SEPTEMBER 2010

LAST SUMMER SPLASH WITH THE COUSINS

Draper Community Swimming Pool
Grandpa John showing the boys how to squirt the water
Collin taking a big jump

Sydney also taking the jump off the board
After swimming we went to a restaurant where we were trying to keep the kids entertained while paying the bill/They played the freezing game (who holds still the longest)

Dresden and Collin were more interested in their suckers

Logan and Sydney definitely won this one!

AFTER BEING IN THE RAIN ON OUR TRIP TO JACKSON HOLE AND YELLOWSTONE WE NEEDED TO DRY OUT THE TENT

The cousins got to have a sleep over that night in the tent

Next morning, Grandpa was still asleep.......He was a great babysitter for the kids!

Logan & Dresden love their cat, Lady

Uncle Jay helped take down the tent......oops do-overs Grandpa left the lantern hanging in the tent

Aunt Natalie jumping on the tramp with the kids

AUGUST 28th & 29th YELLOWSTONE

SECOND PART OF OUR TRIP WITH JOHN'S PARENTS

Our trip to Yellowstone was great, we enjoyed the beautiful park and awesome wild life. The one wild animal I was glad not to encounter was the bear. I thought I had made it through without having a bear in our camp, but the last night of our trip I swore there was a bear in the camp.....at least my imagination thought so. I could hear loud crunching noises just like a wild animal getting into someones cereal box, it woke me up and I froze in my cot, my heart never pounded so hard. Every time I got the courage to wake up John the noise would stop. John would fall back to sleep and then the noise would start all over again. This went on all night. John thinks the noise was a mouse.....I know it was not, mice don't make that big of a noise, but I have come to the conclusion it was either the bison, deer or maybe the very busy little squirrel who was gathering up his winter supply while we were watching him the day before. When we got home I was told by Natalie that there were only 3 bear attacks in Yellowstone this summer......that was reassuring! Glad she didn't tell me that before the trip.

THE TETONS WERE BEAUTIFUL

JENNY LAKE (ON THE WAY TO YELLOWSTONE)

JOHN CHECKING OUT THE LAKE

DONNA DOWN BY ANOTHER PART OF THE LAKE
ARRIVING AT OLD FAITHFUL
The park just opened up a new information building at Old Faithful, the building was only 4 days old.
The inside was beautiful, they had an observation window that we could look out and see Old Faithful. The weather was a little chilly that day, so it was nice to be behind closed windows in a warm environment.

NO MATTER WHAT TIME OF YEAR OLD FAITHFUL HAS A CROWD OF ADMIRERS
It was windy, rainy and cold, so the geyser was a little more foggy as it exploded out of it's hole.

PEEK-A-BOO?!! VERY FUNNY JOHN

THE CHILDREN'S EXPERIMENT ROOM IN THE NEW BUILDING
This experiment is showing the children how the geyser works


AT DUSK
We set up camp after the rain subsided for a minute, John and I left Grandpa & Grandma back at camp in their trailer while we took a ride. Funny that we did not see one animal when we first arrived in the park. Grandpa Bill was disappointed in that, but as soon as we left them we saw a bunch of wild animals. The most prominent was the bison (Buffalo) they were everywhere including the road, holding up traffic.

THE NEXT DAY

THIS WAS A MUD POT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD

THE UPPER FALLS

THE LOWER FALLS, CHECK OUT THE YELLOW MOUNTAINS, HENCE THE NAME, YELLOWSTONE


ENTRANCE INTO THE PARK FROM MONTANA
We took a ride over the border into Montana for lunch

WE HAD DEER AND BISON WONDERING AROUND THE CAMPGROUND
John went for a walk and sat down on a log only a few feet away from these deer.

I THINK THIS WAS PROBABLY THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP FOR JOHN

AUGUST 26th & 27th JACKSON HOLE

WE FINALLY MADE IT TO JACKSON HOLE WITH JOHN'S PARENTS

NO INJURIES!

We took Grandpa Bill, Grandma Ellen and Nippy to Jackson Wyoming. Grandpa was so excited to show us all of his favorite hang outs. His most favorite place was the Bar J Ranch, it was a dinner and a show. We arrived on Thursday night, grandma and I were dropped off early at the ranch to save seats. Who knew that you had to come four hours in advance to get the good seats. John and grandpa went to find us a camping spot while we waited. The food was cafeteria style, we had to stand in line to get our food and then we had to stand in line to clean off our plates and hand them to the dishwasher. Maybe it was just that night, but our food wasn't as good as we had anticipated. Our steaks were tough and our baked potatoes were hard as a rock. But the entertainment made up for the disappointment in the food. I had a hard time enjoying the music because the lady next to me was so shocked that John and I were actually sleeping in a tent. She had me so afraid, I never have liked sleeping in a tent knowing I was in bear country, so I was already unhappy about being in a tent, but now I was very unhappy! But I survived! The next day we drove around Jackson hole and enjoyed the scenery. That night we talked Grandpa and Grandma into seeing a play. We enjoyed the play, we were very fortunate to get front row seats because of a last minute cancellation. Couldn't have asked for more!

BAR J

ENTRANCE INTO THE DINNING HALL

LOVED THE BEARS
(NOT REAL)!

WAITING IN LINE

AND INSIDE THE DINNING HALL

GRANDMA SETTING UP

THE COWBOY SINGERS

OUR CAMPSITE

MORMON ROW (TETONS IN THE BACKGROUND)

GRANDPA & GRANDMA AT THE MUSEUM

&
JOHN INSIDE THE MUSEUM

WE HAD A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE CLOSE UPS OF THIS MOOSE

THERE WAS SO MUCH BEAUTY AND WILD ANIMALS TO SEE

MY FAVORITE PART OF JACKSON HOLE WAS THE MELODRAMA

AUGUST..VEGGIE GARDEN & PLANS FOR A SECRET GARDEN

WE ARE ENJOYING OUR VEGETABLE GARDEN, BUT..........Can you see how much unused property we have in our back yard? Where are all those home and garden improvement people who want to do your yard for free and you get to be on television?!!!! Not going to happen, I know, but I can dream can't I. We do have ideas brewing in our heads about turning our sandy dirt into a secret garden. It may take us a few years, John's big garage should come first and it might take up a lot of the space. A small veggie & flower garden sounds good to me.

We checked out Thanksgiving Point where they have beautiful gardens, we loved their secret garden, here are a few pictures of it.

We want our garden to have lots of colorful perennials and or course some kind of water feature with a bridge.......are we over doing it?

It would be nice to also have some sort of entrance
into our garden. These are pictures of the entrance into the Secret Garden at Thanksgiving point.

The 13th East project is still going on in our neighborhood, they are suppose to build a wall in our back yard as part of their beautification project. We are excited to have a wall for aesthetic reasons as well as privacy. I would like to have ivy growing on our walls.



We took Dresden and Logan with us to Thanksgiving Point and when we were at the water conservation garden we met up with Natalie, Collin and Sydney.

















While at Sandy's water conservation garden, we and got a lot of ideas, we took tons of pictures at both places, to help our memory. It's a big dream, but we hope we can complete it someday.