Yellowstone

In July, we decided to head up to Yellowstone. It had been years since I went with my family as a child, and John had never been before. Since he's had so much time off lately, we decided that it was worth the trip.

It is amazing to see all the geothermal hot pots, and geysers there. We had a ton of fun, but some of us didn't particularly enjoy the smells. We did a lot of walking and I'm discovering that I can't hike as long as I usually can when I'm not pregnant.

One of the things that you're most likely to see in Yellowstone is Buffalo. You hear of them walking up to cars and people, but you don't really believe it until you see it in real life. They are really huge and really dangerous. We were really glad that this one was on the other side of the fence. Another thing that's beautiful in Yellowstone is all the waterfalls. Some of them are right off the road! They are so fabulous! After spending 3 nights in Yellowstone, we headed down to the Grand Tetons for 2 more nights. The Grand Tetons are Beautiful! We loved dipping our feet in the Ice cold lake water.

John also took the kids right down by the Jackson Lake Dam! That's some waterfall!

We made the typical drive through Jackson Hole to get a picture by the Elk horn Arch.

But our favorite part of the Grand Tetons was going up on the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram to the top of the world. The view was beautiful, and the ride itself was fun. It will definitely be remembered for a long time.

Through the whole trip, we'd been looking for all sorts of animal life. We saw buffalo, elk, ravens, eagles, even a coyote. We got in three bear traffic jams, but missed the bears each time. The one thing we really wanted to see was a moose. we searched and searched one evening and never found anything but beavers (that was cool). Then on the ride back to the camp site from Jackson Hole, we saw this beautiful Moose! she was right off the side of the road! I took this picture from the car window without zooming! Then we saw another one a few hundred yards down the road. I guess you just have to be in the right place at the right time. It was my birthday while we were in Yellowstone, and we celebrated by going out to dinner instead of cooking dinner on the fire. But when we got home, we celebrated right. John made me a cake and Dinner. It was a fun birthday. By the way, I know that a lot of you have been wondering. We had an ultrasound right before we left for Yellowstone, and we're having another boy! We all thought it would be a girl to balance us out, but boys are fun too. We know how to do boys. There was no doubt whatsoever that it was a boy!

July

It's already August, and I haven't even blogged about our 4th of July or Devin's birthday! Here it is: We went to a really fun Family reunion on the 4th of July weekend. It was in Richfield and there was a ton people, a ton of good food, and an awesome water slide! The kids loved the water slide, but got cold really quick. We had a great time!

Then Erin went off with her cousin to Fish lake for the weekend. That was really weird, to celebrate the 4th without her, but she had a great time. They went down to Richfield for their 4th of July celebration. There she caught a fish with her hands! And won a gold fish in a game. What a fun weekend for her! Thanks to Mindy and Lafe for hosting her and taking care of her while she was with them!

As for us, we went home and had our own fireworks celebration. The boys loved the sparklers.

I love fireworks and as you can tell, so does Colin!

We also had the kids in swim lessons for the first 2 weeks of July. Devin passed off his level 1 with flying colors.

He even went off the diving board without any help from his teacher!

Erin is in level 4 and is swimming like a fish.

She went off the High dive! She was a little nervous at first, but once she did it once she decided to do it a few more times.

We found this cool splash park near our house, and one morning while John and Erin were out skiing, I decided to take the boys out for a little fun of our own.

There was also a a dry play ground there where the boys could warm up and dry off. That was Colin's favorite part.

As for Devin's birthday. It was a lot of fun.

He was so excited to get a star wars Nerf gun and a new Lego set, among other things.

We had a birthday party for him at the end of June before all the kids got out of school and went on family vacations. I had the party planned for outside, but we had to improvise when the wind became torrential and interrupted all our games. All in all, though it was a really fun Pirate party, and Devin tells me now that the Treasure hunt was his favorite part. Happy 5th birthday Devin! I'm so proud to be your Mom!

Iowa

We've been talking about going out to Iowa to see my sister and her family for a long time now, and at the end of June, we finally got the chance to go. It's an 18 hour trip which can be done in 1-2 days, but we wanted to see some stuff, so we took 3 days to get there. Our first stop was at Fort Bridger. It was a good introduction to all the Pioneer stuff we were going to see. We also saw Martin's Cove by Devil's Gate and Independence rock with were both route markers for the pioneers along the trail. Then we drove up into South Dakota. On our second day we saw Devil's Tower (made famous in the movie Close encounters). We went through Jewel caves, and then we saw Mount Rushmore. We were there right before dusk and by the time we left, the lights were getting ready to turn on, so we pulled off the road and watched the lights come on. That was neat. Our 3rd day of driving was just driving. That's a long drive. It was so fun to see my sister and her family. The kids really hit it off. The big kids decided to have a lemonade stand, and the little kids played in the water. We played base ball, and went to my one of my niece's soft ball games. One of the days with them, we drove to Nauvoo. It's only 2 hours from their house! We had a great time seeing all the sights!

We went to the blacksmith shop to see how they made wagon wheels and Horse shoes. We also learned how to made rope and candles. And the kids got to help print newspapers the old style way. On the way home from Nauvoo, we went to Carthage Jail where Joseph Smith was killed. We had quite the experience at Carthage. When we went into the visitor's center the weather was fine. But when it was time to go into the Jail itself, they told us that there was a tornado warning and that we had to go into their storm shelter, which happened to be the Jail. So in we ran with umbrellas. While we were in the jail we could hear the rain, the wind and the thunder outside and the lights kept flickering off and on. It was a really cool experience.

We had a great time at my sister's house. But all things must come to an end. The kids had a great time with their cousins. On the drive home, We detoured through Missouri where we saw Adam-ondi-amen. We also stopped in Liberty to see another Jail where Joseph Smith was kept, and Independence, where the Mormons settled for a while. The next day of travel, we went back up into Iowa to see council bluffs. It was here that Brigham Young was made the prophet. It was also where one of my ancestors, Tunis Rappleye, lived in the winter with his family while he helped wagon trains travel all the way to Salt Lake every summer for several years! That was really cool to see. Our next stop that day was in winter quarters. The church has a really neat visitor's center here where they talk about the experiences and progression of the Mormon Pioneers as they were kicked out of their homes and eventually moved west to Salt Lake. During part of the Tour, the kids got to dress up and pull a hand cart. It was a really fun hands on experience. Our last day on the road was just driving. We drove straight through Nebraska, Wyoming and then home. That was a long drive, but it was well worth it. It was great to see all the historic sights along the way, but best of all we got to see my sister and her family. They've lived there for 6 years. It was about time we went to see them! Thanks to Monica for hosting us!