Yellowstone

This year we decided a nice, long road trip was just how we wanted to spend our week vacationing.  Be warned- the next few posts are going to be very picture heavy.

We left Thursday, July 9th and drove out to Butte before checking into our hotel for the night.  Our original plan had been to spend the first night with Ryan's brother and his family in the Spokane area, but Annie has been sick with a cold and ear infection (Seriously in July?  What. is. going. on??) so we decided sharing our germs with their young kids would be a bad idea.  It worked out because we had a lot less driving to Yellowstone on Friday and could actually see the lower part of the Yellowstone loop, instead of just arriving at our campsite.

....And we are off!

So about 5 miles into our trip, I realized I left our nice camera at home.  I said as much to Ryan, and during the next two miles we decided my iPhone has a good enough camera.  We were not turning around.

We spent a good half hour plus waiting to enter Yellowstone park.  Good thing I had downloaded a couple of audio books on my cell phone to help pass the time.  (Our local library is being remodeled all summer and their teeny office in the meantime has a very poor selection of anything.  Being the on-top-of-it girl that I am, I didn't request audio books on CD a week or two ahead of time.  I, instead, discovered the OverDrive app, and have been happily downloading digital copies of audio books to my phone.  It's seriously the best.)

Now comes the fun part- trying to remember each of the stops where I took these pictures and what they are exactly.  I'll name the ones I do remember, but since I am finally posting these two months after the fact, the details still in my brain are slim.

Lower Geyser Basin?

 There was a small voice in my head that laughed at the fact we drove so far to see steamy mud.  But the mud bubbles too, and smells bad.  Who wouldn't want to see that?

 I can't remember where these all are.  There were several stops, and they all had cool photo ops.

 Below is the Turquoise Pool.  The park ranger said they don't know how deep it is, but it's super hot.  The bluer the water, the hotter the water is.

Next is from a hike we did.

 A waterfall!

 Then we made it to Old Faithful.  Our timing was so good, we had front row seats for the eruption.  Ok, we missed the previous eruption by about 5 minutes, and had quite a bit of time to kill waiting for the next one.

 Still waiting.

 Eventually the entire family, minus myself, laid down for naps.

There she blows!

 Afterwards we checked out the visitor's center.

 Then it was time to head to our campground, out of the park.  We got held up in traffic.

 Buffalo walk slowly.  It did give us lots of time to enjoy the scenery.

We finally made it to our KOA, where they informed us we could, in fact, have a fire.  What?  In Washington, you'd better not so much as sneeze for fear of forest fires this year.  We were not prepared for this thing called fire (we brought our little propane burner), but we had neighbors willing to share and help out so we could have proper s'mores.

This year I finally convinced Ryan I was not going camping without an air mattress.  He wanted to just get a twin size for me, but I won out and got a full sized one so we can share.  He is older than me by 4 years- his old bones need it just as much as mine.  Ryan felt ashamed of his weakness, and waited until dusk to fill the air mattress.  (As if the air pump isn't noisy enough to draw the eye of everyone close.)

Then it was time for bed.

In a Cabin in the Woods

Our bishop offered to let us stay at his cabin for a couple of nights.  We weren't quite sure what he meant by "cabin" but we were hoping something along the lines of:

We were game for anything.  I pressed Ryan to ask what kind of cooking there might be, and what we would need to bring.  Is there electricity?  

As it turns out, we were way off the mark.  Their cabin was part of the Suncadia Resort, and is nicer than our house.  Plus, it was furnished.  

 We didn't even need the games we brought.  Games were provided, and we played many games of Sorry!

And we went for a walk.

 The kids put on a play for us up on the balcony.

Ryan's dad is away from home doing a continuing education class for a couple of weeks, and since the cabin had enough room for a small mob, we invited Kim for the second night.

 With Kim watching the girls, Ryan and I decided to take two of the bikes from the garage for a spin.  There are trails going all over the Suncadia resort, and we were game for a nice long ride.

 We were almost done with the loop, and considering extending the loop before heading back when all of a sudden my pedals felt pretty free, and the bike chain was dragging.  (These things only happen to me.)  Guess it was time to head back.  Luckily we were uphill from the "cabin" and I was able to coast (for the most part) back.  When I got slow, Ryan was there to push me from behind.  On the behind.

This is how I took the bike chain back.  And I now get to confess to my bishop that I broke his bike.

It was a very nice couple of nights.  If only all cabin camping was this nice.  :)

Happy 4th

We had a nice Independence Day.  Michael, Blair, and family came the night before so they could spend most of the day with us.  In the morning we went to a breakfast at Job and Sarah's house, then we had our own celebration with most of Ryan's family joining us for lunch.  We went down to watch the parade at 4 pm (everyone had decided to decamp by then for their own homes) and sweltered.  It's been so freakishly hot this year.  I think the weather has us confused with the south.  We melted, and watched probably the shortest, lamest parade in Independence history.  It was an especially poor turn-out, so not many people know just how pathetic the parade was.  I guess no one wanted to be out in the heat.

In the evening, our ward rented the city pool so we played until almost 9 pm.  Then we went home to get dried off, get in our pjs, and headed down to watch the fireworks at the high school.  Emma thought that donuts would be a good treat while we were watching the fireworks, so we took a detour through Safeway.  (Those donuts did not make it to the high school....)

Then we watched fireworks.

And finally took our tired selves home to bed.

Jam and jelly for days

I am trying to enjoy Ryan's attention while I have it.  Yesterday and today we made jam, and attempted blackberry jelly for the first time.  Our blackberries aren't quite "on" just yet, so we took the rest of the frozen ones from last year and put them in the steamer to make juice.  I think that is so much easier than what I used to see my Grandma do, with the smashed berries, and the drip through the cheese cloth method.  The jelly turned out just fine, and we are ready to try again when this year's berries are ready to go.

It really is nice to make jam with a partner, especially when you are canning it and not just freezing.  It's nice to have that extra set of hands.

Summertime

Ryan tried making a whirlpool... in our pool.  With a canoe paddle.

The kids thought it was the funnest thing in a long time.  When Ryan got tired, I got to take over.

Mostly I just sat in a camp chair with my feet in the pool.  I coated my very white skin in a thick layer of sunscreen, just to be safe.  The kids are lucky and tan like their dad.  Even still, they get a spray down of sunscreen before hitting the pool.  Oh my gosh, I love spray on sunscreen.  When you have four kids to cover, it is totally worth the extra cost.

Elizabeth's party

I was a little behind getting Elizabeth's birthday party planned.  But I figured perhaps it was fortuitous because now it is definitely warm enough for an outside party.  Elizabeth liked the idea of a party with water activities, so we rolled with it.  We invited some friends, got some food for a bbq, filled up our pool, got the slip and slide set up, and we were set.

The birthday girl

 The kids eating their picnic dinner of hot dogs, chips, and watermelon.

 Elizabeth wanted angel food cake with raspberries and whipped cream for her birthday cake.  And ice cream.

 Time for presents.

Next up-games.

This first one was the kids trying to fill giant Solo cups I found at Walmart by pouring water over their shoulders.  The child pouring was supposed to pour without looking.  The kid on the receiving end had to do the best they could trying to catch the water.

 It was pretty fun.

 Then there were balloons with little prizes inside to pop.

 And throwing wet sponges back and forth.

The party went long, But school is out, and the sun is up late, and the kids were having a good time.  We might as well enjoy it.  Thankfully the heat was not as bad today as it has been, so the evening was pleasant.
So, there you have it.  Summer birthday parties are fun.  We might do that again.