island park - part 3

(or maybe just more pictures of Gage)

Yellowstone

After our trip down the river, Dustyn and I went down to take some photos. Island Park is actually quite beautiful! (not that I was doubting that)

Here is a picture of the cabin from down by the river. Gage was nice enough to wake me up super early (4:30-5:30AM) every morning to make sure that I could watch for the moose that hang around in the area. Sadly, I still never got to see a moose.

Taking pictures by the river.

And of course the moon.

Dustyn was playing with one of his large lenses.

The whole week was beautiful.

At one point during the week, we went to Fishing Bridge.

Again, beautiful.

Gage was asleep. We were trying our best to keep him out of the sun all week.

Therefore getting a lot of pictures of blankets and strollers. At least he arrived home sunburn free. That is the important part.

Once Gage did decide to wake up, he was definitely not impressed.

On to Yellowstone.

We had a good time looking for wildlife and walking all the sites.

We saw lots of elk and buffalo, a few deer, 5 bears, 1 coyote, and 1 llama (seriously. who knows why. I think one of the tour outfitters must have lost it. It was far up on the mountain.)

A few of the buffalo were a little too close for my comfort. The rest of my family are in that van. And yes, they do have the sliding door open. Brave?

The geysers were spectacular. So full of color.

Awake one minute.

Asleep the next. (Literally moments later.)

And awake again.

We skipped over the mud pots. (we had pregnant people aboard. Okay, so actually we were short on time and the smell was enough to make our decision easy. Sadly, I can almost smell them now.)

We stopped for a picnic. Gage was so happy to lay on the ground and kick for awhile. Yellowstone is a very long day for a car seat. He definitely welcomed the breaks! He knew how to get us out of the car though. (Notice the outfit change)

We stopped at Fishing Bridge. Couldn't leave without a souvenir, right?

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Beautiful.

My family.

A few pretty sunsets, just for fun.

Can you see why I want to go again?

island park - part 2

While we were in Island Park, we stayed at my dad's uncle's cabin. 

It was beautiful and perfect.

We had a spectacular week.

We hung out on the deck.

Played with family.

Floated down the river (twice).

(When they say it will take 2.5 hours to float down, think 4.5 hours. Seriously)

We had fun playing with our family. 

I am ready to go back again.

Up next? Yellowstone.

first stop - pocatello, id

We headed out on Tuesday for a long drive to Pocatello. We decided that we would break up our trip a little bit and maybe Gage would not get sick of the car as quickly. We had to take a quick trip up to the Tanger Outlets in Park City. Dustyn got a me a gift card and I wanted to use it. :)

Gage did perfect in the car. 

Even after getting his diaper changed multiple times on the trunk and in the front seat of the car. 

Pocatello was really nice! I was impressed. Dustyn and I found the local Wal-Mart so he could get his hair cut. I had been meaning to cut it for him for weeks, but I kept forgetting, so Wal-Mart it was. (It's hard to go to a random city you have never been in and try to find somewhere to get a haircut at 7:00PM.) The girl did such a great job that I convinced myself to get my hair cut (just a trim and to even it out). She did a great job again. Thank goodness. 

Gage loved the bed at the hotel. He is getting really good at being on his belly. He rolled over for the first time on Monday, so we were seeing if he'd do it again. No such luck. (he did finally do it again today!)  :)

Have I mentioned how he is a binky lover and a thumb sucker? Silly kid.

A random cute photo. Just ignore Dustyn's toe. :P

In jammies and ready for bed! (of course when I found these in Park City, I couldn't pass them up. Ha ha!)

Ready to head on out to Island Park! Back in the car we go!

Island Park coming up next.

island park

We just got home from our vacation to Island Park. 

It was so much fun. 

I can't wait to share some pictures with you. 

Halloween in Disneyland! Can it get any better?

You gotta have some driving in the car pictures, don't you?

 We had a great time in California!  It was a fun trip!  We went with my friends, Carrie and Rodney. *who are hoping to adopt !  If you know of anyone considering adoption, feel free to pass-along their information!*  Carrie was one of my first roommates back when we went to Snow College back in 1997.  I know.  Sheesh, I'm getting old!  But we have been BFFs since!  I love her to death!

Dustyn and I drove down to Vegas on Thursday afternoon.  We arrived around 3:00PM and got to check out Carrie and Rodney's new house! Very nice by the way!  Carrie got out of school around 3:30PM and we hit the road.  We actually went to dinner first at Cafe Rio.  Yum.  Then we hit the road around 6:00PM.  I have no idea what we actually did during the entire time, but it was fun!

We arrived at our hotel in Anaheim, CA around 10:30PM or so.  I don't really remember, but it was kinda late.  Our hotel was nice!  It was 0.5 miles away from Disneyland, so that made it nice.  It had a really nice pool, hot tub and a yummy breakfast.  I totally want to stay there again!  We were in a Queen Suite so the room had a full kitchen (not that we needed one).  I think we finally made it to bed around midnight or so.

Friday we got up and going and ate breakfast.  We headed to California Adventure first.  Of course, we had to head to Hollywood Tower of Terror.  

Man! I love that ride!  Next was Soaring over California, Dustyn's favorite.  Once we had the favorites covered, we wandered around the park.  The Halloween decorations were so fun!  There were candy corns everywhere.  They had "Candy Corn Acres" were they were growing grapes, corn, pumpkins, carrots, and a few others - but they were all in the shape of candy corns.  Very cute!  Around noon or one (remember, I have a bad memory) we headed to Disneyland!

I love Halloween in Disneyland!

Carrie kinda blends in.

One of many goofy picture of Dustyn.  You really shouldn't give me a camera!

C is for Carrie!

(I took this picture for CamRee and Hadi.  I wish they could have been there to see it instead. :( )

C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A

YAY!

The Gang!  Except for the coolest picture taker ever!

Like our ziplock bags to protect our electronics?  Nice.

Halloween Time!  They had "candy" music playing.  It was fun!

The World's Largest Candy Corn.

Yes, I have lot of pictures of Dustyn.  He's cute.

"Why so many pictures?" he asks.

I know!  A picture of me!  In front of the Haunted Mansion. (Of course it has been revamped into The Nightmare before Christmas.  It was pretty cool.  But you have to miss the old one a little.

Here we are together!  Jack in the background sitting on the pumpkin.  My aim is off.

Dustyn is thinking...  ZERO days until Christmas?  Whatever.

We're excited!

Bored waiting in line. 

Dustyn messing with settings on my camera.

And taking crazy weird pictures of me. Oh well.  (Like my Mardi Gras beads?)

Hmmm....

Jack and ... whoever that is.  Guess I should brush up on my Nightmare Before Christmas Trivia.  Whoops.

We had loads of fun!  We have a lot of random pictures (as seen above.  And below!)...  mostly while we were waiting in lines.  It really was a great weekend in the park.  Not too many lines.  I think the longest we waited in any line was like 45 minutes.  The weather was great (a little warm for us) and we even saw Howie Mandel.  Twice!  I know.  We are sooo lucky!  We went on Splash Mountain three times.  The first time, we all got completely soaked.  The wettest I have ever seen anyone get off that ride...  I am so not kidding.  I was HILARIOUS!  We were basically soaked before the big drop!  How does that happen?  Either way, it did.  It was crazy and I about died laughing my butt off.  (yes, that happened NUMEROUS times on the trip.  It was great!)  The second time we didn't get wet (the people with us were too lite), so we tried again.  Luckily we got matched with a few people who weren't sticks.  It worked that time.  It was SO funny.

A before pic.  

Another before pic.  Not much better.

Oooo...  getting closer...

Closer ...

There is the first drop!  Yeah, by then we were soaked.  But I was trying to save my camera from getting soaked.  I didn't think we'd get too wet so I didn't put it in the ziplock bag.  Wrong.

After.  Too bad you can't see how wet we really are.  It was completely crazy!

The first time. I love it.

Here we are!  There are a few dry spots.  I had no idea there were any!

The second time.  Making faces of course!

And the last time.  We are dorks.

We had a blast and all the rides were great.  We obviously had a blast on the Buzz Lightyear ride.  After the first time, we started pulling faces on all the rides. It was great!  And you know what is the COOLEST ride ever?  I loved it!  The Toy Story ride in California Adventure!  It was so fun!  I totally enjoyed it.  I think that was the longest line we waited in, but it was so worth it.  It is similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride, but 3D and interactive.  It is awesome!

Getting ready for Toy Story.  Or maybe after.  Who knows.

Day Dreaming... or maybe Night dreaming in line.

Some more waiting.

Cheese!

And again!

So serious Dustyn!  I mean we are about to get on the coolest ride ever!

Maybe I squished too hard.

Anyways, it was a perfect weekend.  Except for my poor feet.  Sheesh!  I didn't think they would ever be the same.  But they felt much better on Sunday and today they are almost back to normal.  On Friday night, Dustyn and I went and sat in the Hot-tub and swam.  It was SO nice!  The hotel's pool was open 24 hours a day and is outdoors.  It was after 11:00PM when we went swimming.  It was completely peaceful and relaxing.

Waiting in line again.  I think that Rodney was probably getting a little annoyed by my fabulous picture taking!  ha ha.  Just teasing.  Dustyn was!

See...  I told you!  He kept closing his eyes. :P

Everytime! That is just mean!

Rodney.  I'm not sure what his face is saying here.

Dustyn and Rodney's pal.

Again!  Just ONE picture with eyeballs!

Rude! So I stuck my tongue at him.

And again!  Come on Dustyn!

More lines!

Making more faces!

The boys.  The girls were playing with the cameras.

Carrie and Rodney getting ready to get on the service elevator on the Tower of Terror.

Dustyn, the artist.

Here we are in front of Grizzly Bear Peaks.

They were totally lying.  They may be the happiest place on earth...  but they sure don't use Quilted Northern.  I was wishin' though.

Dustyn thinking in the Beast's study.

It's not a trip if you don't see Mickey Mouse!

After all this fabulous fun, we left Disneyland about 7:00PM or so on Saturday to head for home.  It was a long drive home, but we arrived in Vegas around 1:00AM.  Luckily we gained an hour in there somewhere.  :)  We stayed at Rodney and Carrie's house that night and went to church with them on Sunday.  After church, it was back to Utah.

It was a fun vacation and it just made me want to go again and spend more time!

Thanks Carrie and Rodney!  We had a blast!

(hopefully you can make sense of all my pictures since they are just randomly thrown in there.)