Island Park and Yellowstone

We just got back from our trip to Island Park and Yellowstone.  I found a deal for a cabin up in Island Park and we left last Tuesday.

Our cabin was great!  2 bedrooms down, 2 bedrooms up and a loft.












 There was a full kitchen and living room

and Jacob's favorite part--the HOT TUB!  It is where he wanted to head EVERYDAY when we got back.












We arrived Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, after sleeping in (yea!) we headed off to Yellowstone. 



Island Park is just outside of West Yellowstone and we had planned to head in, go up to Norris and then on to Mammoth.  We got to the Madison junction and headed north.  Our first stop was to see some of the thousands of hot pots there at the park.

It is so amazing to see them bubbling right out of the ground!

Jacob kept telling us he wanted to see the exploding water....Jason had told him we would be seeing that on our trip.  So instead of doing the north loop that day we headed southward towards Old Faithful.  

What an amazing sight.  We were able to see it go off twice...once when we arrived and again after we had hiked around the Old Faithful area and seen the visitors center (which Jacob loved because it had interactive exhibits). 

             Our little hiker

 More geysers around Old Faithful

Morning Glory hot pot (copied from interet)

All during the hike Jacob would tell us it was time to go back to the cabin and get in the hot tub--we heard this statement from him for about 3 hours. 

By the time we were finished hiking it was about 5 p.m.   We got an ice cream and then headed back. 





On the way we stopped and saw the Grand Prismatic.  It is a large hot pot and is actually seen better from the air.  With all the steam rising it was hard to get a good picture so I copied this from the internet

Yellowstone park is huge and it takes a lot of time to drive in and around it.  So by the time we got home it was close to 6:30....we made dinner and then hopped into the hot tub and Jacob was in heaven!! 

Thursday morning we headed in and went across to Canyons Village.  We got out to look at the falls...the minute we were out of the car Jacob (who had seen how much we had walked the day before) started to say, "Lets go back to the car and see the visitor center with the kid's section."   He did not want to be out and hiking and was not happy, 

 but we managed to cajole him in to the hike down to the "Brink of the lower falls."  It is a switchback that lowers about 600 feet and you stand at the top where the falls go over and fall into the canyon.  It was spectacular!!!

Picture of the Lower falls as we were hiking down the switchback.

The river flowing toward the falls.











The Brink of the Lower Falls

                                                                        


                                        The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone--it is so beautiful!

 

Then we headed to the visitors center and all was well with the world again for Jacob. 

After a late lunch here we headed towards home, but stopped to see the Brink of the Upper Falls.  I didn't think it was as spectacular as the Lower Falls, but what struck me as funny is that as we are looking at these Falls Jacob says, "Can we keep looking at other Falls too?"  Singing a different tune from earlier that morning!!

Friday we went up to Mammoth Hot Springs.  On the way we stopped and saw Gibbon Falls.

We did a short hike around the Hot Springs  and then headed to what???? 















The next visitor center!

On the way back from Mammoth we stopped by the Artists Paint Pots and saw some of the mud pots.

You can't see them bubbling too much in this picture, but they were cool to look at.











Yellowstone is beautiful!  We also saw a female elk (my camera battery was dead by that point) and a bison.

The highlight for me was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.   

For Jason it was seeing all of it. 









For Jacob it was the hot tub, the visitor centers and the signs all around the park.  He is very much into trying to read signs right now, of any sort (which is great), but that is what seemed to interest him at times.
                We joked that he would have been happy to visit a "sign museum."

Another interesting part of Yellowstone is the lodge pole pine trees.  I have heard of them before, but had never really seen one.  They are all over the park and grow straight and tall.  I can see why they use them for log homes.

What a fun trip!  I was not ready to come home to normal life and was on the internet last night trying to plan some of our trips for next year!!!

Swim Lessons

This year Jacob started swimming lessons.  Last year we had taken a children's music class during the winter and one of the moms was talking about swimming etc.   I asked about it and she said that her family had a swim school and had been teaching for years.  I was going to try it last summer, but then Jacob broke his arm and we couldn't do it. 

I loved the lessons and Jacob learned a lot.  We did 2 sessions of 2 weeks each and Jacob's classes had about 6 kids and 2 instructors--that worked so well.  They are soooo good with the kids and it helped Jacob with putting his face in the water and jumping in.








Learning to use the paddle board.







 I also saw friends who's kids go there and my friends actually took lessons from this family when they were children!

Jason's Birthday and our Hikes of the Summer

Jason's b-day was in June--about 2 weeks after Father's Day.  In some ways it makes it easy--I can shop for both all in one trip, but then I have to decide what to give him and when. 

This year I went with the shirt theme since it has been about 5 years since the last time I updated his work wardrobe for his birthday.  :) 







He was thrilled as you can see here in the picture.






I also made a cake.  He wanted a lemon cake with chocolate frosting and he wanted it to be round.  I can make a cake without problems and I have a good frosting recipe, but the frosting was a little thin and this is what it did to the cake.

It slowly started to slide apart. 

There was nothing I did that would stop it.  Oh well, it tasted good. 


We also have been on a couple of hikes.  One was to Cecret Lake.

The other hike was to Rocky Mouth...it is a short hike up off of Wasatch Blvd.

There is a really pretty waterfall at the top and water you can wade around it.  Nice and cool!!

Girl's Weekend

It has taken me forever to get back to posting!  By evening, when I usually have some time, I am hot and tired! 

Back in April Jason went on his annual trip, with college friends, down to Moab.  I like the fact that he gets to go and do something like that, but I hate that I am here by myself.  I am not one of those wives who love it when their husband leaves so they can do their own thing....never understood that one. 

Anyway, when he was planning his trip he suggested that I plan a trip in the summer with some friends and go down to Tuachan. 

Jason and I like to go there, but with Jacob it doesn't work out yet.  I thought about it and wanted to go, but I needed to pick friends, with whom I could go and be comfortable.  Be able to do our own thing, hang out together and not have to "entertain" someone.  So I chose my college roommates Lisa and Inez.  I have known these girls nearly 30 years (since our freshman year) and they are sooo easy to be with.

We drove down on a Friday in June and arrived in St. George around 5 p.m.  We checked in to our hotel, had dinner and then headed out to Tuachan to see Aladdin.

 It was a very well done play and the weather was hot, but not unbearable. 



The next morning I got up, exercised, had breakfast and then went back to the room and the 3 of us went down to the pool.  You know you're getting old when "laying out by the pool" means, keep your chair in the shade so you don't get burned or further leatherize your (once what you thought was invincible) skin.  We talked,

read books,

put our feet in the water.

So nice!!!

We showered and then headed out to see the Brigham Young summer home and the tabernacle.  It is fun to see the history behind the buildings!  Later, after dinner, we stopped at the Osh Kosh outlet and bought a few things.  Or I should say that Inez and I bought a few things and Lisa stocked her granddaughter's closet for the rest of the summer!  :)

Before heading back to our room we decided to try and find the church we would go to before heading home on Sunday.  The next day we went to the church and arrived a little before 9 a.m.  As we were walking towards the door, an older sister, who was getting out of her car, said, "Sing pretty."  We thought that was a little strange, but when we got into the building the chapel was not filled and Sacrament meeting was not starting, but the choir was practicing...it then dawned on us that this was Stake Conf.  Luckily we were in Utah and could drive a few miles (we couldn't go to the surrounding buildings since they are in the same Stake) to another building and attend Sacrament meeting. 

Going home, if you stop at the south most Beaver exit, there is a Chevron where they pump the gas for you!!  It was great.  We took these pictures there.

We were ready to head home to see our families, but not quite ready to head back to our lives.  We would have preferred having them come down to meet us for a few more days.  But it was so nice to get away and not have to take care of anyone but us!!   So great to spend time with Lisa and Inez!!