Joe's Journey: One Year and Counting...

Marking the 1 year anniversary of my move to Idaho, let's do a quick pictureless review. But I must start with Psalms 121, a message of trust, hope, promise and assurance for lifes journey:

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."

A year in review:
- 20,000 miles in a plane
- 28,000 miles in a bus
- 22,000 miles in a car
- 17 different National Parks
- >11,000 pictures
- 8 lbs of peanut butter
- 121 granola bars (an educated guess)
and 52 Blog posts (367MB of pictures and videos) for your entertainment! But enough of the stats - you came here for pictures, so let's see what last weekend was all about:

I know - looks pretty boring, until you realize those are gazillions of little fish jumping for food at the Hagerman State Fish Hatchery!

A few canals down, the fish got bigger and turned yellow, or maybe they were always yellow.

Some larger fish in their "show pond".

Check out this guy! He was about 5 feet long. I think that's a rainbow trout next to him.

Kisses anyone?

Just down the road was the National Fish Hatchery.

Here's the tanker trucks they use to transport the fish to the rivers and lakes when stocking them.

Looking for places to break up the drive over to Boise, I also stopped at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument hoping to see, well, fossils of course! Stopping at the Visitor's Center, the park ranger informed me that there were no fossils outside - they were all inside now alongside the well known Hagerman horse. But, I was in the middle of the "Land of 1000 Springs" and you could allegedly see waterfalls all along the road. So, off I went exploring...

...see the Oregon Trail ruts? Yeah, me either...

...B-O-R-I-N-G! And how about just 1 of the 1000 springs?

"Oh, and if you find any fossils - don't touch them. Just mark the spot and tell us about it." Yeah, all I saw were desert hills and this sand box left over from some Archeology Camp. I should have dug around to see if they buried any legomen.

I arrived in Boise just in time for a Youth Rally, which is always fun. It was good to see some people I had met previously, but no pictures until I was headed to Parriman's and saw the moon rising over the horizon. Of course, pictures don't do it justice, so I'll just continue this little story at...

...the top of Squaw Butte. After catching up with Andy and Dixie, who recently moved to western Idaho, we caught a little bit of sleep and drove up Squaw Butte in time for sunrise.

4-wheel drive has its advantages out West!

Looking East and waiting for the sun to poke through the clouds...

...there it is!

The extent of my artistic photography.

Carson takes a break from feeding the imaginary deer to smile big for the camera.

Exploring some more forest roads, we found Sage Hen Reservoir, minus some of its water and lots of mud...

...which is always fun to walk through.

A little creek running through.

On the way back, we drove through the town of Sweet, one of those towns that doesn't even get a stop light, but they do have a sweet water spring... and by sweet, the water actually has a sweet taste too it!

This definitely isn't your ordinary high school, and no, I wasn't in Alaska!
So, that was my weekend in Boise. But, before I head out on another adventure, I figure I should pass along a few more pictures from my recent trip to Grand Teton National Park.