Jared and Zach - Wisdom Teeth Extraction

When choosing dental insurance with Jesse's company this year, we decide to pay the premium rate which would cover most of wisdom teeth extraction. We knew we needed to get Jared's wisdom teeth out this summer. And we figured as long as we were paying that premium, we should check if we could get Zach's out as well. We had a consult for the two of them early on in the summer and found out Zach's wisdom teeth were formed and could be taken out as well.

We scheduled them to both have their wisdom teeth out the same day. It was pretty convenient to have them on the same schedule, same meds, same instructions at once. Zach was more nervous about it than Jared, which matches their personalities as well.

I took them in together the morning of their appointment. Jared went in first. The oral surgeon came out in about 30 minutes and said Jared was already done and all was well.  Zach was next and his went about as quickly. I led Jared out to the car and had him wait a minute while I got Zach and settled him in the car as well.  The ride home was the start of a seriously hilarious hour. Two teenage boys on drugs at the same time talking to each other, responding to us, it was awesome.

I was going to head out and get them jamba juice, but I waited a little bit so I could enjoy their drug-induced state. They were high-fiving, talking about the surgery and how weird their mouths felt. Jared was talking about the girls in his room (which we found out later that he meant the assistants in the surgermy room) as well as how much he hates math and wants to drop out of school and become a rapper. Zach was all hyped up about how much he loved Caribbean Passion, how great he is at the video game Devin was playing, and crying about wanting to go to college and not being sure he could get in. We cried a lot of tears listening to them.

I finally left them to get Jamba Juice and by the time I came back, they were zonked out sleeping. 

They had a pretty chill day and we worked in soft foods as they got hungry later on. By the second day, they had some swelling, were getting tired of soft foods and made sandwiches and deviled eggs, but took care of themselves overall.  Jared got a little infection in one gap several days out. But we had it checked and it was okay. They healed well and were glad to be done with that.

Blankenbiller Trip - Family Reunion

After a canceled Craig family reunion in 2020, we were doubly excited to get together for a few days and reconnect. All of my siblings were there with spouses, kids, my mom, and just our current full-time missionaries serving were missing. We held the reunion at Bear Lake in Utah at a great cabin that could hold all 60 or so of us.

We all had food assignments for meals and devotionals or activities to share as we gathered in the evenings. The first full day we spent at the lake swimming, jet skiing, paddleboarding, rafting, etc.

The next day, we got the infamous raspberry shakes then headed to a little area with caves and a waterfall.

There was lots of fun time with cousins talking, laughing, playing. I love these people so much.

Blankenbiller Trip - Yellowstone and Rexburg

Tuesday morning we were up early again and leaving our (freezing cold teepee) to go to Yellowstone. We drove along the northeast side of Tetons and saw some pronghorn that morning. We entered the south side of Yellowstone and opted to try visiting some places we haven't seen before. We started off at West Thumb and Yellowstone Lake. 

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We were trying to visit spots we didn't make it to the last time we came to Yellowstone. I haven't been to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone since Craig was 2 and Jared was a baby.

We made a quick drive over to the Mammoth Hot Springs. They were cool, but our kids declared they wanted to go to some of the popular places that they remember and not be out visiting far and away parts of Yellowstone. So we headed over to Old Faithful and coincidentally got there just minutes before it went off.

We had to park and walk a ways but we also visited the Grand Prismatic Spring. 

We needed to get to Rexburg, so we headed out of the park and stopped in West Yellowstone for some dinner. Again we asked my brother, Dehn, for some recommendations. We went to the Slippery Otter for some burgers and some jalapeno wontons with huckleberry dipping sauce as recommended. We also spent some time talking to Craig finally for his p-day since we didn't have much service in the park.

We arrived in Rexburg and stayed with Jesse's sister, Jennifer. We were glad to spend some time visiting Jesse's parents that also live in Rexburg. His dad has dementia and is deteriorating, so it was nice to spend time with his dad and support his mom.

It was time to leave Rexburg and head to the Craig family reunion at Bear Lake. We stopped in Idaho Falls for lunch and found this great cheesesteak restaurant that was just our kind of vibe.

A quick drive by the Idaho Falls Temple because, wow, it is so beautiful with the river and falls going by.

We had a great start to our trip and looked forward to gathering with family at the reunion.

Blankenbiller Trip - San Diego to Grand Tetons

 To wrap up our summer, we had a family reunion scheduled at Bear Lake in northern Utah for the second weekend in August.  It was only for 2 1/2 days, so we figured if we were going to drive that far, we would make a trip out of it. We knew we wanted to visit grandparents in Rexburg, ID, so we decided to visit the Grand Tetons National Park since we haven't been in it before. 

Saturday we drove from San Diego to Las Vegas to have lunch with Aunt Clara (Jesse's sister). It was great to catch up, play games, eat yummy food, play with her dog, and then be on our way.  A little ways before reaching Vegas, the skies got all smoky.  Fires from California were filling the area with smoke. Yuck.

Our next stop was Provo, UT. We grabbed dinner and went to Brooker's for ice cream. It's a Founding Fathers-themed ice cream shop that I went to when I took Craig up to BYU last summer. So fun.  The smoke from fires was here too.

We stayed at my brother's house there, so had fun visiting with cousins and playing games with them til late into the night.  We went to church with them the next morning and then headed on to the next leg of our trip - through Wyoming to the Grand Tetons. We stopped for lunch in Evanston and sat in a grassy area with a deer. Nice.

We arrived in Grand Tetons in the late afternoon. We headed to some lookout points...but the smoke was covering the Tetons. So disappointing! We could barely make out an outline of the Tetons. We tried to make the most of it and visited some places along the river trying to see some wildlife. We didn't see much of that either, so we decided to head out for some dinner and check in to our spot for sleeping. 

We stayed in Victor, ID. When we decided to go to Tetons, all of the camping and reasonably-priced hotels were booked. Only super expensive AirBnBs were available. Until I found this "resort" in Victor, ID. Small town. But this resort was just what we needed.  About 30 minutes from the park, we stayed in a teepee there. Super cool, right? It was fun. Kind of like glamping. Nothing fancy, but there was a bed for each of us. There was a bathroom nearby with showers. They also had a restaurant and a pool, but we never used those. It was sort of like camping, but we didn't have to set up or take down. The first night was kind of cold - down to 54 degrees - but we were okay.  We asked for some extra blankets for the second night which was good because it got down to 45 degrees!  It was reallllly cold.

Once we got everyone settled at the teepee, Jared and I drove back to Jackson, Wyoming to get some groceries for the next couple days. We only had one day in Tetons and one day in Yellowstone, so we didn't want to spend them stopping for food. So we got stuff for on the go for breakfast and lunch and plenty of water. 

Monday morning we got up bright and early (6 am) to head into the Tetons. We had two hopes - that the smoke would be clear at least for the morning and that we would beat a lot of the crowds). The first one definitely happened - we drove in and it couldn't have been more beautiful.  No smoke at all! And there was no smoke the whole day. We were so very thankful. We also got going without too much crowd for the start of the day. We drove up the Moose-Wilson Rd. and some of the boys spotted a female moose as we drove past an area. We drove to Jenny Lake to hike 2+ miles around half the lake. Most people were in line to ride the ferry across the lake, but that would have cost us $100 just for a short ride. We figured we could get in a good hike. It was mostly flat and hardly anyone on the trail that morning. We enjoyed the views, being out, the beautiful area. And we were rewarded with fresh berries ripe along the trail we snacked on. We knew some were raspberries and ate those. There was another we weren't sure of but tried them. (We later found out they were thimbleberries). There were other berries we weren't sure of, so we didn't eat those.

We reached the other side of the lake and hiked to Hidden Falls. From there we hiked up to Inspiration Point. Beautiful view. 

We hiked back around the lake, a lot more people on the trail now, and took the scenic drive along String Lake and Jenny Lake. We stopped for some lunch and a swim at String Lake for a while. 

The rest of the afternoon was open, so I checked with my brother, Dehn, whose company hosts half marathons at National Parks. So he has been to Tetons quite a bit. He recommended some spots to us, so we leisurely took our time stopping here and there.  We went to the Jackson Dam. We visited the Oxbow Bend Turnout along the river, some turnouts, and Schwabacher Landing. 

We went into Jackson for some dinner, with a recommendation from Dehn. We went to Hand Fired Pizza, which was delicious. We back up to the park for evening time hoping to see more wildlife. We went out to Mormon Row. We were going to watch the sunset behind the Tetons from Mormon Row, but we still had almost an hour till sunset, and we wanted to get up early the next morning to go to Yellowstone. So we opted to head back to our teepee. We drove down the Moose Wilson Rd. again. Right away we saw a female moose eating leaves just off the road. We stopped there to watch for a bit.  As we got to the end of the road where it meets Hwy 22 in Wilson, there was a big bull moose right off the road. Wow. We felt so lucky seeing both! Perfect wrap-up of our time at Grand Tetons.