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.