Twin Falls Trip

Mitzi's little brother, Keaton, was going through the temple for the first time and he decided that he wanted to go through the Twin Falls temple. Consequently, the entire Beal clan headed to Twin Falls from Boise/Nampa/Kuna/Meridian/Arco/Rigby/Rexburg to attend (we figured out that Twin Falls ended up being about equidistant from everyone, around 2 1/2 hours). We all arrived on Friday afternoon and some went swimming while others plotted where to eat. Most of us headed to Cafe Rio and we got our great "Feed a family of four for $8" meal: A pork burrito, enchilada-style, with two free kids' quesadillas. The kids don't end up eating the quesadillas much but I fill up on them while we share the beans and rice from our burrito with them.

After that we swung by McDonald's for three $0.50 vanilla ice cream cones: That's right, we were in full vacation/splurge mode! Mitzi got changed and hitched a ride to the temple session and I watched the Royal Wedding (it seriously was on every channel) while Corbin and Gabby squealed and screamed running/crawling around our hotel room like they were at an amusement park. They seriously were just having a whale of a time so I didn't feel bad that we didn't go anywhere and just stayed inside. Oh, and by the way, Twin Falls was ridiculously windy that day and it was frigid outside! So we weren't going to be going out anyway, but at least this way I didn't feel bad. I put Gabby to bed and turned on a movie for Corbin while I napped. Mitzi got home and we all hit the sack.

(I didn't put her to bed like this, I just snapped this picture of her napping the next morning.)

We got up and had continental breakfast and Mitzi and I seriously gorged ourselves. We ate everything they had: cereal, toast, bagels, biscuits and gravy, hard-boiled eggs, donuts, OJ, yogurt, etc.--we hit it all! Then I headed out into the freezing morning to take pictures of the Twin Falls temple during the good early morning light. I got a few good ones in before the clouds blew in and blunted the light. I got back to the hotel and went swimming with Corbin and all the cousins for a while. Then we got dressed and hung out with family for a bit until checkout time.

The Twin Falls Idaho Temple

The Bridge from the desert to Twin Falls spanning the Snake River gorge.

After checkout we went to Shoshone Falls. It's seriously about a 7 minute drive to get there and we were descending the Snake River gorge in no time. (Twin Falls has a pretty distinct personality as a city in that to get to it you have to drive across a huge bridge spanning the Snake River gorge--it feels kind of like your crossing a drawbridge to access a castle...or at least a Chili's.) Many of us had never been here before and it was on my list of places to visit before we leave Idaho. It has been a cold and rainy Spring, so we were hoping it would be impressive at the falls. The ranger told us as we pulled up "You hit the jackpot coming today!" The weather was beautiful and the falls were roaring! It was pretty spectacular. They call Shoshone Falls "The Niagra of the West" and it actually drops 50' further than the real Niagra, though to my understanding Shoshone is nowhere near as wide. It was still pretty amazing to see.

In the end, it was just a great, fun, short trip. Thanks Beals, and good luck to Keaton when he heads to the MTC and then to Villahermosa, Mexico come June!