Rick and Janell's News: 2025 Island Park Girls Trip

From the 10th to the 14th we had our annual girls trip. Ruth was not able to join us because her sister Phyllis was having health challenges and she needed to stay and help her. Of course, Lar has moved to TN so she couldn't come either. That left Karen, Darla, Janis, DeeAnn, Kathy and me. We met up at Trent Hone's cabin in Island Park for five days of girl time. We watched movies, ate good food, did some genealogy and played games. Darla and I even got a little Pilates/Yoga workout in.

I was able to catch a ride up with Larry and Darla from SLC. We picked up Karen in Idaho Falls and dropped Larry off to spend the week with Dennis. On our drive through Rexburg we could see that we were just a mile behind DeeAnn and Kathy. They had flown into IF and rented a car to drive the rest of the way. Janis arrived to the cabin first about ninety minutes before the rest of us got there. We all brought up food for our stay so the fridge and cupboards were plumb full after unloading it all. That evening DeeAnn and Kathy fixed us a nice meal of penne alfredo with salad, bread, and fruit. Janis had brought a beautiful Costco cake that we all dug into after dinner. We watched a movie after dinner called I Still Believe. It was a sad one about a Christian country singer whose wife ended up dying of cancer. Inspiring but sad....

The next morning (Tuesday) Darla and I got to do a Yoga+Pilates workout then met everyone upstairs for a late breakfast early lunch. Janis, Kathy and I worked on some family history. We are preparing to go to the UK in late April and are trying to break through the Paxton and Trusdale lines.

I think we are making progress.

That afternoon we be-bopped over to West Yellowstone for some shopping. It was almost like a ghost town except the shops were open. I bought a new retro sweatshirt that I just love. I also picked up some gifts for Karen because we were celebrating her birthday that week. (I got her a bracelet, some lotions and some cozy socks) Kathy got a few things for her grandkids and picked up an ice cream cone before we left:) I'm not sure if anyone else bought stuff.

Here are the lively shoppers.😀

That evening Darla and Karen made us a nice sloppy joe meal. It was served with salad and fruit and chips. We also played the game Probe that night. That's always a fun one:)

The girls got into the hot tub that night but I decided not to join them because I wanted to watch an episode of The Chosen. (I am trying to watch all of four seasons before the fifth one comes out in a few weeks.) I think this was the night that we stayed up really late and played the card game Skyjo.

That was fun!

The next morning Darla left early to head back home. She had a Relief Society party that she was in charge of that night to be back to. We were sad to see her go.

Karen got to thinking that she might leave the following day to be with Dennis. He was having some medical procedures to prepare him for starting chemotherapy and radiation the coming week. Karen was feeling REALLY bad that she was not there with him for this and thought she should be there. (She later changed her mind because Dennis insisted that she stay and enjoy her time with the girls.) Before we found that out and because she was planning to leave, we decided to celebrate her birthday that very night! I made a delicious lemon blueberry bundt cake just before heading out to the grocery store. I was able to get some candles for the birthday cake!! We then drove a mile to the Cafe Sabor for a fun Mexican dinner. The salsa was super spicy so we had to ask for some mild to eat with our chips.

After dinner we got back and had a little birthday celebration for Karen. It is hard to believe that she is SEVENTY-EIGHT! Kathy had bought some glow stick bracelets for us to wear as part of the celebration. Karen opened up her gifts and then we sang happy birthday, she blew out the candles and then we dug into this delicious cake. It was sooo good! I think we all had seconds!

We ended the evening by watching an episode of Gunsmoke. THAT alone shows our age. HAHA!

The next day was again more of the same (genealogy, games, eating, visiting...) but it snowed THE. WHOLE. DAY. and was so beautiful!

We lounged around that morning and by late morning got into the hot tub. The snow was coming down around us and was even blowing in under the patio. Our hair got wet, and I had just done mine for the day! That's ok, though because we did not even leave the house at all! We had a nice chicken noodle soup lunch, (thank you Costco) and played 5 Straight and Probe most of the afternoon. It was really fun!

That evening we decided not to make dinner because we had so much leftover in the fridge. Both Janis and I eventually took home the food we brought because there was too much food. We just ended up munching and I think Karen was disappointed that we did not end our trip with a big, fun meal. But truly, we had so much to use up.

Here's a random picture of Janis enjoying time on the couch. She really is our celebrated family history specialist. She knows how to do so much in researching genealogy.

That evening we watched one of my favorite movies, Belle. I just love that show! I think everyone enjoyed it.

The next morning, we got all packed up and ready to leave. Rick got there about 10:00 and helped dig us all out of the snow. The cars were buried and he was such a help to get us out. We saw a man come in a snowblower to clear the driveway which was a big help, as well.

Here is one last picture of us...minus Darla because she left early. It was a great relaxing time being with some of the best ladies I know. I'm so grateful to be a sister in the wonderful Phelps Family!