Yellowstone!

The next morning, we packed up the cars and drove the five minutes to Yellowstone National Park.

Here's the two cute little travelers- Lydia and Afton!

Here's the two, um, not so cute travelers? Wendy and Cindy! Just kidding. They are ALWAYS cute. Makes it hard to hang out with them. (And, Yes, we make great use of our White Van Caravan and load them up with lots people and stuff!)

On our way to the first hot pot, we saw a BALD EAGLE just sitting in a tree. Cool. As we walked down to this hot pot, we saw a BALD EAGLE flying above our heads. Even cooler.

Hyrum was so excited to see the geysers and hot pots but BOY do they SMELL! They are very pretty, though, and it's fun to see them just boiling away. Weird.

Talk about weird, this hot pot is called the Paint Pot because it has no water. Just minerals and bacteria. It still boils and pops but it's the consistency of boiling Cream of Wheat or pea soup.

So the wind was blowing and I was moving my hair out of the way when Cindy took this gem- I tell you that because I do NOT pose for pictures... Anyway, this was the first real geyser and the parking was bizarre. There were SO many people coming to see it! I'm not sure how the National Parks are suffering when we pay $25 per car and there are thousands of cars there in one day...

And here's what you've all been waiting for: Old Faithful! This is the closest thing to a volcano I've seen so far- someday I'm going to Volcano National Park in Hawaii. Until then, this is pretty much the coolest natural phenomenon I've seen. We waited to see it blow with the other 300 people and then walked around the park to see some more geysers, hot pots, hot springs, etc...

Like this beauty- Heart Spring. Isn't that pretty? Oh, and Cindy is too... :) Anemone geyser was one of my favorites because it was just a tiny one but it the little pool would fill with water, start to bubble, blow it's top, and then all the water would drain down the hole until it was empty. AND, it did that whole cycle every seven minutes... I liked anything that boiled- great big pools or little tiny cracks with water boiling and boiling. So crazy.

At the end of our loop, we came upon some buffalo just lounging in the grass. We also saw some moose on the way home....this is why Yellowstone is so cool! Thanks for a great trip, Wendy and Pa!

Our trip to the Land of Thor...

Once upon a time there was an Aunt named Wendy who left home to go to college. First she went to EAC in Arizona, then she came to live with us for a little bit. Then she went back to EAC, graduated and left to China (for reals!) and when she got back, she went to the land of Thor for school. Where is this magical place? Rexburg, Idaho ,it turns out!

Wendy finished her semester and we made a family vacation (a quick one) out of going up a state to pick her up. Poor little Weston got sick- Handfootmouth disease, and now that he's had it he'll never have it again, whew!- so he stayed home with Zach who had to grade a billion papers. We were sad to leave him but I guess we'll just have to take another trip to Idaho!

So, here are the kids with Thor on the campus of BYU-I, self-proclaimed "most righteous campus in the world."

You may notice through-out the pictures that we are all (well, not Wendy) breaking SOME honor code rule of dress. No shorts, flip flops, capris, overalls... Oops.

Wendy took us through the fabulous gardens on campus- who needs Thanksgiving Point when these are for free?

Beautiful!

They even have a Mr. Tumnus statue- watch out for the White Witch!

Cindy and Mom were having a fabulous time, obviously...

And so were these pretty girls- Seriously, it is so fun to see Wendy. We don't like it when she is so far away!

Afton loved all the water through the gardens and just really wanted to go for a swim!

Doesn't Mom just fit on this little front porch? It was surrounded with square foot gardens, sun flowers, daisies... all the things that go with a big gardening hat. :)

Zach is studying up on his pergolas to find a good one for our yard. I thought this would look great in our yard, though perhaps a big large...

There was another whole section of student gardens where the horticulture students got to design and grow their own. Hello! Why did we not have this when I was a Horticulture student? I loved this 'Bedroom' garden... very whimsical.

Maama and Afton were sneaking about in the Dinosaur garden and spying on people- don't worry, there weren't real dinos, just foot prints left about.

And this is the view of the temple from campus- last time I made the trip to Rexburg, the temple was just barely being built. It is beautiful up on the hill!

We also took a peek inside the green houses. It just made me miss my school days!

This is a waterfall in the greenhouse, complete with fish!

The weirdies...

Though, a minute later, these two both had their pocket knives out and were pulling cactus spines out of Bryson's finger. Sometimes they're just cute boys...

Tropical flower

A strange picture of the girls- what am I doing?

These are the hydroponic tomatoes growing in the greenhouse next door. The vines just grow and grow and grow- that's what is wrapped around the bottom. Miles and miles of tomato vines!
After touring around campus we drove to West Yellowstone- yes, that is in Montana. First time!

Here's our little hotel.

And here's my little Afton- she was such a good traveler and didn't need much entertainment. Just give her an empty cooler and she good! She would take the lid off, stuff in her blanket, put the lid back on. Then take it off and climb in. Then climb out put the lid back on and push it around... Silly girl! Tomorrow: Yellowstone!

Pioneer Party

Grandma Norviel had a Early Pioneer party at her house (with the BEST backyard, as the boys tell me!). We ate lunch, made pioneer dolls, played sack races, potato races, made ice cream and as shown below, Grandpa helped them each make a pair of stilts. How cool is that?!

The trick was getting everyone up on their stilts at the same time...

That never happened. :) And for some reason, Weston is missing from all the pictures. But, with a little practice, the kids got pretty good at walking around on these crazy things- Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa!

Bear Lake Belnap Reunion

Two years ago, we met for a Belnap reunion and had such a blast that they decided to do it again- Hooray! We packed up our tents and our swimming suits and headed up the mountain (stopping first in Logan for lunch at the Bluebird cafe and for squeaky cheese at Gossner's cheese factory, of course!). One of my favorite parts of the trip was listening to "The Willoughby's" by Lois Lowery. She is known for more serious books like "Number the Stars" and "The Giver" but "The Willoughby's" is one of the funniest, well written, over the top books. Even Zach appreciated it! Read it. You'll like it.

Anyway, we made to the lake, had a little contest setting up the tents (you can be sure I won), and the fun began.

On Saturday, we spent ALL day at the lake. Hyrum has the peeling skin to prove it. We decided that as handy as the spray sunscreen is, it's a lot harder to tell exactly where it is and how much coverage you got. Lesson learned. Also, Zach needs to wear a hat when he goes out on a boat for 5 hours.

AND, you are not necessarily safe from sea gull poop EVEN if you are sitting under a canopy... Zach learned that the hard way as well.

Remember how Afton loves the dirt? Turns out, she also loves sand. She didn't eat it but she played and played. In this picture, Zach had just buried her foot and she pulled it out. Poor babe had a super snotty nose but she was a sport anyway.

The boys had a squirt gun war, thanks to Uncle Phil who instigated most of the fights.

Zach and Phil are in the middle of a stand off. Silly boys never grow up!

Speaking of boys... Oh, I'm talking about Kenton and Nicholas- aren't they cute?

Thanks again Grandma B! Invite us again next time!

4th of July parties and more!

To start our Celebrations off right, we had a big party at Kobi's. The question is not What did we do but what did we NOT do!

We started by decorating scooters and bikes, making pin wheels and having a parade!

Afton had her 4th finery on

Weston had his scooter decorated to a T

Even Nick got in on the action riding in a fancy wagon!

Here's the whole line up- babies and all.

After the parade, we made korky ribbon bows (who knew you could bake ribbon?)

Made mango sorbet- delicious and I don't even like mangos!

AND, made cake pops!

How ambitious are we? The boys played out side with all the kids in the sprinklers and had a blast.

On the morning of the 4th, we had french toast (which Zach found ironic, but then he wanted to make Swedish pancakes :) and these cute little guys:

Tasty too!

Then we headed up town to the parade and for our traditional picnic lunch with Grandma Norviel.

It's so fun to have MY family here for all the parties! Weston and Cindy,

Bryson

Even Wendy came down for the weekend and went to Stadium of Fire with Mom and Cindy.

Afton had her flag shirt, her korky bow and tutu. Um, you think I like having a girl?

After the park we walked around the fair, got Brazilian lemonade, new sunglasses for Zach, and watched some Irish dancers. That night we went to Pleasant Grove, had pizza at the park behind Kobi's, watched the Pleasant Grove fireworks AND lit the BRUNO. Giff's prize aerial firework he purchased at the great price of $40... We had a count down, drum roll, a little chanting of "bruno, bruno, bruno" and then it exploded into the night air. Yep, it was pretty cool. :)