On our way back home we decided to stop in Rexburg to see our nephew. Neither Jerry or I had been back there since we graduated. I had heard about how much it had changed and I kind of expected to see something totally different, but there was a lot that was still the same. The part that was weird was that I couldn't remember everything about being there. It actually felt like it had been 20 years since I was there. That was not a good feeling!
Even though it felt the same, there were definitely a lot of things that were different. Like this demolished building was my old dorm. How sad!!
And the new temple was right across the street from where my dorm was. I ran up the hill in front of it all the time for workouts!
A trip to Rexburg definitely had to include a stop at the track. Doug lives right across from it so that's where we met him. They haven't done any upgrades on the track since I was there. That was kind of sad, it was in kind of bad shape and pretty much felt like I was running on concrete.
But that didn't stop me from running a lap around it with Kate. I was so glad she wanted to run with me!
Royalcrest...where I lived my second year. So much fun here. Way more fun than should have been allowed! That's all I'll say about that...
It was so fun to see Doug. I love seeing all my nieces and nephews grow up!
So we've been trying to make it to all five Utah National Parks. The only one left is Capitol Reef. I really really want to go so we planned to go Mother's Day weekend. We got a new family tent for Christmas and we all wanted to try it out. Unfortunately, the weather was just not cooperating, cool and rainy all weekend. If it were just Jerry and I, I still would have gone, but I didn't want to make it miserable for the kids. I was so bummed. But at the last minute, Jerry thought of Yellowstone and with a hook-up at the WorldMark from his parents, it all came together and we went there instead. It was still cool, but not having to camp in it made it all ok!
We were so excited to see a bison. They are huge animals. There are also a lot of them. They are amazing to watch move.
"Watch out for bison poop" became a mantra of the trip!
We also saw a swan.
Ok, so. I've never been to Yellowstone and I never really paid attention to what it was all about. The most I really knew about it had to do with snowmobiling through it in the winter. I feel like a dork for saying this, but I didn't know all about the geothermal activity in the park. I mean I knew about Old Faithful, but I thought it was just a random geyser and I had no idea about all the amazing things there. So, I was pretty shocked when we started seeing everything.
Mud pots were fun to watch. They seemed like something right out of Star Wars.
Petrified mud, or something.
Jerry was the only one who had ever been there. We were all loving it!
We loved seeing where the hot water met the cold river.
And we just continued to be amazed at all the colors. It was so beautiful.
Old Faithful. It had a little puff once and then nothing for a long time. We thought that was it. I was totally disappointed. And then we saw the real thing. Awesome!
Being normal...mostly
and then erupting!
We saw a coyote, but we pretended it was a wolf.
A major eruption!
All the different things we saw were just so amazing and not like anything else we'd ever seen. We couldn't get enough of it!
Gibbon Falls
Mammoth Hot Springs
We really wanted to see a bear and we did!! It was a grizzly no less. I had never seen a grizzly in the wild before. We were, of course, hoping it would get up and walk around, but it never did. It was just laying there and would occasionally lift it's head. That was pretty awesome!
We loved seeing the mama bison with their babies. We did not put any bison calves in our car.
Although they were close enough, we could have!
The Little Grand Canyon. I love seeing this kind of rock throughout the west.
Lower Falls. Totally amazing.
We absolutely loved our trip and were so glad that it all worked out so that we could go. It was last minute and that was part of the fun! We didn't tell our kids where we were going, but they guessed it fairly quickly into the drive. I know they won't remember all that they saw, but I hope that they remember being together!
We love having friends over! My friend asked me to watch her little girl all day five days a week, which I really didn't want to do, but I knew it would be fun for Abby. So we have Charlotte over every day. Some days are really fun, other days are not, but it is good for Abby to learn to share and get along. If they can find a toy to play with that they both agree on, it's a good day. Luckily, they both had fun with the trains for a day.
And we get to go hiking and invite other friends, like Brent, along.
Brent's mom and I swap babysitting a lot. Abby is more than a year older than him and likes to pretend to be his big sister. They actually play pretty well together!
And some days, it's just Abby and she gets to snuggle with her dog. She is the only one that Tulo will let squeeze his paws. He's very tolerant of her and she always looks out for him!
She doesn't love when he gets in her castle, but she puts up with it! He can't stay out of it. Silly dog!
Since I got my new board, we had to ski a few more times before the season was over. We had to go to Snowbird because everywhere else was closed and we didn't have to deal with all the crowds, but we still had some spring storms that left some fun corn snow! Good times.
I also got to spend a day with just Kate and Sara. They were really fun by the end of the season. This last day was one of our favorites. Kate and I raced down and she beat me down. She was barely in control, but she did well. She thought she was pretty cool for beating me!
I have to admit that I'm really loving this stage of life where Jerry and I can leave our kids home for a bit. We really wanted to go hiking one day, but the kids didn't want to and it was kind of rainy so we didn't force them and instead just left them! It is fun to get to explore places that maybe aren't quite as easy for our kids. Have I said before that I love Utah?
We headed up to Bells Canyon. We've driven past the parking lot for years and always seen it packed, but we'd never been up it. The trail goes up to a small reservoir and then continues up along the stream to some waterfalls. It was really pretty and not many people were out.
I love messing around with him! What a dork he is!
We loved watching the storm come across the valley. We got wet, but not too bad. The kids said it rained crazy hard at our house. It was great weather for hiking, but I'm not sure they would have loved it. Fun times!
