Our friends the Nixon's invited us up to Island Park a couple weeks ago. The plan was for the girls to head up with the kids at the beginning of the week and the husbands would come up for a long weekend. As we got into the week Nate discovered he wasn't going to be able to get away from a big project he had going on at work so the husbands didn't end up coming up. We had to cross some things off of the the list that we were planning to do once they got up there but we still had a lot of fun. We also had a lot of struggles, I was definitely exhausted when I got home, got sick too, but all in all we had a fun trip.
Kenya, Kiley, Charlie, and Brock. Best buds.
The first day we went into West Yellowstone and went to an Imax all about Yellowstone. Complete with a trip to the ice cream store and the dollar store and the kids were on cloud 9.
The next day we drove in to the park and headed to Old Faithful. On our way we stopped and had a little picnic. So pretty.
These two were constantly picking the wild flowers, anytime we were outside they had some flowers to give us.
Charlie could not resist sticking those feet in the water.
Here we are at Old Faithful, it was really windy, didn't get a very good pic and leila was alseep in the stroller.
I though it'd be fun to put this picture in here to compare. Here is my mom with her 5 kids at Old Faithful back in '82 I believe. She's about the same age as me here, crazy. I am the baby.
Jared, Colby, Kelle, mom, Nikki, Cami.
One more attempt, still not good.
The kids all had a pair of Keens, I have to pull teeth to get Charlie to wear his but it was all I brought up there so he had no choice. Now he thinks he got his use out of them and throws a fit every time I try to get him to wear them. Never knew a boy so picky about his shoes.
The clan waiting for Old Faithful to go off.
More geysers and hot springs.
We saw a little chipmunk and the girls were enthralled, way more excited than anything else we saw. They named him Pip, like the little guy on Enchanted. Couldn't stop talking about Pip and where he was and if we'd see him again.
Love how well these two play together.
The next day we decided to go back into Yellowstone because we couldn't do much else without our husbands (like canoeing down the river) and there was still so much to see.
We saw lots of wild life, Elk, buffalo, coyote, no bears though. We just missed one.
Love this waterfall. At Artist Point.
These girls crack me up, they were totally posing.
On the last day Shea took us up to Big Springs so we could see some of the beautiful area that surrounds their cabin. This water was so beautiful and clear.
Since Mark wasn't able to come up I headed home on Friday (went up on Monday). My dad's family, the Poulson side, was having a family reunion in Aberdeen which was sort of on the way home, about 30 miles off the freeway on the way back. I have an iphone now, it has a gps, it tells me step by step where to go, it works really well unless you skip a step and miss a turn. I drove 30 miles in the wrong direction when I got off the freeway. That was a big detour and so frustrating. We still made it, the kids had a great time playing in the reservoir (American Falls) and they got to ride a horse too. Prince was his name. Perfect for Kenya.
It was a nice way to break up the drive, which really wasn't bad for me. Charlie was a good helper with Leila and I got to listen to Mockingjay on my ipod while they mostly watched shows. We did try telling stories one time driving into Yellowstone, it was funny to hear their stories. They didn't quite get how to add on to each others story, a little more practice and maybe it'll be a fun "road trip" memory for them.
It was nice to come home to Mark and have his help again. Don't know how single moms do it.
This is the back of a headstone that belongs to a little baby boy of another family in our ward. It was right next to Gabe's. A great scripture to explain such a loss.
