Yellowstone.... Picture Overload

We made the trip up to Yellowstone this year. My dad has been wanting to go for a long time. This was his spot when he was a kid, and he has a ton of great stories about being there. One in particular about Fishing Bridge. We all went down there and my dad explained the story to all the kids. My brother recorded it and I'll have to get it from him and put it on the blog. We stayed at the Lake Lodge cabins which were just off the lake and very convenient for fishing. We went fishing almost every morning and the fishing was good!

This was Mike's first official time fishing and he did a great job. Mike caught 6 and Paige and I caught 7, but no one would ever rub that in! ;) We took up my dad's little aluminum boat that used to be my Grandpa Patterson's. It was great for trolling.

We saw almost the entire park in the ten days we were there. Here are some of our hundreds of pictures.....

A buffalo dusting himself. We had one do this right outside our cabin. We saw tons of "buckalos," as Alli calls them.

Mike at one with the birds.....

The kids loved having their bikes there and Jimmy took them on some nice rides.

The grizzly bear we saw right off the side of the road. It was amazing to be that close to one in the wild.

We went on an hour long horse back ride, well five of us did. Thankfully it wasn't ay longer, my butt couldn't handle anymore. Oh, and I think my horse had Tourettes. It had this weird twitch. Paige and Logan on the other hand did great!

Mike's horse was huge!!!

The Brink of Lower Falls. There was a ton of water running. It was pretty amazing being right at the edge. It was a nice hike down too. Alli had it the best being carried..... Poor Mike.

Roosevelt Lodge

West Yellowstone Bear and Wolf exhibit.

Waiting for Old Faithful

Skipping rocks....

The North Entrance. The one place we went that my dad had never been to.

The kids getting their Ranger Badges. It was a pretty cool program. They have a packet that the kids need to go through and so many different stops they need to make. When they get it all complete they get sworn in by a Ranger. Too bad Alli was too little.

The kids turned a downed log into a teeter totter.

Quake Lake. This house was moved off it's foundation during a quake. Allison was so upset by this house. She kept saying "Oh no, we need tape to fix it.... there and there...."

Mammoth Hot Springs

24th of July

Today I'm attempting at catching up a bit.....

On the 24th we went to the Living Planet Aquarium. Although it is still small and in their first stages they have some pretty cool exhibits. The girls love being able to touch the stingrays and watching the penguins swim is always entertaining. I hope that the girls love the ocean and all of its creatures as much as Mike and I do.

After the aquarium we went home made some s'mores and set off our now legal fireworks. For those that don't know Utah any firework that went up in the air was illegal until this year. You could only see the big ones at the parks and other firework shows.

We only had one small mishap, one of the fireworks decided to fly sideways and burst somewhere near our neighbors car. Luckily there was no damage....

A month late..... but Alli turned THREE!!!

How did my sweet little wrinkly bald baby turn into......

A fiery red head with attitude to spare?

I can 't believe Alli is three already. Time has flown by. She is certainly her own person now. She likes to do everything, "By my own," and she is a huge helper around the house. Her favorite thing to help out with is laundry. She loves folding the towels, actually she just rolls them into big sausages, but she's trying and that's what counts. She is a very determined little girl and I love that about her. Well, most of the time I do. I think as she grows older this little girl could do anything she puts her mind to. Here are some random up to date Alli facts....

Alli...

- loves school and has lots of friends, but her favorite person there is Bella.

- is looking forward to starting ice skating.

- still loves Mickey Mouse.

-has been fighting ear infections and strep the first 5 months of the year. Oh and she has strep again... :(

-loves her puppy, Abigail.

-likes sorting objects and hums while she does it.

-will often say, "I told you five minutes ago," when she is angry that someone did not do what she wanted them to.

-loves boats.

-takes her Pooh Bear and Pooh Blanket to school everyday.

-potty trained pretty much on her own.

-loved her binky, but we have been binky free for awhile now.

-is very concerned with ownership. She gets upset if people don't have items that belong to them.

-wants to be like her big sister in every way.

On her birthday we went to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.

Then Saturday afternoon we had a BBQ at our house. The kids played on the tramp and went down Alli's new water slide. She loves it! The theme again was Mickey and Minnie because she loves them sooo much! My mom did an amazing job with the cakes!!!!

July...or at least part of it...

This is my attempt at catching up. We have been so busy lately, but we've been having fun in the process. Here are some photos from the first part of July.

We spent a weekend out on Mike and Robin's boat. It was great to sleep out in the middle of the lake, minus the brine flies. Those things are nasty! I love watching sunsets out there though. That's one thing I miss about working at Kennecott, the sunsets.

We had a great 4th of July. We all climbed up the ladder to watch the fireworks from Mike's roof. I even practiced some of my skills from fire class as I carried Alli up the ladder. It was cool to see all the fireworks going off that are no longer illegal here.

I have Mondays off now so I usually have Rylee and Logan with me. We went to Wheeler Farm and were chased by geese. I loved watching Alli feed them. It was not a gentle toss of food in their direction, some of them may have head injuries from their feeding time with her. We also went to a school and the kids had a blast on the playground.

I'm still liking my new job and I am learning a lot of new medical lingo that I'm sure will help me in the future. Well, if I ever finish school it will.

Paige and Rylee went on a week long Girl Scout camp to Camp Cloud Rim. They had fun making crafts, going on hikes, and playing in the lake. It was crazy to see how much snow was still up there. I'm glad they had a great time, but I was so ready for her to come home!

Miss Alli also celebrated her third birthday. I will post pictures of that soon, I hope. I can't believe she is three. She sure has the attitude of a three year old. The other day she wanted me to go up to her room. When I told her I couldn't go up right then she yelled down, "Don't you tell me no!" Ah kids, gotta love them....

A Busy Four Day Weekend

We had a four day weekend and kept ourselves very busy!

Thursday was our Anniversary and Mike and I celebrated by going out to dinner at Log Haven. We have been there before, but the food was amazing this time! Thank you honey, I love ya!

Friday Robin and I took the kids to the zoo while the guys were working on the boat. Alli loved the animals. Can you tell?

Then after the zoo we headed to Paige's competition. She did awesome! First and second place. She is improving so much, it amazes me!

Saturday morning we finished the competition and then headed to the boat for an overnight stay. All the kids headed to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Bill's house. The weather was great on Saturday and it was nice to kick back and relax. We headed in a little early because there was a storm brewing.

After we finished our BBQ at the dock the rain started pouring and poured all night. Good thing we had the boat to find shelter in. We just hung out, played games, and watched movies. It was a Birthday (my brother's) and Father's Day outing.

Sunday morning we braved the rain and picked up the kids. Then we headed up to Grandpa Old Guy's house for a great Father's Day dinner.