Woo hoo!

I really meant to get a headboard on our bed for the last ten years... but somehow it just never happened. So when I saw the very one I've been wanting for such a long time in the weekend adds, I was up bright and early monday morning; and off to get my bed. Sam seemed to be unavailable for the building process, so Audrey and I decided to tackle the job and get the big boxes out of the house. At least that was the goal. The level is purely for Sam's piece of mind and convincing him that I was careful and competent... I was, I think. Audrey wanted me to pose with the drill so "Daddy could see what a good job the girls were doing!"

Hooray! I'm off to sleep in it!

Independence Day!

We started off the day at a park in West Yellowstone. Here, Elle is playing on what I think is one of my all-time favorite endangered species of the park world. They're the best toys ever! Sam decided to give them a try and our friend Liesl reminded us,

"you know those things aren't indestructible."

No, the person in the background was not there with us, Audrey is just too cute to not use the picture...

Later that night we went to Island Park to watch the boat parade and fireworks. I have to say that I was so impressed with it there, it's the first place ever to really remind me of home back in Coeurd'Alene. The boat parade was so cute, people would go by with the boats all decked out with music playing and lights on them. Here's a video of Elle dancing along.. it was too cute she gets a little embarrassed after her near disaster at the end.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to get this video rotated upright, I shot it with my camera turned long-ways but it's still cute.

This picture was funny to me because Audrey is a good head and a half taller than Navy but she stooped down and Navy went up on her tippies to be more alike. Silly girls.

For the fireworks, we were sitting literally 25 yards from the person lighting them, behind the kids you can see in the far right corner something that looks like a fence, (solid light yellow) that was the rows and rows of fireworks. It was so fun to have them going off right above our heads. Sam said they were even better because there was "an element of danger",

and he calls me the pyro..


Here's a video of the grand finale, it was crazy, and yes, you can hear me screaming and hooting like a crazy woman, too bad you couldn't hear Sam right next to me laughing his head off. It really was crazy that they were shooting them off so close to everyone and right above the trees. The best kind of fun is the kind you find unexpectedly. Hope everyone had a great 4th!

The Cabin

We decided to go to Yellowstone for the fourth of July this year. We went with one of our favorite families, the Hoopes. Our good friends Liesl and Travis and their four kids shared this cabin in Island Park, (Just outside of West Yellowstone) . We had so much fun, thanks guys!

I might choose different deck chairs, but our cabin was great! There was plenty of room, everyone had a bed, no sleeping bags required! Woo hoo! It was so peaceful there and we loved the views!

This is pretty funny, my kids were a little creeped out by this deer at first.



Part of the crew; Elle, Audrey, our friend's daughters Navy and Sidnee and Reese. There were also two little toddler boys not pictured, Conner and Clay.

This is a blurry picture but I didn't often take pictures of Travis and Liesl, here we are during one of our nightly pig-out sessions, good times.

The cabin was just right up the hill from Henry's Lake, which is supposed to have legendary fishing...(so we've heard), we fished in the middle of the day with a bunch of noisy kids, and surprise surprise, we didn't get one bite. It was still fun though!



Down at Henry's Lake

Reese and Sidnee are best little buddies. They found a small snail down at the lake and brought it back to the cabin to "take care of". His name was Luigi Slugbug Fredrickson. They loved coming down every morning to see where he'd climbed out and scooted off to. It was fun while it lasted but he had to be set free the morning we left. They were so cute with it.

Amazing Yellowstone!

Wow.

This was just off the side of the road, it was in the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone.

There is a reason that Yellowstone was made into a National Park and is World-Famous, I've decided. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking! For living in the Northwest my entire life, I can't believe I haven't gone to see it before now! We had an amazing time exploring; there was just so much to see. Some day, we'd love to stay for at least two weeks to try and chip the tip of the ice berg in this park. For anyone who hasn't been to Yellowstone, I really encourage you to get yourself there! The animals were amazing too and the kids loved learning about all the natural wonders there were to see.

Some of the hot pots.

The yellow color is from natural bacteria, they call it the bacteria fields.


This amazing fall was just a quick hike to the side of one of the hot pot sights. There was no special marking to indicate the amazing view that was ahead, we simply decided to take the kids up the 1 mile trail thinking it wouldn't be too bad of a walk. This is why we want to take much more time to explore, there are countless hikes like this. It truly is amazing there!

click on to the collages to see the pictures closer