Vacation - Day Three

So...day three.  Let's see.  We kept breakfast pretty simple so that we could get on the road.  I think we had hot chocolate and instant oatmeal packets (or cold cereal).  The weather was cloudy and drizzly, which I think is perfect!  Especially on big driving days - no one likes to be cooped up in a hot car all day.  The kids and I walked down to our ranger's station and picked up packets for the three older ones to become "Junior Rangers."  It's quite a process, but it was so fun!  They have two programs, one for younger kids like Josh and one for the older kids.  Each kid had to fill out several pages in a workbook, attend a couple of ranger programs, go on a hike, visit a visitor center, learn all the park rules and obey them, and pledge to do all they can to protect and educate others at the park.  It took a lot of effort and time, but that was great!  They learned a lot and kept busy for days working on their badges.

So later that morning, we piled in the van and went exploring.  How familiar are you with Yellowstone's roads.  Basically, the road makes a big figure eight through the middle of the park.  On Tuesday, we drove around the top loop of the figure eight.  We stopped along the way several times to do a little animal watching, explore new roads and places, find the restrooms, survey the countryside with our binoculars, etc.   At some point, each of my kids had to take a Dramamine, but that's okay.  My kids handle Dramamine well and we really did put in a lot of miles that day! 

One of our little pit stops.  We can' be sure, because we never saw it, but I think a badger or something was living in that hole across the stream and he was not happy with us for bothering him. We heard him growl a few times. 

Our first big stop was the Canyon area.  We enjoyed the fun, interactive visitors center (and nice restrooms).  We thought we might go through the gift shop for a little while, but once I found the boys touching some crystal statuettes of bears and wolves with price tags in the $700 range (I'm sorry, but WHY aren't those things behind class?!?!?)  I decided that the gift shop wasn't really for us.  Bronson was getting pretty tired, so Dave stayed in the car and napped with him while the rest of us went on a short hike and explored the Canyon area.  It was rainy, but that made it pleasantly cool and fresh.  I loved it.  When Bronny woke up, he and Daddy joined us.  It was fun. 

Hanging out in the Canyon area.

So pretty!

We found a nice, secluded picnic area to have our lunch.  Every day's lunch was the same - sandwiches, chips, string cheese, fruit, etc.  Of course, I had really great deli meat, Costco's torta rolls, fancy mustard, tomatoes, etc. so it was like heaven to me!  The kids just think its about the coolest thing in the world to choose their own flavor of pop and have their own can.  I remember thinking that was pretty cool when I was a kid too.

David has never been all the way to the Northeast entrance of the park and he was determined to do it!  So, darn it - that's where we went.  It was a lovely drive!  I've never been there either and I must say, we saw some great things!  We saw several buffalo being feisty and funny and doing crazy things, often very close to our car.  We saw a pronghorn antelope (I'm the person who first spotted that one - then a lot of cars stopped).  Oddly enough, in the two and a half days we'd been in the park, we hadn't seen a single elk.   Once, we saw a momma grizzly bear and her cub - kind of. 

This guy was cracking us up.  We watched him for about twenty minutes.  He was brushing out a huge pompadour hairdo using a tree for his brush right before he galloped away. 

There's the Pronghorn I spotted.

I had warned my kids in advance that seeing  a bear in Yellowstone is very rare - as in, I think I've seen three in my whole lifetime.  I told them not to get their hopes up, but if we were lucky, we'd see one far away on a mountain somewhere.  That's exactly what happened here.  There were a million people pulled over looking at the mountain with their binoculars.  We found out that it was a mamma and baby griz.  SO COOL - right?  Wrong.  They were so very far away that even with our binoculars, they looked like specks.  It took several frustrating minutes to describe to the girls where to even look.  Nicki was getting pretty upset.  We stayed a couple of minutes, then carried on with our drive to the end of the park road.  We got there, gave a quick cheer, and turned around. 

On our way to the top of the loop, we were driving on a mountainside with a steep drop off to our right.  All of a sudden, a yearling black bear cub darted out in the road RIGHT in front of our car and started lumbering along.  I was yelling, "It's a bear!  It's a bear!" and the kids were squealing in delight!  I said, "Wait, if this is a cub, the mom should be around here somewhere!  Scary!"  I learned later that black bears separate from their mothers at about a year, so this guy was probably alone.  Anyway, only about two other cars were on the road with us for this amazing sighting.  After about 20 seconds, the bear looked around, realized that there were people watching him, and dove back down the hill into the forest.  We tried to find him again, but he was long gone.  I was super pumped and kept telling the kids how amazing and rare that was. 

We spent the whole day like this - driving, stopping for animal/potty/exploring breaks, going to visitor centers, eating snacks in the car, etc.  Some time in the late afternoon, I let the kids witch a movie while we drove.  It was getting to be a long day - especially for a two year old.

In Mammoth.  The kids are eating a snack and watching a show while I go on a potty break.

We were headed back to camp, starting to think about dinner when I spotted our first herd of elk.  We pulled over and pulled out the binoculars.  They were across a field along the base of the mountain.  They sure are lovely animals. We watched them for ten minutes or so, then headed into the van.  We drove about a half mile or less before we saw a bunch of cars pulled over.  What were they looking at?  ANOTHER BEAR!  A female grizzly.  She was probably no more than 200 yards away, on the mountainside.  I started shouting again, "It's a bear!  It's a bear!"  I never knew that I sounded like that when I got excited.  It's kind of embarrassing.  Anyway, we pulled over and watched this beauty for as long as we possibly could, until she wandered too deep into the trees for us to see her any more.  Of course, there were rangers all over the place, watching and keeping people safe - they don't mess around with bears in Yellowstone.  I had a hard time convincing my kids that bear sightings were rare anymore.

She actually looked much closer in real life.

After making those unplanned stops, it was getting late.  We didn't like the idea of starting a fire and trying to cook tinfoil dinners late into the night.  Plus it was pretty rainy and we weren't even sure we COULD start a fire, so we drove right past our campsite and headed into West Yellowstone, where we dined at McDonald's.  Rustic, I know.  We got back to camp after 10:00 pm.  Lets just say that we ALL slept very soundly that night. 

Vacation - Day Two

We woke up on Monday morning and ate breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Gee before they headed for the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's Center.  Then, Dave got everything ready from his folks house while the girls and I went grocery shopping for all the perishable items we needed.  We had a fun time shopping in our old Rexburg grocery store.  Ah, the memories....  When we got back, we packed up the cooler, squeezed into the van, and drove to Yellowstone!!!

I LOVE Yellowstone!  It's one of my favorite places on Earth!  My kids feel the same way.  We were all so excited to be there!  We had a camping spot reserved in the Madison Campground.  We arrived at lunch time, so we unpacked the coolers and ate before we did anything else.  Then, David and I set up our tent and got our campsite all ready to go while the kids explored the campsite, played with their new binoculars (we bought each person their own pair as a souvenir), chased ground squirrels, and got perfectly filthy.  Before we left, our cute neighbor/friend/babysitter, Klarissa gave us a bag of toys, paper, and other entertaining stuff telling us not to look at it until we got to camp.  How thoughtful huh?  The kids pulled out the bag and divvied up the goods as soon as they could.


Right away, Alison found a secluded place to study her park maps and information, to observe wildlife, and to commune with nature. 



Bronson , Nicole and Joshua trying out their binoculars.

Within a few minutes of arriving, Bronson looked like this.  And he stayed that way pretty much the whole time.  He ran around camp barefoot and filled his shoes with dirt like he was playing in a sandbox.

By the time our campsite was all set up, it was late afternoon. We decided that he had just enough time to drive to Old Faithful.  When we got there, we had about an hour before the next eruption, so we walked around and looked at a few hot pots, the cool visitor's center, etc.  Then we saw the blast!  Woo hoo!  It was pretty amazing.  It was fun for me to watch Josh's excitement.  He thought it was pretty cool.

What a happy family!

These flowers were growing inside a crater.

Pretty!

Thar she blows!

After Old Faithful, we were getting hungry.  We went back to our camp, but just as Dad was starting to get the fire going, a thunderstorm blew through our camp.  We all squealed and ran under our rain fly.  It was fun to watch the short intense storm together.  It didn't last too long. Then, we roasted hot dogs on the fire.  We, of course, followed up with S'mores.  Delicious.  I never have a craving for S'mores and I usually don't even want them when they're being offered, but once I try one I remember that they really are pretty delicious, gooey little things.

Getting out of the rain.

That evening, we went for a little stroll along the riverbank that lies on the side of our campground.  It was nearing dusk as we walked along the trail.  Joshua had scampered up a gravelly hill and I was trying to talk him back down, explaining the importance of staying on the trails.  Alison and Nicole were ahead of us.  All of a sudden, Nicki was screaming and running toward us.  She was yelling, "Buffalo!  Buffalo!" I was like, "Eh?"  Then I was like, "AH!!"  because sure enough, a small family of buffalo were on the trail about thirty yards in front of us, jogging our way.  I think maybe they were trying to catch up with the rest of their herd before bedding down for the night, or maybe they were late for an appointment.  All I know is that they were moving fast and in our direction.  Joshua, who was about half way down the hill, freaked out!  He started screaming and running down the hill - TOWARDS the buffalo.  I grabbed him before he fell in the river and started running down the trail with him.  Dave scooted the other three kids up the gravel hill and out of the buffaloes' way.  After running on the trail for a few yards, I realized that I wasn't going to outrun the animals, so Josh and I climbed the hill as well.  Then, we simply panted and caught our breath as we watched the little family jog by.   They were so close!!!  It was amazing!  Freaky, but amazing.  Nicki was totally stoked!  Josh and Bronson were terrified and started begging to go home.  Alison was concerned that we'd broken two park rules by getting too close to the animals and walking off the trails.  Dave and I just laughed and high-fived each other.  It was a pretty big adrenaline rush!

What fun it is to get ready for bed by camp fire and to stay up late telling shadow puppet stories and to sleep in sleeping bags with your whole family together!  I just love camping!  We bought a huge tent a few years ago, but this is the first time we've been able to use it on a real (not in our back yard) camping trip.  It is amazing!  We could have fit five more people in there with us!  It was warm and dry and perfect!  We slept in a line in this order: Alison against the outer wall, next to me, next to Joshua, next to Bronson, next to Dad, next to Nicole - then space for another person or two before the other outer wall.  It rained a little that night, making a beautiful white noise to sleep to.  I didn't sleep too terribly well that first night.  I had to re-learn how to sleep on the ground.  By the second night, I had the hang of it.

Family Vacation 2013 - Day One

Our big exciting family vacation this year was a camping trip to Yellowstone.  I tell you, we had a BLAST!

We left on Sunday, June 23rd.  That meant that Saturday, June 22nd was not a very pleasant day.  I was trying to pack and plan and shop and paint a thing or two before we left, but David spent almost the entire day locked in his office getting documentation and other stuff done for his work (all necessary so that he could be gone for a week, but YIKES!!!) so I was on my own.  That afternoon/evening, he went to all the Saturday sessions of Stake Conference. I couldn't - too busy!!  Luckily for me, Krisitn and Brian had a wedding to attend so we had their kids for a few hours.  It actually helps me to have cousins around keeping my kids entertained and occupied.  When she came back from the wedding, Kris could see how stressed I was, so she offered to stay at my house with the kiddos while I ran to the store.  SO HELPFUL!!!!!  Then Brian bought my family pizza for dinner to say thanks for watching the kids.  Again - SO HELPFUL!!!!  When Dave got home that night, he helped quite a bit. There was a lot to do.  We got to bed late. It was a pretty stressful day, but everything got packed and everything worked out.  By the time we went to bed that night, we were ready for a camping trip! 

On Sunday, we went to Stake Conference. Then we came home and changed our clothes while Daddy packed up the van.  May I just say that it takes a LOT of stuff to go tent camping!  Even with our nerdy little car topper overflowing with tents and sleeping bags, our van was stuffed so full of food and pillows and clothes and camping gear that the kids were basically wedged into their seats, peeking over the top of stuff to see outside. 

Our plan was to try to get on the road quickly and make it to Idaho in time for a special broadcast that night.  However, by the time we pulled out of Layton, it was pretty clear that we weren't going to make it.  That actually made things a lot more laid back and we were able to enjoy the drive, stopping once or twice along the way.  One of the stops we made was at the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's Center.  Grandma and Grandpa Gee were serving there at the time, so we spent about 20 minutes with them.  It was really wonderful to hear some stories from their mission and to see them interact with other visitors. 

When we arrived in Rexburg, we drove straight to Shawn and Amy's house.  All the locals came to visit too.  One of the things I miss most about our lives in Idaho is the weekly "Sunday Visits."  I love visiting with Dave's family and letting the kids play with their cousins!  And I also love the treats!  Kaden made homemade cinnamon rolls and brownies!  YUM!  We sat on the porch and visited while watching the kids run all over Shawn's property.  It was so much fun!  I could almost imagine we'd never left. 

Isn't that like a magazine photo?  Shawn and Amy's home is like a wonderland!  That's Ali and (I think) Maddie.  It could be Abbey.

Terry, Ellie, Dave, Kristi.

Kristi, Amy, Suzette, Kami, my foot.

Nicole, Isabelle, Bronson, Abram.

Kristi, Shawn, Terry's back, Amy, Me, Suzette's elbow, Kami.

That night, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Gee's house and put the kids to bed before Grandma and Grandpa even returned home from the visitor's center.  We only stayed up long enough to tell them goodnight - then we headed to bed ourselves, knowing that the next few nights on the ground were going to be less than comfortable.

Father's Day

I love David Gee.  He is a good man.  I mean a really good man.  Dave "gets it."  That's the best way I can describe him.  He "gets it" and he "gets me" most of the time.  He sees the big picture (way better than I do).  He has a strong testimony of the Savior and the restored gospel on the earth and he is truly the leader in our home when it comes to prayer, scripture study, and Family Home Evening.  He's very smart  - he understands a little about everything and a lot about most things.  He's also sensitive to other people's feelings (although sometimes he just doesn't care).  He has great perspective and often helps me see things in a better light than I naturally see them.  He's genuinely funny, but never at other people's expense (which is a really big deal to me).  Sometimes he drives me batty with his little everyday quirks, but even when he does, I know that he "gets it."  I am so blessed to have David in my life.

The kids are pretty blessed to have Dad in their lives too.

I think Dave had a good Father's Day this year.  He got a few bottles of Dad's Soda Pop in different flavors.  He also got new shorts and new Crocs.  Pretty exciting stuff!  I made him a delicious fancy breakfast, but that's not very different from every morning.  He always has delicious fancy breakfasts!    We both had to teach in Sunday School - Dave in Gospel Essentials and me in Gospel Doctrine, so we spent the morning practicing our lessons on each other.  That's actually really fun for us. 

Of course, you know that whatever gift you get for Father's Day has to be shared with your children. 

After church, we went to my parent's house.  Kristin's family and Scott and Katie were there too.  Katie's family came a little later.  We had stuffed manicotti, antipasto salad, bread sticks, stuffed mushrooms and sawdust salad.   It was very delicious and very rich!  For dessert, we ate Fat Boys (no pun intended).   Poor Kristin got sick after dinner.  I felt so bad for her - I got sick on lasagna once and it was not something I'd wish on anyone!  She and her family had to leave early.  The rest of us stayed and played a funny group-charade game.  I don't mean to toot my own horn but BOY!  AM I FANTASTIC!!!  Hee hee.  Sadly, I have no pictures to prove any of it.  You'll just have to believe me. 

Lagoon

My dad got super-cheap passes to Lagoon again this year (thanks, Dad!) so we all went on June 11th.

We got there in the afternoon.  Grandma Smith came with us.  Krsitin, her kids, Megan and our cousin's daughter Lindsay were already there.  The plan was to meet up with them after we spent a couple of hours in the kiddie rides.  After he got off work, David would come take Bronson and possibly Josh home and the rest of us would stay late and do the big rides.

Things got off to a great start.  The boys loved all the kiddie rides.  The lines weren't long at all and the weather was pleasant.  Can you find Nicki and Bronson on "Puff"?

Here's Josh on the "dragonfly swings."  More about Josh later...

Alison and the back of Nicki's head on a kiddie version of the "tidal wave."  Both sisters were so great about being in the kiddie section for a while.  They loved helping their brothers and showing them all the kid rides.  They were big helpers!

While we were in line for this ride, Bronson got cranky, whiny, and clingy.  I thought he was just getting hot or tired or something.  This is the "dino drop."  It takes you several feet into the air, then drops you in a free-fall.  It makes your stomach do flips!

Here we go, Alison!

I love this picture my mom took as we were going up.  There's my feet in the top right corner, then Alison's, Nicole's and Josh's.



It sure does tickle when it drops you!  The kids loved it.  Even Bronson was laughing.  But then...   we got off and my mom said, "Look!  There's no line for that ride!"   So I was rushing all my kids to get them on the ride, when suddenly, the Lagoon worker was like, "Um, he's throwing up."  I look down and sure enough, Bronson's vomiting all over the ground.  They had to shut down the ride for clean up.  Oops. 

 I took Bronny to a nearby bathroom, and got him all cleaned up.  Poor boy!  I figured he was motion sick, so I gave him half of a Dramamine pill.  It didn't help.  He threw up four more times in the two and a half hours we had to wait for Dad to come.  All the Dramamine did was make him a limp, groggy, sick boy.  Really, considering the circumstances, things went pretty well.  My mom was there to help, thankfully!  The other three kids were able to keep riding whatever they wanted and I even went on a few rides with them.  Bron just rested in his stroller and threw up into a cup occasionally.  (by the way, he was running a fever the next day and most of the rest of us got a one day bug later that week, so it wasn't motion sickness - just a poorly timed virus.)  Bless his heart.  David came as soon as he possibly could and took the sick boy home. 

I wasn't sure if Josh was old enough to stay up late and ride the big rides or not.  I decided to see how things went and play it by ear.  By the time David came for Bronson, I decided to let Josh give it a try.  Even if he didn't ride all the rides, he could hang out with Grandpa and watch the older kids.  I shouldn't have worried.  Four year old Josh rode EVERY SINGLE RIDE at Lagoon except for one and that was because I was too chicken to let him go on "Wicked."  He wanted to, but I wouldn't let him.  The fact that he's tall enough to go on those rides at age four is amazing in itself, let alone the bravery.  He was funny.  While he was on the actual ride, he was pretty straight faced and serious looking.  I would think, "Oh no. He hates it."   Then the ride would end, and he'd be like, "Let's go again!  That was awesome!"  It was so fun to watch. 

We hooked up with the other riders somewhere around dinner time.  My dad came shortly thereafter and Scott and Katie met up with us for a while as well.  We had a blast!  We rode everything we could as often as we could until the park closed.  What a fun, fun day!  It was great to listen to the kids chatter all the way home about how awesome it was and how they still felt like they were on a ride and how they couldn't wait to go again.  Of course, we all had a little "Lagoon hangover" the next day, but hat was fine because Bronson needed me to cuddle with him all day anyway.  Perfect!

We all got SOAKED on 'Rattlesnake Rapids"

Josh, Payton, Megan, Alison, Nicole, Lindsay, McKenna.

Let The Good Times Roll

I LOVE summer!  I love having my kids home all day!  I love the heat (as long as I have an air conditioned home).  I love all the watermelon and corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes!  I love warm, light nights and early morning gardening sessions.  It's just such a great, laid back, tasty time of year!

One of the first things I did this summer was implement a chore chart for the kiddos.  I made a list for each child on a piece of paper, which I slipped in a sheet protector and taped to the fridge.  As the kids do their jobs, they use a dry erase marker to cross them off.  Every morning, we wipe off the chart and start over.

It's not very complex or difficult for them to follow, but it sure makes a huge difference in our home!  The rule is, we don't play or turn on the TV until our chores are done.  It's been great to watch little Joshua take his chores so seriously.  He is often nearly finished with his list before the girls even get our of bed!  I love having the house tidied up early in the morning (they're almost always done by 9:00 or 9:30) and to feel perfectly comfortable saying "yes' when they ask if they can play with a friend or watch a show or if we can go swimming, etc.  I REALLY love the "special assignment from mom" chore.  This helps me get projects or piano practice sessions tackled.  Sometimes I just give them "kiss mom" as a special assignment.  I still don't get my "chores" done until bed time (if I'm lucky) but at least I'm only doing MY chores!  My chore list is always 20+ items long and includes things like visiting teaching, laundry, and catching up on my blog.

Our kids play together quite a bit.  They usually play school, and sometimes they make up plays.  Sometimes they dance to music together or play "London Bridges" type games.  It seems like many of their games end in a fight - they just like different things and have different playing styles, but they try.  Here is a picture of a costume Nicki made for Bronson one morning.  He's so handsome!

You can't really tell how big his belly is, but he's got a big blanet stuffed in his PJs.  Nicki told me not to worry - she drew on herself first to make sure the marker would wash off.

One morning in June, I took the girls with me to a free Sunrise Zumba class.  Nicki thought it was fun, but Alison fought it tooth-and-nail.  She really channelled her inner teenager and made sure everyone around knew that she wasn't pleased to be there.  It was an impressive display of dissatisfaction.  It kind of made me laugh - and I'm pleased to announce that she survived the experience.  Nicki started out liking it, but the dances were a little more difficult than they'd been last year, so she got frustrated with it too.  I for one thought it was a blast. 

So far this summer, we've had lots of fun.  We've gone to the free lunch program or free movie programs once or twice, and we go swimming two or three times per week (I've got to remember my camera one of these times), but most of the time we just play at home or in the neighborhood with friends and each other.  Of course, when we're home, I'm painting.  That's super fun too.  not.  Let the good times roll!

Last Day Of School!

Our girls' last day of school was June 7th.  That seems pretty late, but I kind of like it because it's not that summery until June anyways.   They start school later in the year too, which I also love. 

Of course, the last day of school is always a blast.  They pretty much spend the entire day playing and signing each other's year books.  I think each girl had a few friends they were sad to say goodbye to -  they promised to get together throughout the summer.  They were also given their teacher assignments for next year, so there was a lot of comparing with their friends and worrying about what next year will be like.  But mostly, they were just excited to be done with school and its regimen for a while.  Me too, honestly!

Our first summer celebration was that very night!  Grandpa Smith and Brian Holt share the same birthday and my mom hosted a party for them.  Grandma Church, Aunt Sue and Bob and Uncle Mike's family all came too.  Mike's son, Steven (one of the twins) lives in Italy with the military.  He just got married this past year to a beautiful woman named Daniella whom we'd never met.  They were visiting America, so we all wanted to see Steve and meet his new wife.  We had a great night.  As you can imagine, we ate unbelievable amounts of extraordinary food.  We also had fun watching the birthday boys open their presents and many MANY funny cards.  Then we played a few games in my parents back yard.  It was a great night. 

Look how cute Megan is!

Mom and the birthday boys!  Uncle Mike and my cousin, Mark's daughter, Lindsay are in the background.

Cute little birthday present.

Me, Katie, Steven, Daniella, Kristin, Ken, Scott, Mark. 

 This game is affectionately referred to in our family as "the bouncy ball game."  It is the butt of many a joke because the whole point of the game is to keep a ball in the air for as long as possible.  It seems simple and maybe even a little silly, but once you get going and you reach a high number, it gets pretty intense.  And there is always plenty of laughter while we play.  When we started playing, Mike's kids sad, "Hey.  This is Grandpa Church's game!"  I don't remember if this game came from him or not, but I wouldn't be surprised.  Grandpa was the kind of man who could take a ball and make a simple game that everyone, no matter age or skill level, could play together and have a great time.