Today was a bit less walking, but still lots of fun. We started by going to Big Springs where I used to go when we would come here to visit my grandparents. Yes that was long ago, even long before some of you were born! You can go there to feed the fish, but the mosquitoes had ideas of eating of their own so we did not stay long. Of course we left the insect repellent in the camper so we stopped to by some more and spend $10 on a small bottle. Tourists, we will buy anything. :) We then drove past grandma and grandpa's old cabin. They sold it a few years ago so we couldn't stop, but it brought back memories. (Sing it for me Jess.) Then we drove to Mesa Falls. That is always a neat place to go. Scary if you are like me and a bit afraid of heights, but always a neat place. I made sure we read the plaque about the history of my Great, Great Grandpa Hendricks too, so that added to the stop. We went through a room where the kids could feel all the types of furs of the animals in the area. They enjoyed that. That was our morning. We stopped by the trailer for lunch - mac and cheese, mom, not a sandwhich - just a joke for mom since we fed her those all last summer on the trip. That afternoon we went to the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center. We saw a few bears and wolves there and went through the educational part of it too. Can't take the teachers out of us. After that we went uptown to the Old Tyme Photo store. I love those old photos where we dress up. I was a great looking saloon girl with my outlaw boys and cowgirl. You will have to come by the house after our trip to see that picture. By now we were tired and it was time for dinner and a swim so we headed back to the trailer. It has been a fun visit here, but we head out tomorrow to begin our trek across the state of Montana. More tomorrow!
Well, the internet is sometimes not available everywhere and the mountains yesterday were not cooperating with me so I will catch you up on yesterday before I put in our activities for today. You would think my family was training for a race or something with all the walking we are doing!! Yesterday I think we walked about 5 miles. The kids did great too. We left the camper and headed for Old Faithful. We made a few stops before and walked around some geyser areas and mudpots. As long as I let the kids take pictures they were happy, so if anyone would like to have a copy of the 552 pictures we have let me know! :) We then went to the Old Faithful loop and walked around it. At the beginning of it a buffalo was resting right by the benches. We got lots of pictures of that then started to walk. It got up and headed for the path. I told the family we needed to continue to walk and hope it did not follow us. I can see how people get hurt by the animals in the park. Last week a man was mauled by a bear while on a hike in the woods. All the more reason for us to do laps around our campground on our morning runs. After the end of our walk we stopped and watched Old Faithful go off. During our wait the boys and I enjoyed watching a bug carry a catepillar into its hole then cover it up. Bryce of course wanted to cover it up with a big rock but Britton and I just kept taking pictures. Yes, those will be included on your free CD! That was about all for yesterday. I must add that one of my favorite spots was the geyser called West Triplet Geyser! Yes, it has some meaning to me!
Well, after a nice visit in Idaho, we hooked up the trailer and headed north east for Yellowstone. Our campground this time is about five miles west of West Yellowstone. It is a nice place, but busy. We went minature golfing Saturday when we got here. Bryce and Britton showed us all up making a Hole in One on the 18th hole!!
Sunday morning we found a church and enjoyed being visitors in a ward! Then we went for a drive through part of Yellowstone. We saw some mud pots, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, some hot water spots and lots of buffalo. It was great. I must add the favorite animal of the kids were the squirrels that were running around all over! I guess the 30 buffaloes, elk, and bald eagle were no big deal to them. :)
I will post a picture of the kids in the sulfur area. That may be one of my favorite parts. They were complaining about the smell so bad. "Who did that, was it you Matt?" was Bryce's comment. They really liked the bubbling mud, but one of their favorite parts was Dragon's Mouth Spring. It was a hole in the rocks with steam coming out that sounded like a dragon getting ready to blow fire at us. They loved it.
If you read my post about Cove Fort you will enjoy this part - Bryce and Britton keep telling Brooke and I we should pick up the buffalo or cow chips every time they see one - and that's lots! It was a fun day but plenty of walking. More for tomorrow though, so I better get the kids in bed! Enjoy the reading! :)
After our visit with our aunt, uncle and cousins in Northern Utah we headed to Idaho Falls. I was born there and still have family that live there. It was lots of fun. We stayed at a campground about 1/2 mile from the Temple which had a nice running loop around it that was useful a few days. Matt and Darin took a few runs around the loop and Saturday Matt and I did a 9 1/2 mile run in the area. It was a fun run.
We also had a chance to watch a few little cousins race BMX bikes. That was interesting, but fun. None of us have ever been to those types of races. We met up with a friend of mine from Wyoming that now lives in the Falls with his little family. It was great to see him. We also took the kids to a Drive In movie. We went to Transformers. Matt wanted to see it and we try to please all the kids. : ) We had the back of the Expedition all set up for five little kids to watch the movie since we still had my sister's kids. Only Darin and I had been to a drive in movie, so it was an experience. The movie started at 10 pm and all the kids were out by 11. Oh well, probably not the best movie for kids anyway.
It ended up being a great two days seeing lots of people and having great fun.
On our way to Staci's house we decided to stop by the temple. "I love to see the Temple!" We talk about the temple with our kids, so we decided to take the opportunity to walk through the temple. There were 11 of us - including a 9 year old, three 6 year olds, a 5 year old and a 2 year old. I had a serious talk with them about reverence before we went in. They must have all felt the spirit because we and no problems. They loved the baptism font, the sealing room mirrors and of course the cookies in the reception tent! :) Now when we say things about the temple, they can understand it better. It sure helped when trying to explain things to Matthew.
We left for our 25 day long trip on Tuesday, June 23rd. We began with a stop at Cove Fort. We have passed by the spot for years and the kids have never seen it, so we decided to stop there. It was pretty interesting. We found out that Britton would have to fill the wood box, but Bryce would have to empty the potty pot each morning! Mom and Brooke would have to pick up Buffalo Chips for fires, so it was an enjoyable teasing moment!
That evening we stayed in Manti and went to the pageant. It was really neat. We met Grandma and Carol there who brought my two nieces and nephew from Washington State. We had lots of fun. We saw about four different groups of people from Hurricane. That was funny. We also met up with Gentry, who is the sister of my friend, Jessica. She is from Delta and had come over to watch the show. We all enjoyed the show and it sure strengthens the testimony seeing the reenactment of the Book of Mormon and Pioneers.
