Yellowstone National Park

On our way to Yellowstone we stopped in a place that is really quite amazing. It is called Quake Lake. Back in 1959 a 7.5 earthquake shook the Yellowstone area. It was in the middle of the night and as you can imagine, things became crazy. The side of the mountain literally fell down burying dozens of people and damning up the Madison River. This formed Quake Lake. You see those two big boulders above the tour bus?--those boulders are monuments to those who died in the earthquake..get this..they were originally on the other side of the ravine at the top of the mountain (that mountain that is behind Luke and James). It is quite the geological wonder.



















For two days our family drove and drove and drove through Yellowstone Nationall Park. Did I mention we did a lot of driving?? We didn't even get to see a third of the park..it is so ginormous!















It is bigger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. It was often 20 miles between sites. But for me, it was a beautiful relaxing drive with my family--even when we were stuck on the road for an hour waiting for the road construction to let us through, or even when the cars would get in a long line as they looked at wildlife (YES people it is ANOTHER deer!! Keep moving keep moving!!).















Moms will appreciate this....toward the end of the trip Mark wanted an apple just like his brothers. After much trepidation, we finally gave him one and stared at him while he ate it. Well, he commenced with taking a bite, chewing it, and then spitting it out onto himself. It was great entertainment...really...at the next stop we had to shake him off and clean out the car seat since there was sticky apple everywhere!














Black Bear- it was a good hundred yards away but you could clearly see it.














Bison right outside the car..like 4 feet away..crazy!!














At Mammoth Springs




























We traveled through the waterfall loop to look at all of the waterfalls. They were so beautiful!

















Dustin with his little bunch. He came straight from two weeks of military training. He is scheduled to be deployed in the next year.
















Yes that is SNOW! There was actually quite a bit of it in the mountain areas.














It was our anniversary this day! Love you sweety!



























Old Faithful...we were there the night before at dusk and I think that we were the only ones there!! The kids said "Well whats the big deal! Nobody is here to watch it but us!" Well the next day when we saw it at lunchtime, the crowd was greatly improved. Old Faithful was 20 minutes late and spouted off for a shorter amount of time than usual. The night before it performed much more satisfactorily.














Geyser country





























Yes that water is HOT! Just ask Ben.














We wanted to pour a bucket of water and see which way the water poured down the mountain..but we were out of buckets and didn't have much water.

Chester

I grew up in the quaint little area called Chester. It is located off the Fall River halfway between St.Anthony and Ashton, Idaho. I lived in the same house for all of my upbringing...attended the same ward...had the same kids in almost all of my school classes...etc. Move-ins into our ward was almost unheard of. I only remember a few familes ever moving into the area or moving out of the area. It isn't like that now. When I went to my old ward I only recognized about half of the people there. A lot of the folks I knew growing up have passed away. Some were still there, it was good to see them again.
Here are a few pictures of around the farm with the kids.

























Grandma gave Luke some bubbles for his birthday and it was a big hit! They played with them for hours!!



James and Luke both enjoyed many trips on the four wheeler. They have been talking about riding the four wheeler for months and months. It is one of their favorite things to do up on Grandpa's farm.

























Ben was not allowed to drive the four wheeler so he settled for "driving" the lawn mower. Grandpa still had the key thank goodness.














And finally, here is James in the swing. The swing was one of my favorite things growing up. My dad would push us so high in it. It was awesome! Here is a picture of me when I was about James' age being pushed by my dad.

Big Springs

While in Idaho we went to Big Springs. Big Springs is on the way to Yellowstone next to Mack's Inn in Island Park. It is the beginning of the Fall River. It literally comes right out of the mountain. It is really beautiful to see. The water is so clear. When I was young we would go there and feed the fish. The fish would be there by the hundreds. A ton of fish would gather underneath the bridge and we would throw pieces of bread at them. I remember doing this with my Grandma Brown, she would take us there on days that we would go for a drive. I remember we would pretend to be driving to Arizona to visit my cousins and she would take me to different places and Big Springs would be one of them. There aren't as many fish any more. I don't know why..maybe it was to early in the year. But we took the kids and fed the fish...and the seagulls and the muskrat. :-) While there we also donated blood to the mosquito blood drive..apparently they were having one and we were unaware of it until we got there. My Grandma would joke about the mosquito being the Idaho State bird. Good times good times.....

Hansen Home

On our recent jaunt to Idaho we stopped by my Grandma Brown's home that she grew up in. Her name was Neva Juneta Hansen Brown. She grew up in a quaint town called Ashton, just outside of Island Park, Idaho.


Her mother, Anna Katinka Rassmusen, was raised in Denmark and immigrated to the US. She joined the LDS church against her family's wishes when she was a teenager. She left Denmark for her new religon and never saw her family again. They corresponded through letters, but she was never able to be with them again. (Years and years later, my Grandma, Neva, was able to go back to Denmark and meet her family.)


Anna Katinka married Alma Hansen and they settled in Ashton where my Grandma was raised. Sadly, every week that I went to church we passed this little house and I didn't know it was where my Grandma was raised. My older sister remembers going there when we were younger and gathering holly hock starts, but I don't remember it. But, now I know. The house is pretty run down now. I was amazed at how small it was! I have been known to complain about the size of MY house, that house was about the size of my living room. It was one story with a front room with cooking stove (the stove was still there) and a back room. That was it! Anyway, here are some pictures of this quaint little house that is in my family history.

Grandpa's farm

We recently returned home from Idaho and visiting my family. The next few posts will show the variety of activities we did. I miss Idaho. Well..except for the mosquitoes.

This was the view from the back porch. Those are the Grand Tetons. They are covered in SO much snow! I have never seen them so white in this late in the year.


Oh the cows....such memories....these cows aren't my Dad's anymore though. He sold his cows and now rents out his land to others. At church on Sunday, the high councilman talked about the different personalities of cows and how they raise their young. I'm not kidding!



Sweet Orissa! She is my niece and such a sweety! She loves posing for pictures. Dad's liliac bushes had just burst open and the smell was intoxicating! I loved it! The lilac bushes in the area are huge...it must be a status symball or something. Many of the bushes were taller than the houses they were next to. There were so many of them that when you went outside, the air smelled like lilacs.


This is the shed that we filled with chopped wood for the winter. We would go and gather wood from the forest or Dad would have some delivered. Then we would chop (ok dad would chop--we would have cut our leg off) and we would gather and stack it in rows as tall as we could. Then Dad had to restack it since we could never could quite get it tall and tight.
These are some massive old tractor tires. If you would like to see the rims to one of the them, feel free to come and see my fire pit. :-)

Filling up the cupboards again!

So I have been a big time slacker and not doing the sales and coupons like I did for so long. I know I'm suck a slacker! But I was a little burned out with cutting and shopping with four boys trotting after me. It really was wearing me out. Then the other day Cory exclaimed that our house was looking a little sparse on the groceries. The cupboards weren't bare, but they would be soon! He asked if I had been spending less on groceries, and no I haven't. I have been using the same budget but just buying what I needed when I needed it. I really didn't think it would make that much of a difference, but it looks like it did. So, yesterday I prepped and then I took James with me at the crack of dawn to go exploring in the grocery stores. James was great! He carried all my groceries while I ran around.
Here are a few of the savings.....
7 packages of pamper diaper wipes .57 each
10 goldfish packages $1 each
6 packages-24 rolls of toilet paper in each $3 each
12 bottles of barbecue sauce at .60 each
12 packages of denteen gum .27 each
4 boxes of planter granola bars $1.25 each

lots of cereal
lots of crackers
lots of chips
I didn't purchase any perishables since I love getting my Bountiful Basket and that provides almost all the fresh I need. This was a stock the pantry shopping trip! Which it did nicely. :-)




Before sales and coupons: $500
Amount of sales and coupon discounts: $336.95
Total out of pocket: $162

Sadly, in all of James's exuberance, he lost our ziplock bag full of misc. coupons. So if anyone finds it, treat them nicely. There were some nice coupons in it that deserve to be treated nicely!