Yellowstone & Grand Teton

How could I begin to describe the beauty of God's creation?  I really can't.  It is too magnificent and awesome to put into words.  We had an amazing time camping out in Canyon Village.  It rained the first two nights, so that was a little awkward. But the last night was perfect, and the girls got to have a campfire and smores.   That's really all that matters.  
I think I will just post some pictures and add captions.  These were carefully selected by my husband, from the 40 bajillion that we took.  Just kidding, but we took several hundred.  So here are the highlights.  

The sign.  They were so excited!

 

Looking for bears

Still looking, and check out the HUGE scopes next to us.

Old Faithful Inn

Ella's favorite, Old Faithful

It really was amazing.

                I LOVE listening to Ella in this video.  She was truly amazed and loved Old Faithful!

Hmm, I think you can read the sign....

This place was so beautiful

Grand Teton's.  It was a very cloudy day

Jenny Lake trail in Grand Teton

Beautiful scenery, and gorgeous little girl

Grand Teton, and my beautiful 9 year old

Working on the Junior Ranger booklet

A badge and a patch, great job girls!

Deep in thought

Mammoth Hot Springs, Julia's viewpoint

Ella's vantage point, isn't she artsy?

Delicious peanut butter

Looking for wildlife

Jason and Ella on the trail

Artist Point, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Gorgeous Grand Canyon waterfall

Amazing!

Swearing in; Junior Ranger's at Yellowstone

They worked hard for these!

YAY campfire!

Black bear on the side of the highway

Same bear, in Lamar Valley

View from Beartooth Highway, Montana.  We took the long, scenic route home.

Playing in dirty snow

12 Years

Sunday, July 8 was our 12 year wedding anniversary.  It's funny, I remember our wedding day like it was yesterday.  It was so perfect and wonderful, and I married my true love and best friend.  Jason is an amazing husband and father and I truly love him more than I ever have.  Our love continues to grow and just seems to get better every year.  Here's a picture from our wedding day, and yes, I took a picture of a picture. Tacky, I know.... I carry this in my wallet and all of our pictures are at my parent's house.  So, it's all I had!

And here we are, 12 years later.  

It's not a great picture. I took it myself.  The restaurant owner took a few of us, but they were all blurry.
 
We hired a sitter Sunday evening and drove to Hill City for a date.  We were planning on eating at the Alpine Inn.  It's a wonderful restaurant that only serves one meal, STEAK.  You order a small or a large, and it comes with a baked potato, iceberg wedge salad with homemade ranch, and garlic bread.  However, we forgot to check on their times, and sure enough, they are closed on Sundays.  Jason said we will come back on another date.
So we headed to the Desperado down the street and it was really good.  Here is my meal:

 I was already in the mood for steak, so that's what I got.  Jason got a buffalo bacon-wrapped steak and he really enjoyed it.  
Then we headed to the Pie shop for some dessert.

Mine was Peanut Butter with chocolate syrup (YUM) and Jason got the blueberry.  Delicious!  ( Can you tell I enjoy my food??)


On Tuesday, the girls and I headed into Rapid City for a few errands.  Of course, we had to go to Walmart to get a few things for our camping trip.
There is a Texas Roadhouse and we really wanted to eat there. But again, I should have checked the hours.  They are only open for dinner during the week. So we ended up with delicious burgers from Fuddrucker's.  

The girls have been enjoying swim lessons and today is the last one.  Since we are headed out to Yellowstone tomorrow, they will miss the last two lessons this week.  But, we are super excited about our 4 day trip.  

 My next post will have Yellowstone pictures and details I'm sure.
Until then, have a fabulous week!


 

Looking forward...

Well, we didn't do much on July 4th.  But on the 3rd, we headed to town for the County Fair.  It wasn't as good as last year, but we still had fun.   A fair just isn't complete without a cut-out of John Wayne.  I got pictures of the girls also, but Ella made me promise that I wouldn't "put it on my blog, text, email or Facebook."  HA!!  So, I'll take one for the team. I really took this picture for my dad. :)

There were a few games and of course, pretzels and nachos.  We shared a pretzel because I really wanted to spend my money on the "U Top It" yogurt place.  We love going to Spoons in College Station, and this was almost as good.

Ring Toss game

We took a picnic lunch and ate with Jason on the 4th. But there wasn't really anything to do in the evening so we just had a normal evening.

On Thursday we went back for swimming lessons, but they didn't get in the water. It was a little too chilly, with a heavy wind.  Also, there was a storm brewing in the sky.  So they talked with the kids about water safety and pool rules.  The girls were disappointed but they were shivering just sitting near the pool.  I hope it's warm enough this afternoon for them to get in the water.

They will have to miss the last 2 lessons next week because.... WE ARE GOING TO YELLOWSTONE!!!!

We really wanted to make the trip this year, but we weren't sure it would work out.  Jason can't take any days off, and it's about 7 hours from here, so a weekend isn't enough time.  But, he can switch days with people, so he switched and now has 4 days off in a row.  That makes it rough this week because he won't get a weekend. He will work 10 straight days, get 4 days off for the trip, then work a regular 5 day week.

So we are leaving next Thursday evening after work, and will spend the night in Cody, WY.  We are going to camp in the park for 3 nights.  We will have 4 days in the park to look around.  We are hoping to make the short trip down to the Grand Tetons also.  
We are all very excited!  Jason went to Yellowstone with his family as a teenager, but the girls and I have never been.  So you can look forward to picture overload when we get back.

Last but not least, our 12 year anniversary is on Sunday.  We have a babysitter lined up and we plan to go on a date! :)

Happy Anniversary to my parents today.  July 6, 1968.  They have been married 44 years! WOW!  I wish we could be there to celebrate with them.  We love you.

It's Been a Week...

since I last posted.  There hasn't been too much going on around here.  We stayed around the house last week, not venturing into town too much.  Saturday we went to the Farmer's market, which consisted of a guy selling lettuce, and a few ladies selling jam and soap.  I got Jason some 4 berry jam, and of course he loves it.  We also made another library trip and then stopped at a local park.  


Sunday was church and Pizza Hut.  Then perhaps a few of us took a nap... :)
About 4:00 there was a knock on the door, and it was the Law Enforcement Ranger. He said there was a fire about 5 miles from here, and we needed to be aware that we may have to evacuate.  Of course, that sent my mind racing, wondering what to do and how much to prepare.  I told the girls that if he came back, we would have 5 minutes to pack and leave.  Our plan was to get a suitcase and just throw clothes in it.  Julia was worried about her drawings, books, etc.  I told her we could take that also.  We kept watching the fire update on a website and wondered if we would have to leave.  The fire is still going on now, but it's 60% contained and no longer a threat.  With all of the fires in Colorado, we of course were worried.  The  smoke has been pretty thick but we are all fine.  


On Monday, we decided to get up a little early and go for a hike.  We headed to Custer State Park and stopped at Sylvan Lake.  There are many trailheads that start at the lake, and Jason decided we should hike Sunday Gulch.  It was great, but man did we get a workout.  Over 3 hours and 3 1/2 miles.  

By the lake

A small waterfall between the rocks

Me and my girls

Close to the end

The girls started swimming lessons last night, so we headed back into town.  They are in different groups based on skill.  There was one other girl signed up with Julia, but she didn't show up. So Julia had a private lesson last night.  She is a good swimmer, and got a lot of practice on different strokes from the teacher.  Ella had 6 kids in her group.  She is a little tentative, but did really well.  The girls were both freezing by the time the lessons were finished. Ella's lips were purple and she was shivering.  We will have lessons every evening for the next two weeks, except for July 4th.  Oh, and the fireworks show is cancelled because of the burn ban, so I'm not sure what we will do tomorrow evening.

There is a town fair today and tomorrow, with Old-Time crafts and activities.  We are headed there in a little while and plan to stay all afternoon, then head to swim lessons.  I'm sure there will be pictures to follow.

A Few Things

Well, it's been a few days.  There hasn't been much going on here, but we've had a little fun.  Like I said last time, the girls were at YMCA camp from Tuesday-Friday. They had the best time.  It has been really hot up here (for South Dakota) so they walked to the pool every day and enjoyed swimming.  In fact, we are headed out to the pool in a few minutes.  It is really hot up here (should be 97 today), but should be back in the 80's tomorrow.  I know, it's not Texas hot, but there was actually a lot of humidity yesterday, so it really felt like home.  In fact, we did something yesterday that we have never done before.

Never in my life have I purchased a window unit.  You know, we're from Texas, where everyone has central A/C.  Not the case up here.  We looked at 3 different stores yesterday, and finally found one at Lowe's.  There is only one small window in the apartment that goes up and down. All of the other windows slide, so you can't put an A/C in those.  Believe it or not, it really works.  Yes, it's small, but with all of the windows and doors closed to the outside, it is actually cooling off the apartment.  Who knew??

Yesterday we spent the entire day in Rapid City.  We took the girls to see Madagascar 3, and we really enjoyed it.  Jason also got the oil changed in the Jeep.  This is something he has only done ONE other time in his entire life.  Jason likes to change the oil himself.  But, when you are 1300 miles away from home and don't have everything you need, you pay someone.  In fact, the mechanics laughed at us because our Jeep Cherokee is only 2 wheel drive.  Now that doesn't mean anything to me, but apparently all Jeeps in South Dakota are 4WD.  They said that only Jeeps from Texas are 2WD.  HA!!  

The other day, Julia and I tried a Spinach smoothie. It is basically my Peanut butter-banana smoothie with some spinach added to it.  I actually enjoyed it, and I really couldn't taste the spinach.  Julia enjoyed it at first, but then decided that it wasn't her favorite.

Julia also spent several hours making a straw house.  I bought some straws that were so cheap that it was hard to drink the smoothies.  So I found some better straws and let Julia use the cheap ones to build.  She is so creative and just loves to make things and always puts forth so much effort.

We all played basketball the other night, and somehow I got a shot of Jason in mid-air!

The girls have also been riding their bikes.

Julia has also found a new interest in bird-watching, just like her Daddy.  They are looking through a bird book.

Yesterday, we also bought the girls new baseball gloves.  They are both practicing throwing and catching, and really enjoy it.

Well, we are headed out to the pool.  I hope you are all staying cool during this heat wave.