It's a Guy Thing

Carter and his brother Boyd have a yearly tradition - every August just before school starts up again they take a long weekend and head for the mountains by Stanley. They hike, fish, camp, fish, float the river, fish, and live on granola bars and creek water. Okay, I made up the last part, but you never know. Carter really looks forward to this trip, and they had a terrific time. Here are some of the highlight photos.








This is Boyd. Did I mention he's single, in med school, and very sweet? (Sorry, Boyd's going to kill me.)











Oops! How did that salmon get on my line??










Up on top of the world. My feet ache just looking at that hike. Down to the right is one of the lakes they fished. I'm not sure even a monster fish would be worth that much exertion to me. I guess that's why I'm never invited on these trips. What a beautiful view!

Just Because He Cracks Me Up

Brennan is at a hillarious age. Every day he pops out with a new word, and he gets so indignant when he isn't treated just like the other BIG kids. And busy...One of these days I'm going to follow him around with a camera all day and post a blog called "A Day In the Life of Brennan." His little face just makes me smile.







Now I'm going to get brave and try to add a little video. Brennan has the funniest way of coming down the stairs. He is FAST, too. I think he could beat anyone in the family down. Again, this just cracks me up.

Whew!!

Turns out my mistake was fix-able after all. Well, live and learn. I'd like to say I won't botch up the whole blog again, but I'm sure I probably will. Give me time. I'm glad to be up and running again. Now that the summer is over with all its trips and adventures, I kind of look forward to blogging some normal, around-the-house life. I've been feeling a little sentimental lately. It seems my children are growing right before my eyes. I've stopped feeding them, but it hasn't helped.

oops!

Okay, the blog is under construction. I tried to change the background and for a few minutes I deleted the whole she-bang. This HTML code is a pain in the rear. It may take me a few days to restore anything normal here. Sorry, all the links are a.w.o.l.

Adventures in Yellowstone

Our last big fling of the summer was a trip to Yellowstone with Grandma and Grandpa. (Loughneys - we missed you guys). In some ways the trip turned out a little more eventful than we might have hoped, but it was wonderful!


Here are some of the highlights:

Grandma's baggy omelets, the kids hiding food for the grizzly bears and watching them find it (in Bear World), the PlayMill Theatre, Old Faithful, spying buffalo...

The Wildlife:


The Scenery:










We hiked down a STEEP trail with many hundred stairs to see this view of the waterfall. The kids were troopers, and it was worth the effort. Breathtaking! Imagine this view and feeling the ground thundering under you from the force of the river. I took the picture of the rainbow about half-way down. My photography doesn't do it justice. These were all taken in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

The Geisers:



Lower Geiser Basin (above) and Makenna at Artists Paint Pots (below).



The character-building moments:

Daily rain.

Daily car trouble. We had to borrow jumper-cables every time we turned off the car until Bob figured out what was going on. Thanks, Bob!

A Super-Storm ripped through Henry's Lake, demolished our tent beyond repair, blew our belongings all over the campground, and soaked EVERYTHING! But it could have been so much worse. We weren't in camp when it happened, thank goodness. Luckily we were able to sleep that night in a cute little cabin that had just become available, and we slept in sleeping bags borrowed from campers all around us. Their kindness and generosity amazed us. We cut the camping short by one night and traveled back to stay with relatives in Idaho Falls.

Memories of happy times with people we love...