Yellowstone

 

 We took our family to Yellowstone this last month. The kids had already started school but because we did not want to be in Yellowstone when everybody else was we decided to go in Sept. It turned out to still be busier than we had expected but it was not super hot so not a bad time to go. It was preaty smoky in the park because of the wild fires that were in Wyoming and they also were doing some controlled burns within the park. We entered in through the west enterence of the park.

A stream right aftered we entered the park. There were many people fishing in these streams.

Fishing Bridge, there were no fish here, we were here at the wrong time of year to see the fish.

Us at fishing bridge.

We did get to see a buffalo swim across the river here.

This one just crossed the same way we did, on the bridge.

At one of the hot spots, the smoke and growling noise were coming out of a cave.

I had to add this one, it was preaty stinky there and this is the only picture I have of the kids being grossed out by the smell.

The water was bubbling up.

We saw a couple of herds of buffalo. We also saw 2 grizzly bears near here but my camera couldn't zoom in that close, so the pictures of that are on the camcorder.
 

Some of the holes were so clear you could see the bottom.

My kids

It looked like a small volcano in the lake.

Old Faithful.

Everywhere we take this young lady this happens. I think she was hungry.

Aunt Mel and her family joined us on one day and the kids had a great day with cousins.

Do I have my eyes closed? I take pictuers like my mother;)

Uncle Tom and Ashlynn on a trail, we needed a picture of Uncle Tom to show that he was there.

Paint pots

One of the three deer that were hanging out by Upper Falls.

The kids hanging out on a rock at Upper Falls.

Upper Falls

Upper Falls

Kids with cousins at Lower Falls.

Lower Falls

Lower Falls

At the look out for Lower Falls.

Elk

The Lewis' at Lewis Lake

At the falls right before you leave the park on the south side.

Tanner and Hayden in front of the Grand Teton Mountain Range.

Sisters, Ellie and Taylie

And Devin as we were leaving and on our way home.

It was a great trip and so many amazing things to see. We were there 3 days and still didn't get to see everything that we wanted. I guess that we will have to go back.

Our Trip

 This past summer we had the opportunity to take a trip back to visit Lynnette and family in Indiana and then back to Bellefountaine and visit our friends there.When we lived in Ohio, we drove the long drive back here 3 times in the 6 and a 1/2 years that we lived out there. But everytime we drove it was in the middle of winter and we just wanted to be home to celebrate the Christmas season with family and who wants to site see in the middle of a snow storm, so this was the first time we actually stopped to see anything along the way. It was a lot of fun and it sure made that long drive a bit barable.
 Our first stop was at Martin's Cove, Wyoming. It was great to get to see this part of our pioneer heritage and learn more of what happened here. We have ancestors who pushed hand carts acrossed the plains and we had the chance to push our own around the park, and decided that that would have been more work than we had thought.

 Our family would have had one cart to put all of our belongings(if we could have afforded it) other wise we would share with another family. The boys would have had to help push or pull and help take care of the little ones. It was much harder that we had thought.

 Tanner pushing a child size cart, and really struggling.

 Devin offered to give the girls a ride, but the rocks and the hills made it a bit of a work out for him.

 Me helping Hayden.

 They showed us how to make rings out of nails. Each of the kids got there own. And Devin got the chance to make one.

Checking out the museums around the facility. It was a great experience, one we learned alot from. Next time we are taking a hand cart and hiking the trail. We needed to have a little more time than we had planned to do that, but we were told that it is an amazing experience for families and would like to try it next time.

First day of School 2011-2012 year

Tanner started the 1st grade this year and is learning all kinds of new things.

Devin is in the 4th grade and is really progressing in his reading this year and enjoys the social part of school the most. 

Hayden is in 3rd grade and is doing great, he is learning a lot and being pushed to excell in all his subjects.

I am so proud of my boys and how well they are all doing. They work so hard and are great kids.

Summer Fun



While camping this summer we went to Minnatonka Caves up by Bear Lake. It was a preaty neat hike and we enjoyed the amazing sites.

Atk allowed us to tour the area where they test the shuddle rocker bosters.
It was preaty cool.

The kids in the command chairs at ATK.

Test shuddle.



Tanner's 7th birthday.

He had to have a solar system cake, so I had to get creative and figure out how to make this. The planets on the side are oreo balls dipped in colored chocolate. Yummy.

Hayden turned 9 this summer. 

It was all about Ben Ten here.

And Devin had a summer birthday and turned 10.
I know these are a little out of order but it is to much work to fix them. Besides I started this post a long time ago and never finished it ... We did a lot more things last summer than this and maybe I'll get around to blogging about them but if not we had a great summer and enjoyed the time off of school.