead representing all the past cultures and artifacts of a park.  The buffalo represents all the wildlife.  The trees represent all the plants and trees.  The river represents all the water.  The mountain represents all the scenery including the rocks and minerals.

While Ranger Lindsey was talking Ranger Emerald hid some scat or poop around the amphitheater.  The kids were then given a card and had to find the scat that matched their animal on the card.  Brooke had a Gopher Snake while Cody had a Deer Mouse.  The kids loved running around looking for their scat.  We learned that animals that eat plants like moose and rabbits have near round poop.  While animals that eat just insects or animals have messy scat, like the Gopher Snake.  Omnivores, or animals that eat plants and animals, have middle of the road messy and clean poop.

The last activity was the kids pulling out safety items from a ranger backpack.  Brooke pulled a hiking boot out of the backpack. She almost knocked Ranger Lindsey in the face with the boot.  They discussed why the safety items like water, flashlights, sun block, and hats were important safety items at a National Park.  Then to our surprise the ranger marched the kids up onto stage and quizzed them about the information.  Then they were sworn in as Junior Rangers. Cody kept his bike helmet on the whole time.  He loved the presentation so much he asked if he could go back again the next day.  It was by far the best junior ranger presentation we have attended this entire trip, and we told them as much too.

When we arrived back at our site we met our neighbors Tyler and Christy from North Carolina and their two kids.  Tyler runs a website: www.bikerumor.com. Thus they are able to travel for about six weeks each year while they also tie in major biking events across the country.  We shared a bottle of wine and chatted for a bit while the sun set and the kids played in the cave and explored.