Black Friday

I absolutely LUV Black Friday. I love the rush, and energy and the amazingly great deals! Daniel says that something comes over me around 9pm Thanksgiving Day. It's so fun. This year was totally awesome we stayed out ALL Night Long, and all day long...I basically stayed up for about 39 hours and was so utterly and completely exhausted, my bed never looked so good! Angels sang when my head hit the pillow. But as an avid Black Friday Shopper there are some rules everyone needs to know.

So here are the Ten Commandments of Black Friday!

1- Thou Shalt Have a Plan
2- Thou Shalt Wear Good, Comfortable, Supportive Shoes
3- Thou Shalt Not Take a Cart, Unless you have a designated person with a cart whom stays out of the way!
4- Thou Shalt Go as a Group (besides it's more fun that way)
5- Thou Shalt Have Designated Items For Each Person to Retrieve (ie: 1-gets DVDs 2-gets games, etc...)
6- Thou Shalt Not Whine
7- Thou Shalt Never be a Line Jumper! (at Target you will be thrust from the store or arrested depending on how far you push security)
8- Thou Shalt Keep Your Ads With You at ALL Times
9- Thou Shalt Have FUN, if you don't get what you came out for oh well, no big deal, If you do get what you were after...You So Totally Rock!
10- Thou Shalt Get Out of MY Way! :)

Happy Shopping!

Daniel

Yeah! Daniel has a job, he started on Monday, and is completely thrilled about the great benefits of working for the state. The only problem with the new job is that I no longer have a babysitter for Carter and McKinley. Everyone has been blessed with work right now, and thus there are no babysitters, for two adorable children for three hours a day. Anyway we are happy that he's working. It makes Christmas less than dire for us. Anyway the reason for this post is because one I haven't posted lately and two we have baby pictures of Daniel. We haven't ever had any to see and the last gathering the Tates' had an Aunt had brought her photo album and there he was all chunky and rolls to behold, but the funny thing was that he looked exactly like McKinley (or is it the other way around). So check out Daniels baby pics:

Doesn't McKinley look like that baby...

Playing in the sand at Antelope Island

What a cute little boy

I'm sorry but check out Brian's hair... and that cute little boy in his lap eating...that's where my kids getting playing with their feet and eating.

So there you have it, Daniels baby pics. Anyway not much for this post but it's beginning to be that time of year where there's all the hustle and bustle. Programs to attend, treats to bake, food to eat, time with relatives (could be good or bad), and everything else life throws at you. Well I have to go get things in order for the birthday fun since Madison will be 6 on FRIDAY! Where has the time gone...well that's a whole other post. Until next time...

Hair Cut

Okay I have an announcement to make...I was brave. Not just any kind of brave, the brave that mom's fear, the day their child becomes independent and knows what she wants and how she wants it. Madison wanted to get her hair cut short like mine. There was absolutely no way! I have NOT cut her hair since she was born (other than the occasional trim of the split ends). She has been pestering me and pestering me about cutting her hair. And I must admit that brushing the tangles and snarls out of her hair and having her cry HUGE crocodile tears was not pleasant for either party involved. So then having Daniel home and having him hear the morning routine, he started pestering me about it. Saying "it's just hair"...and for any mother who has any child born with no hair knows that... it is NOT JUST HAIR! This hair symbolizes alot ...like when she was a baby and people asked you what your baby is, you can now plainly see that she is a girl! with beautiful golden straight hair that comes down almost to her butt. I love her hair. You can do so many things with long hair... piggy tails, pony tails, all sorts of braids, you can have it curly, flat, kinky, twisted. However I slowly came to a conclusion that long hair for her wasn't fun, she would like it flat with nothing in it, but she's still an active girl and being outside running, playing, riding scooters and bikes her hair would come in a complete mess, and that's when we would brush her hair again and the tears would inevitably come. It would break my heart, a mom doesn't enjoy her kids crying, especially over hair. I bawled when Madison cut her own hair and she was then given bangs...that was a year and a half ago.

So now Daniel is pestering me, and Madison. Then Daniel pulled out the stops by saying "you know she could donate it." How sweet and tender to be able to give to someone in need, and who am I to deny my child that gift of giving. Dang it all Daniel! So I resigned to the fact that we were going to let Madison cut her hair, as long as she donated it. So we hopped on the Locks of Love website and explained to Madison all about cancer, and how this illness and the medicine made the little girls hair fall out and how sad she would be without any hair. We showed her pictures of patients, and pictures of how they donate it to make wigs. She was ecstatic about it. That was what she wanted to do. So now we have the task of setting an appointment and actually going through with it. So last week we called and set the appointment with Penny. (She does my hair and nails, Lindsay's hair and nails, and Karen's hair.)

So today is the day at 1:00 we head to Penny's with a car full of mostly excited people. I'm still not sure about this.
Here's our before pictures:

getting ready in the chair.

Penny gets her in the booster and puts her hair in a pony tail and measures it. Then she gets the scissors. There's only a split second left to turn back. I'm screaming STOP! NO! DON'T DO IT! oh wait that's all in my head...however I am holding my breath and might pass out. Breath Jennifer remember it's only hair and it will grow back.

There's no going back now.


Here it is her golden locks of hair and yes...sniff...I'm doing okay


Now its in the talented hands of Penny.

Have to have a picture with our talented stylist. SO CUTE!
Would you just look at that smile, she's practically bursting, she absolutely LOVES her hair!
Here's the back, a cute little A-Line.
And here she is holding her chopped locks to donate. Can you believe how long it is! But the end result is gorgeous!

Now it's off to the Grandma's and Grandpa's to show them her new look and we have already texted those out of state about her new do.

Halloween

Well here it is a week into another month and things have not slowed down any and we have been completely slacking in the blogging department. I completely blame Daniel, well not completely...I've been doing couponing lately and this wonderful website of fantastic freebies. Well on the website it had if you become a fan on facebook of edible arrangements they will send you a coupon for 6 CHOCOLATE dipped fruit for FREE...well who could turn an offer like that down...definitely not me, it had two key words CHOCOLATE and FREE. So I joined facebook. Well that was a mistake..I found this game, I already own a version of this game, but not this fast paced, one minute timed, bonus crazy version...I'm addicted. I've now spent quite a bit of time playing this game. It's Bejeweled Blitz. Yes I'm pathetic I know.

Anyway I made McKinley's Halloween costume, with some talented help from my mother and grandmother. I'm getting ahead of myself. Thursday Madison was allowed to wear her costume to school. Only the kindergartners get to wear costumes and they do a little parade to the other kindergarten classes and up to the office. Madison went as a genie, since I wouldn't take her nice Wendy costume (night gown) to school, and recess. So here's our genie:

Wish granted


We carved pumpkins, Daniels absolute favorite part of this season. The kids absolutely hate scooping out the pumpkin guts. What's funny is that Carter is such a boy and can miraculously get dirty or dirtier in .05 seconds but he absolutely hates to get dirty with slimy pumpkin guts. He can't even finger paint without wanting to wash his hands every 5 seconds. So here he is scooping pumpkin guts not touching the edges of the pumpkin

disgusted look on his face

Madison concentrating on her pumpkin


Ewwww~! Pumpkin Guts

And now drum roll please....
Our finished products!
Mine is Malificent's dragon..the epitome of evil


Carter wanted Bruce for Daniel to carve..."Hello, name's Bruce" (insert Australian accent)


Madison chose Snow White for Daniel to carve ...."I'm wishing..."


Here's Madison's she designed on her own. It does not have three eyes, the square in the center is actually its nose.


And then Carter had to have one that was throwing up it's guts. However he did not want to spew the guts everywhere, mom and dad had to do that because he had had enough guts. Blech!


Madison then had to dress up in different costumes and have us take her picture. So here is Madison's very own Halloween parade of costumes (there's only two you saw the third...the genie. First we have the devil ... check out my spooky decor behind her


And here's the most wicked witch you've ever met


Really isn't she cute?


Well here it is Halloween night and our dressed up Halloween crew. It was wonderful we all participated and coordinated our costumes. Daniel normally doesn't dress up but this year he did. We were from Peter pan. Madison went as Wendy, Carter obviously went as Peter Pan (there was no way I was getting Daniel in tights) McKinley went as Tinkerbell, I was Captain Hook and Daniel followed me around as the crocodile. He was vary clever and had a metronome in his pocket to simulate the tick-tock of the crocodile clock.

Here's Wendy and Peter hugging


This is "we can fly" pose

Captain hook and Tinkerbell join the picture (let me tell you the mustache was completely annoying, I don't know how men stand to have them. It kept tickling my nose and would get in the way when I ate or drank.) And check out the awesome Tinkerbell costume.
you have to see the whole Captain Hook costume
Here's the whole crew with the crocodile too.

Here's all the kids together (and you can get a better look at the awesome Tink costume, Daniel convinced me that I could make one for cheap and it turned out awesome...not that I have any talent in sewing, Grandma and Mom helped ALOT, but it's shiny and sparkly and it zips all the way down the back, so we put a white onesie on and then wrapped the costume around her and zipped her up and then put the elastic wings around her arms. Form fitting clothes (like Tinkerbell's are not only hard to sew but extremely difficult to maneuver a 9-month little girl into). So I'm extremely pleased with the way it turned out. Without any further delay here's the kids:

And we hope you all had a safe and...

McKinley's 9-months and Family Pics

Well today we took McKinley in for her 9 month check up and she's an average cute little girl. She ways 18.25 lbs and is 27 1/2 inches long. She's growing and is a pleasant little girl unless you put her down, or is hungry. Let me explain... McKinley cries when you put her down but as soon as you pick her up she is quiet and completely content and sometimes (most times) is pleasant in your arms. When Carter was this age he would cry whether you were holding him or not. So since she's so good in your arms it's hard to put her down. When she's hungry she growls at you if you don't feed her fast enough...especially mash potatoes, you don't get to have a bite in between hers, you can only feed her. This is how pleasant she is... today while we were at the Dr.'s she didn't have to have any immunization shots however she is in the high risk group for flu so they suggested, recommended she get the flu shot...so we said definitely give our girl the shot! So the Dr comes in and checks her over, then he lets the nurse come in to do the dirty work. They lay her on the table and the nurse stabs her....I would be in tears, but all McKinley did was whimper a little sigh and THAT WAS IT! No sucking in and crying huge crocodile tears, no screaming or gnashing of teeth....just a little whimper and we went on with our day.

Also today is Rodney's birthday...so a happy birthday wish goes out to him, he turns 20 today so he will be no longer labeled as a teenager. However he doesn't get a birthday bash, party, cake or any well wishes. He's in basic training at Lakland Air Force Base. We all miss him but hope all is well there. It's been hard for our family to see him go, but he left very excited to be going on such a grand adventure. He's at basic for 8 weeks and then goes to Maryland for 15 weeks. I had a hard time seeing him go, he would take Madison swimming about once a week, and she loved it. That was one reason why it was so hard to see him go, that and it's always hard to see family leave. It was the same when Daniels sister and her little family left. I love our family and hope all of them know that...

Anyway enough emotion...here's some pic's we took before he left...

The whole family


Mom and Dad with their kids


The boys

All the boys


Just the girls


Mom and her girls

Mom and her boys...

The grandparents with their grandkids

Aaahhhh how tender...


my cute brood


McKinley not handling any more pictures...possessed baby...I love that Carter is huddled in the corner as if saying save me from Kiney...and Madison's expression is priceless...



Anyway enough for now, until the next post...

We WON!!!

Go Northridge! We won, it was a great game full of excitement, running, screaming and I'm not just talking about my kids...hey who am I kidding both Carter and Madison were out cold by the end of the first quarter. Carter did end up waking up during the last quarter but Madison as we speak (or type) is still out cold but at least now she's in her nice warm bed instead of an ice cold metal bleacher. Take notice that McKinley was not asleep (she did sleep through the third quarter but was awake for the excitement of the fourth) she bounced on my lap as she always does, I figure that it's her inner cheerleader, cheering on Austin, or maybe she bounces from all the excitement and being outside. Anyway...It was exciting, I got there late (I had a class to attend) and when I got there the score was 14-7 Northridge leading. There were some great plays, however there were some interceptions...tsk tsk. But we still ended up winning 49 to 21 however this game has a HUGE moment to one player in particular. Austin scored the last touchdown of the game which was his first touchdown for Northridge! We screamed, we yelled, we cheered, we cried...no wait there's no crying in football! We were ecstatic for #28 and I am glad we were there to see it, I wish we had video of it, maybe we can score some team footage from one of the coach's or maybe they don't have that in high school, I don't know these things, but I do know we are thrilled and excited for Austin! I just had to post this once we got home and the kids warmed up. We are all very fired up over this, Brian was practically giddy walking away from the car after dropping off an asleep Madison. Well goodnight all and one more for the road...
GO NORTHRIDGE!
..28...28...GOOOO TATE!!!

Northridge Football

Okay so Austin (Daniels brother) is playing on Northridge Varsity football team. We couldn't be more proud...well we had a lot to do with it :) anyway Daniel is all about supporting his brother which I completely agree with so we go to as many games as possible within our range and it nearly kills him when we're late and if we have to miss one...I mean for heavens sake he's only a sophomore and more than likely he will be on the team when he's a junior and a senior there will be plenty of more games to see. However we support the Tate team and can I say how proud I am of myself for making something for football to cheer on the team... and if I don't say so myself looks dang cute! Marla and Brian bought the 2 kids t-shirts that say Friday Knight Lights...well I thought McKinley was left out (not really...they just don't sell support the team onesies at the football games or I'm sure Grandma would have bought one) So I took it upon myself to have McKinley included. I made her a cheerleader. We had to search everywhere for a black onesie....hello can't anyone sell a plain black onesie? No of course not that would make this undertaking a whole lot easier. Finally I found one at quilted bear. I have some iron-on material that I can print the image from my computer, and got going. On the front of the onesie is the Northridge emblem, on the back it says TATE with a football with-in the words. I then made a tu-tu and a matching headband.
The front:


The back:

So the we have all enjoyed going to the football games...Madison usually ends up falling asleep, but hey that's Madison, McKinley usually falls asleep as well, but hey that's a babies life, and then there's Carter who absolutely loves it. So Last Friday (yes this post is a week late) was the homecoming game...so we all got dolled up in Northridge colors to cheer on the team who played against Roy High and we WON! 36-0 this is huge since it's been a while since we've won, but that's best left to the rantings of the parents of the players. Anyway we have a cheer for Austin... he is number 28 so we say..."28, 28, gooooo Tate!" Yes I know it's simple but the kids LoVe it, they sit and watch for Austin and have a blast here's our Tate team photo:


Tonight is the game against Clearfield and I have an inside tip actually it's from Clearfields coach that he had to suspend some of his starters...so he's pretty sure they are going to lose so Yeah another win for us...knock on wood. Don't want to jinx it. Well wish us luck against the Falcons tonight and I'll post tomorrow about our long week. Till tomorrow...

The toothless wonder.

Okay so it's been a really long time since I have taken the opportunity to post something on our blog. But something happened last night...but let me back up.

About 2 months ago we were having dinner with the Julanders. It was a proud and defining moment for the father of the house. He had attempted many times (without success) to grow corn suffecient for eating and grow enough to make it worth while. Well he had finally succeeded and we were celebrating the moment with dinner and enough corn to feed the whole family. We were all sitting around and enjoying our meal when Madison exclaimed loudly, "OUCH!!!" With great concern we looked over at her, mid-bite into her corn on the cob, she had stopped suddenly. "My tooth hurts!" At this point she was crying as though she had just taken one of Carter's well placed right hooks. I leaned over and examined her tooth and sure enough there one of her bottom teeth had shaken itself loose. Everybody told her that it was normal and that she would lose the tooth soon. Yet despite all attempts to soothe her, she was not convinced.


For the next few weeks we instructed her to continue wiggling her tooth and it would be ready to come out. Still Madison was not convinced, in fact she refused to wiggle the tooth at all. Well for those who don't remember (I sure had forgotten) a tooth that doesn't get wiggled doesn't make much progress with regards to coming out.

After several weeks more, the permanent tooth underneath had finally lost it's patience and the tooth finally started to make some progress. She could almost turn the tooth completley on its side. I finally convinced Madison that she could let us try. Jennifer and I discussed, quietly, the many options for removing a tooth, some of which are kind of funny, but finally decided that the least invasive and concerning would be just a simple yank.

I pulled Madison into the bathroom and got some toilet paper to get a good grip. I looked into her worried eyes and told her I would be pulling on the count of three. 1....her hands gripped my legs as she prepared for the worst. 2...I pulled at the same time she took a deep breath to gather her strength and courage for the next number. She looked at me as if she had just been clubbed, but the look of shock and even outrage quickly turned to amazement as her toungue identified the gaping hole that was now there in place of a tooth. She asked, "Is it out?" As I turned over my hand to reveal the precious tooth, her grin came in earnest. She rushed out quickly to share the news with Mom, who was just as excited as her. After a little bleeding the ordeal of pulling a tooth was all over however the ordeal of losing a tooth was about to begin.

Madison shared her newest treasure with her brother, who later came and asked me, 'I want to try!' We were already getting ready to go and visit Tallest Grandpa and we instructed the kids to jump in the car. By the time I finished my request Madison was strapped in and honking the horn for us to get going. We started driving away and Madison called Grandma Tate who is visiting Megan in Texas, she told Grandma, Kaitlin, Megan and Greg and probably would have told Macy if she had thought about it. We instructed Madison that when we got to Grandpa's that she shouldn't tell him, just give him a big smile and see if he notices. Well we got there...she rushed in jumped into Grandpa's arms and smiled as big as I have ever seen...right in his face. Amazingly, he noticed...though i am not sure how. We spent about 10 minutes at Grandpa's house and she was ready to go and show the other set. We called B on the way and told her, and called Rollan and Sam so they were aware.

At Grandma and Grandpa Julander's there was even less restraint. She walked through the door and announced to all present...I LOST A TOOTH! Rodney was the next to get a call and then the night was over. She was excited to get a visit from the tooth fairy...so excited that when she woke up at 1 AM she felt it necessary to wake up mom and dad and let us know.

Jennifer staged a visit from the fairy by sprinkling glitter on Madison's bed and even put some on her lips as if the fairy had checked her mouth to verify facts. Below are some pictures of her and the missing tooth.

Trip to the Zoo

Well since Daniels been home and Madison and I are off track we have a lot of free time...not really with submitting resumes and maintaining a house, but hey we took a day off and headed to the zoo. We really wanted to see the baby elephant. However the zoo has been a busy place, actually they got real busy about last year and have been delivering all summer. We saw the baby elephant, a baby giraffe, baby snow leopard, baby meerkats, baby sand cat. We didn't see the 3 baby tigers and the baby Siamese crocodiles.

Here's the baby elephant.



Here's us in front of the elephants


Isn't he so cute and little next to mama elephant




Here we are in front of the baby giraffe.


Baby giraffe


Madison and Carter on the tiger statue...check out Madison's fierce look!


Here's the baby snow leopard, it was hard to get a picture with where they were taking an afternoon siesta in the sun


Madison and Carter wanted a picture with the Gorilla statue. So here's Carter


And now Madison


For some reason the kids wanted their pictures taken, so why deny the kids and a photo happy mom. Especially when normally Carter is camera shy and too busy, and Madison has to be in the mood to have her picture taken and then when she is in the mood she is such a photo pose-r. Anyway it was quite the fun and baby filled day at the zoo. If you have the opportunity I would definitely go, just for the baby elephant, he is so tiny at 300 pounds, and so cute. When we were there he kept going and walking through the mud and he would go and play and roll the ball around. And just like any baby in between all this he kept nursing....play, nurse, play with ball, nurse, walk in mud, nurse....

Have a fun filled day and go to the zoo....until the next post.

The Journey Home

Well Grandpa and Madison were the first up so they went to Big Springs and fed the fish, they then came back and woke everybody up. So it was a great breakfast and load up the cars with our gear and treasures, clean up the cabin and on our way to Big Springs. We usually float Big Springs but this trip we didn't have time and it was really cold. So instead we went and watched the huge fish and the ducks. There was an unexpected animal there...a muskrat, which surprisingly are very good swimmers.

Big Springs



Check out the huge fish


The ducks kept eating the fish food....you can see some fish in the water.


The Muskrat




Madison feeding the fish


Here's Carter...notice the binoculars he never went anywhere without them, even on the way home.


McKinley enjoying being out of the car


After Big Springs we went around the river to the cabin that John built (it's sad but I can't remember his last name) but he was short only 4'11" and one of the very first to build up in the Island Park area. I tried to take a picture inside but the lighting was awful so they didn't turn out very well. John was a master craftsman and has a particular design that is specific to him, he also used nature in his decorating and was very resourceful. He had coat racks made out of hooves. It was a neat little tour of his quaint cabin. Madison wanted to take a picture of all of us in front of it. Hey look I'm in another picture...wow that's a total of two now for me :)



Here's Madison sad to be going....


On the road again, just can't wait to be on the road again.... we stopped at Herriman and wandered around all the buildings were locked and I didn't have my camera out. Sorry but we walked around and looked at the old schoolhouse, the boys dormitory and the farm. It was interesting but it would have been better if we could have gone in the buildings. So back in the car and on to Los Mesa. It was beautiful. The upper falls were gorgeous, however I didn't like having to go up all the stairs.... but on a positive note at least we were out of the car.

The Family at Los Mesa Upper Falls



Grandpa and McKinley



Here's all the stairs


Stairs, stairs


and more stairs!


Even Carter's has had enough stairs. Laying down on strike of stairs.


Here we are resting at the visitor center for Los Mesa


Inside they had two couches, this one had a buffalo skin on it


This one had a black bear skin on it, Carter was intrigued by the paws, Madison was tired and ornery and was freaking out about the bear.


Kissing the black bear


It was an awesome visitor center they had a room full of skins, and prints and they were labeled of what they were. They had different antlers, horns, bones, nests, eggs and more, it was awesome, the kids thought it was really neat. While we were there two guys came in (one was really cute and tall, Lindsay had her eye on him) but they had no brains. They wanted to find a way to get down to the lower falls so they could raft over it. The rangers thought they were nuts, so did we, but the rangers showed them on a map how to get there, the guys were disappointed because they had to hike a mile in and then a mile out without a trail. We left hopefully they made it. Now it's time for some serious car time....lovely. Well actually we drove for about 30 minutes to Rexburg to have lunch. We drove by the Rexburg temple, sorry no pictures the camera was now packed away in the trunk. Now we have some serious car time. We hit about Mallad and McKinley screamed from there to about Willard, it was a lovely time for all. She had completely had it, no more car seat and if she was going to be miserable EVERONE was going to be miserable right along with her. Well we made it home, alive and in one piece but very grumpy! Overall it was a great vacation. Daniel was excited to see the kids and treated us to pizza for dinner which McKinley absolutely loved...




Helping dad shove it in her mouth.


We missed Daniel alot and I would rather go with him on vacation it just wasn't the same without him and even the kids missed him but we called every night to tall him about our day. He had stayed home for some interviews however I'm sad to report he did not get either of the jobs we were counting on so now it's back to square one with only a few weeks of severance left. Can we say Stressful! Anyway what a great experience for the kids. Until the next post....

Yellowstone Day 2

Well we took this day much slower, no rush. We headed out to West Yellowstone at about 9:30. First stop the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. We've been there before, but they've changed quite a few things and now there is a "keeper kids" program where kids ages 5-12 can go and hide the food for the bears enrichment. So we were headed there to sign Madison up because you can't call in and reserve a place or do it the day before. So we got there and signed Madison up and hung out for a while.





They hid some food for one of the wolf packs while we there and in this pack they have two pups. Madison wanted to take some pictures so here is her pic:
(there was a protective bar blocking her way)


There was a wolf in the other wolf pack that kept going over to the water and looking in. The ranger said it was because the day before they had put live trout in the stream as part of an enrichment. I guess it was a success because he sure wanted more fish.





They also had a bear skin that we laid McKinley on and took her picture. She didn't like it very much....bear skin rugs are Not as soft and fluffy as you would think.



Then we headed to old faithful to watch the fire throw up again, since I already took pictures of Old Faithful I let Madison and carter take pictures. This is Madison being a creative photographer.



Here's a picture of it up in the air:



Here's Carters with a little help from mom:



Well while we were at Old Faithful Rolland and Dad went over to the Flats and wandered around, checked out the stink pots and looked for animals. They preferred to do this while the rest of us shopped for souvenirs. We had to get a stuffed buffalo for Carter because he was so excited about seeing them. That even if they were walking along the road right outside our car he couldn't see them because he had to use his binoculars. So he'd get his binoculars up to his eyes and would say Oh I see him now! and he had the cutest way of calling them buffalo, he would say "bith-a-low" and he would ask us mom do you see the bith-a-low?, yes I see the buffalo, Lindsay do you see the bith-a-low? yes Carter I see the buffalo, Grandma Shelly do you see the bith-a-low? yes Carter I see the buffalo. This would happen every time we saw one. So while shopping we got him a cute stuffed buffalo and a buffalo shirt...he was so excited! Madison got a book all about Bison. she told me before we started shopping that she wanted a book because that is her dream to find a book all about buffalo and it would be so cool with pictures and everything. Well we found one...well she found it and came running up to me...mom, mom it's just like my dream a book all about buffalo. (she loves books especially finding the words they are working on in Kindergarten)

Then after a while of hanging out at Old Faithful it was off to lunch, we found this cute spot right off the river in the shade and ate lunch...the kids played and played in the river even Carter who is afraid of water jumped right in and was playing around. First I just rolled up their pants but then after getting their pants wet I broke out the swimsuits.




Even McKinley got her toes wet.



Here come the swim suits:





Carter splashing..... who?


None other than his older sister...




We had a visitor while we ate a Clarks Nutcraker. We have a picture from long time back of one sitting on Dad's head so we let some crackers out for him to eat and Rollan tried to get them to land on his stomach, but they would only touch and go...to skiddish around Rollan but it was fun watching them.





Next back into the car to head to the stink/mud pots. McKinley has now gotten wise to the goings on of this vacation. She knows that Lindsay is the one who puts her in the car seat. So now she absolutely refuses to go to Lindsay, if you hand her to Lindsay she rolls, twists and tries every way possible to get out of Lindsays arms. so now we have someone else hold her and Lindsay gets in the car and gets the car seat ready. Then its a quick smooth handoff to Lindsay right into the car seat and throw the straps on...usually the realization hits and there is wailing of arms , arching of back and gnashing of teeth but at least she's in. One time Lindsay didn't get her in quick enough and she crocodile rolled and then grabbed on to the front of the car seat and would not let go and screamed. So then I had to pry her fingers off the car seat lip and help Lindsay roll her back over, not letting her arch her back and get her strapped in only to get her out 15 minutes later to walk around the pots.




Mud pots:


We told Carter that a dragon lived in this hole because it was so loud and there was smoke coming out and that the dragon loved to eat little boys...didn't even phase him.




On the boardwalk...boardwalk:


Feeling the coolness of the wet sprinkles on this hot day...


Madison wanted to take some pictures:


oh look I'm on this vacation!


walking with Carter on the boardwalk was so funny. Every so often there would be a nail sticking up and he was so worried about it, that he needed to fix it and that he needed dads hammer to fix it, first he would stomp on it and then since it wouldn't go in he would try to push it inwith his fingers and finally he would say he needed dad's hammer and I would tell him we didn't have dad's hammer and that it would be fine and only then could I drag him away from the nail.



Poor McKinley completely tuckered out in Rollan's arms....sweet!



More Madison pics: (she really wanted a butt picture?!)



Next we stopped at Madison to get some pictures of....Madison!



waving to traffic...


Madison wanted to take potty dance pictures where we stopped to have a bathroom break.


So did Carter...


The kids last picture of a Buffalo (or bith-a-low) Carters:

Madisons:


Now back to West Yellowstone to the Grizzley and Wolf Discovery Center to feed the BEARS! How exciting!!! Learning about bears:



Hiding the food:




hiding it under a giant rock



After madison came out she told us the food that they hid for the bears, they hid dog food, salad, tomatoes, carrots, and one naturalist out there was hiding peanut butter. Now here come the BeARS!!!







Here they are watching the bears and the center had these stool binoculars to watch the bears that cost a quarter (rip off) but look mom's on the stool and is barely as tall as Madison on Rollan's shoulders.


Here's the teddy bear couch at the center...again not as comfortable as you would think.


Then after that we sent Rollan and Dad back to the cabin to fix dinner ahile we shopped in West Yellowstone. It was so fun. On the way back after we finished shopping (it was dark) Carter all of a sudden got really excited and said: Mom, mom look out there, look you see those polk-a-dots. I said yes I do did you know those polk-a-dots are called stars? which he replied: No they is not they is polk-a-dots. Okay bud you win I'm too tired to argue about stars and polk-a-dots. It was a long day packed full of fun, and tomorrow we would head home, yeah, just what I wanted another long day in the car. Well sorry this was such a long post and completely full of pictures. Hope you enjoyed...stay tuned for Day Three the Journey Home.