Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Yellowstone: day 2

Our second day at Yellowstone was spent at  Old Faithful and all of the areas around it.  We spent the entire day there.  I forgot there was so much see.  It was a pretty toasty day there as well and I had a 6 and 8 year old begging for turns in the stroller.  This little guy won out!

Old Faithful Lodge.  This was an amazing building.  It would have been fun to stay there....just a little too pricey for what you get.  We by the way stayed in West Yellowstone at a Wyndham World Mark resort.  We don't have a membership, but I found a company that rents out the leftover rooms.  We had a two bedroom/ two bathroom room with a family room/murphy bed and a decent size kitchen.  It had a pool, BBQ, playground (which we never used...mosquitto's were awful) all for cheaper than one hotel room here.....it was a steal!
 My handsome boys!
 You can't really see Darin and the kids in this picture, but I liked how it gave you a scale of how large this building was.  It was pretty fascinating!
 Love that smile!  He was happy to get a turn in Dawson's seat!
 These next two pictures show Dawson's love of tooth brushes.  He gave up the binkie :(..not my choice, but he is always soothed by his toothbrush so I try to always have one on hand.  Funny boy!

 And here she blows!  Old Faithful herself. We got to see it erupt twice while we were there!
 And here are just a few pictures from our walk around Old Faithful.  All sorts of neat things were to be seen!  I keep wondering what the first explorers thought when they first discovered Yellowstone.  I think I would have thought it was possessed by evil spirits!  There is some crazy stuff there!




 Darin was such a trooper...he always seemed to have one of our kids on his back!






Another fun day!  We were soooo hot, that we hurried back to the hotel for a fun night of swimming!!!  I think that was also the night Darin took the older boys to the rodeo.  They had fun, but got stuck in a downpour.  They came back drenched.  Good thing they didn't take the camera....I'm not sure it would have survived!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Yellowstone: day 1

We just got back a couple of weeks ago from our first family vacation to Yellowstone.  It was a lot of fun.  Especially for me.  I hadn't been there since I was 9 years old and I was quite impressed with all there was to see and do.  We have picture overload....but I wanted to document all of our fun!
Our first stop:  Gibbon Falls. 
This was a really pretty spot with a fun little trail for the kids to walk along.  I will always remember this spot because this is where we lost Dawson's shoe.  I was sad.  It was my favorite pair of pedipeds that I had spent more on than I should have.  Bummer.  Hopefully some animal is using it to build a home out of! :)

 Second spot: Artist paint pots.  These were pretty fun, especially since they were the first geothermal feature of the trip! 
 We had figured the trail was stroller worthy, but we only got so far until the stairs started.  So Darin and I took turns going up to see the bubbly mud...it was my favorite!

 Bubbly mud!
 Then we were off to spot #3: Mammoth Hot springs.  This place was pretty neat.  It felt like I was in some sci-fi movie.  It was pretty barren from all of the years of hot water boiling over the sides.  It was pretty hot that day so I can't lie...we had some whiny children.  In the end though I think they had a fun time!






 And here is just one of the many herds of buffalo we saw along the way.  I remember as a kid this being so fascinating.  However, Darin working next to Maddox and their own herd of buffalo makes it not quite as exciting!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

4th of July

I have two favorite holidays.  Christmas and the 4th of July.  I am sad that it is already over. The summer seems to be flying by and the memory of snow, ice and cabin fever are still a little too fresh on my brain.  Even though the heat wave has officially set in, I am still loving summer and am hopeful that the days will start slowing down and the second half of summer won't go by quite as fast...I am not too hopeful of that, but I am determined to enjoy the rest of these care free days while they last!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from July 2nd-4th!

We did the traditional picnic at the park and then watched the firework show that USU put on. They were actually pretty impressive this year! It was a great night.  The weather was perfect, the food delicious and the company fantastic!

My dad and Myah!

Some more of the gang!
 I had to include this picture....I mean those of you who know the Aggie's might want to see the face behind the "voice of the Aggie's"!  It was Al's first year in a long thime that he was able to watch the fireworks instead of broadcasting them live.  He and my dad have been friends for years so he and his wife joined in on the fun!
 Even Oma joined us!
 The older kids enjoyed a little baseball.  My boys have no idea what a great dad they have! He plays so hard with them!
 Allison was there with Saylor and Dallin.  My kids love having them around.  It would have been even better if Uncle Dan was there, but he is busy protecting our country in Iraq.  Hopefully he will be there next year!
 Proof that I was there!
 Firework time!
 The next day we played with cousins all day and ended the night with our own little firework show.  I was telling Darin how much I love watching the big firework show.  He informed me that he thinks the big shows are fine, but what he really loves is letting off his own fireworks.  He put on quite the show!  Here is little D...getting to big for his own good.  Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?  Don't worry, I do it all day long!
 The kids are impressed with Darin's work!



 Dawson is getting a pretty big kick out of those fireworks.....priceless!
 Myah was loving them too!
 These two crazy boys were having a blast as well!

 Once the actual fourth of July came around, all of our family had gone home.  My parents were getting ready to leave on a humanitarian trip to Peru and we were leaving the next morning for Yellowstone (another post for another day).  So the only really exciting thing we did, was go to the Hyrum City parade.  It is pretty fun with lots of candy.  It lasted about an hour and a half...I don't think we could have asked for more!

...the anticipation!

 Love that face!
 You know you are at a good parade when you get a creamy!


Dawson slept through the entire thing!  Good thing, cause he would have wanted to crawl around and eat treats....two things not really great for a 10 month old.  We had a great time!  Until next year!

The Fun of the Chase

How many are we entertaining out there?