Family Vacation #2 Yellowstone here we come

We took the family up to Yellowstone our last few days of our Vacation and stayed in a Yurt.  We had a blast and it didn't really feel like we were camping we had mattresses on the beds beds and the bathroom had warm water in the showers.  Very nice.  When we got to West Yellowstone we played in the river and took the boys to the Bear Discovery Center.  Our first night we were awakened by coyotes howling in the distance at 4 am.  The next morning we took the boys river rafting and had a blast.  The river water was freezing but it felt great after being in the heat.   Then our last

day in Yellowstone we toured all of the fun sites.  Glad we were able to go.

 

 

We slept in these.  Luxurious tents with beds. 

 

Playing in the river outside West Yellowstone.

 

 

 

Looking for flat skipping rocks.  The boys learned how to skip rocks on this trip.  Isaiah loved it.  He couldn't stop finding rock to skip.

 

The river was cold.  Braxton braving the chilliness.

 

 

 

Grizzly Discovery Center.  Bear foraging for food that was hidden by the keepers so that we could see how they hunt for food.  The small river is stocked with live fish and we were able to see them fishing. 

 

Wolf at the Discovery Center

 

It started down pouring while we were there, and Isaiah found a nice safe bear cave to stay dry in.

 

 

Papa bear and my two cubs!

 

 

 

 

 

Braxton riding the bull and loving it!

 

 

Nice!

 

 

Getting ready for another big one

 

 

 

Yellowstone at 6 am

 

 

 

Beautiful, but stinky!

 

 

 

Waiting for Old Faithful

 

 

Finally!

 

 

Fox hunting a mouse!

 

 

Black Bear #1 He is about 2 years old and was just kicked out of his mother's den this year.  We saw two.  This little guy was just so much closer than the other one.

 

 

Nice way to end our Yellowstone adventure.  Seeing elk along the road.

 

 

 

Family Vacation that we didn't want to finish!

We had so much fun visiting Utah for a month.  It had been almost three years that we have seen our family and we were so glad that we were able to visit.  We were able to do so many fun things.  Syracuse Family Fun Center, Fishing and more fishing with Grandpa, Bowling, Trips to the park, Sewing, Boondocks, The Aquarium, Movies, Swimming, Surf-N-Swim, Timpanogos Caves, Seven Peaks Water Park, Fireworks and Parades, Rainbow Runs, Marble Wars and lots for cherry eating from Uncle Matt's tree, shopping, hiking and just getting cousin time.  What a fun trip we had.  It was very hard to leave because we were having such a great time. 

 

 

 

 

Best Buddy Cousins

 

 

Swimming fun

 

 

March of the Penguins 

 

 

 

Aquarium Time

I Max 4D theater

 

 

Girls Spa Night

 

 

Bubbles...

 

 

 

 

And more bubbles.

 

 

Buddies

 

 

Dancing in the Street

 

Pampering Grandma for her birthday

 

????

 

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa with al the grandkids.

 

Another Reason we love NC

Meet Warty!  Braxton found him under our grill. Braxton is now out in the back collecting bugs for him to eat.  NC is so boy friendly, that the boys never really get bored of having anything to do

What a mess!

Our 5 cute birds are now very big.  We love them, and they are definitely fun to watch, but I am ready for them to move on.  What amazes me is that they have all been potty trained and don't make a mess in the nest.  We scrubbed the stairs about a week ago and I guess it just needs to be done every day, or they can just move and I won't have any messes any more.   

big mess for such small animals.

They are so big they now can't really fit into the nest very comfortably. See the one in the front hiding from me.  He's just a big baby.  Hehe!  A few have even been trying out their wings, so maybe they are just about to move away.

Memorial quick get-a way

We decided Thursday afternoon that we were going to be going down to the beach.  Brandon got the day off and we asked the boys if they were going to be very upset if we took them out of school to go to the beach.  We went to Wrightsville Beach and had a blast.  We didn't even have a room reserved before we left and thank goodness we had to stay in a hotel for almost 2 months.  We got to use our points and this hotel was free for the night.  Sweet!  We would have rather stayed over a few more nights but duties called us at church so we had to head back Saturday afternoon.

View from the hotel

Water was a little cold at first, but the boys got used to it.

Happy for getting to skip school.

This is how Isaiah spent most of his day!

Riding the waves

Racing brothers.  No, the outdoor pool and the beach weren't enough for these two boys they still needed more water time.

USS North Carolina

Manning the guns

Excited to be able to think about shooting something.

These were big enough that each boy could have been shot out of it like a projectile.

Isaiah's side moved the guns up and down.

Braxton's moved left to right.  So they both had to work together as a team to get these guns moving.  And If it would have been loaded the airplane flying past would have been shot down.  They both had it in their scopes.

That is one huge anchor!

Sick I know!  He was up before I knew what was going on, but he got to experience sleeping on a bunk on a ship of sailor.  They are 4 high and about 6-8 of these in each of the little sections of the ship.

Over all we had a nice relaxing time and needed it so much as our life still hasn't slowed down.  We are so ready for our lives to be...

Happy Lady

We are getting there with moving into our house.  Brandon has been hard at work outside and has finished his big project.  It looks great and I couldn't be happier.  He has been working on a retaining wall/planter borders for the front yard. 

Brandon will be helping our neighbor build his retaining wall as well.  The neighbor's wife told her husband that our side looks better than theirs, so the middle section between our two houses will eventually match.

Grass is going to have to be babied for a while.  Our renters didn't take the best care of it.

 

My car now fits into the garage.  I have a feeling that by this weekend Brandon's will too.

Isaiah has never had  a really cool room and so this time, we decided to make it happen.  He loves music and so I decided to make him a rock and roll room.  It has turned out pretty cute and he is super happy with it.  I still have a few posters to get and hand but for the most part it is completed.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  Braxton's is going to have to wait until next month when I get his quilt made, but I think that he is going to be happy with his too.



We really love our yard as it is a total boy paradise.  A few weeks ago I was startled because I thought that our hose was broken.  We had this massive thing crawling in our yard.

I think that this is a rat snake.  He was about 5 feet long, and as big around as a hose. 

When we moved back into our house we had two visitors who made themselves at home on our little porch.  They stayed sitting on the ledge for about a month until finally the mom was left sitting on this little mud nest.  they are some pretty smart birds because the place that they picked is safe from all of the elements and most of the time the birds are left alone unless I am doing what was done in the picture below).

This is what is happening now.  They should be hatching any day. 


So we are just about settled and have a feeling of accomplishment.  Now we are ready to have a great summer.