THEY'RE HOME!!!!!

Well after two long, but also short in some ways, years, Mom and Dad are back from Mongolia. What an emotional and exciting day this has been!

Here are 13 very excited grandchildren making a Welcome Home banner to take to the airport.

This banner says Welcome Home in Mongolian. We think.

Waiting. . . and waiting . . . and waiting. It was only about 30 minutes, but it felt like an eternity.

First glimpse. You can see Dad at the very top of the stairs to the left. Mom is just behind.

Coming down the stairs. Man those were long stairs!

And finally reunited! Lots of hugs and tears of joy. Can't believe they are really here. I keep pinching myself to make sure it is real!

Mom and Dad and their four children.

And all 13 grandchildren. Leave it to Jarod to stick his hand right in front of Lexi's face. Sorry Lex. Jarod lives for the camera!

First thing Dad wanted? A glass of real milk. They haven't had any real milk for two years, just powdered. Good thing Becky and Amy bought three gallons! That should get them through till morning! (And of course . . . an American donut!)

Welcome home! It's great to have you back.

$$$

Ok. So here we go again. This time Jarod has found a way to really make some money.

He's quite the salesman. He sits out there yelling "Lemonade! Get your ice cold lemonade here!" I kid you not. And he is making a killing - he raked in $10.00 in just under 2 hours.

Who needs to do chores and get only 3 dollars a week?

Yellowstone

This year we decided to make our Yellowstone trip low key. Usually we try to "see it all" in one day and end up rushing everywhere. This year we just went to the Old Faithful area and spent the entire day looking around there. One of the things we have always wanteed to see is the Castle Geyser. It only erupts every 14 hours, and we have never been there at the right time. Well, this year the sign said "May erupt between 4;15 and 6:15." It was about 4:00 so we thought, why not? We can wait to see it. So we sat, front row seats. Some of us explored the trails while others sat and saved our seats. For awhile it was kind of fun.

However, at 6:40, we were still waiting! Darn thing didn't erupt. After 2 1/2 hours we all had to go to the bathroom pretty bad, so we gave up and headed back to the visitor center.

We weren't 20 feet down the trail when we heard a shout go up from the crowd. We turned around and sure enough, we could see the water up over the trees! We sat there for 2 1/2 hours and it decides to erupt the minute we leave!

Thank goodness it's a long geyser (30 minutes or so) so some of us ran back and were able to see it.

We lost our front row bench, but we were able to sit here on this log and still have a good view.

It had been a very cloudy afternoon. We thought for sure it was going to downpour any minute as we sat there. But as the geyser was going off, the sun peaked out just enough to give us this little rainbow, off to the right.
Better shot of the rainbow. It was definately worth the wait. Very cool to watch. I have a little video of the geyser, but for some reason I can't get the sound to work. That's the whole point of the video is the cool sounds. If I can get the sounds to work I'll post the video later.

Horseback Riding

This year Lindsie and DJ got to go on a horseback ride. They were pretty excited! Lindsie loves to ride horses, and DJ hasn't ever ridden other than the pony ride.

Here they are getting to know their horses. DJ's horse was named "Chuck Norris." He thought that was awesome. (Not really sure if he even knows who Chuck Norris is). Lindsie rode Opie. (Pretty sure she doesn't know who Opie is either).

Lindsie is ready to roll. She is a natural on a horse. She wants to own her own horse and live in Oregon one day.

DJ was a little more nervous at the beginning, but he soon relaxed and had a great time.

Down the trail they go! They rode for about 1 1/2 hours. They got lucky and had great weather. Later that day we had a huge thunderstorm. If they had chosen the afternoon ride, they wouldn't have gotten to go.

Poor Jarod got left back at the corral. You have to be 8 to ride, and he isn't there yet. But he did get to do a pony ride around the corral. He thought it wasn't cool that his brother and sister got to head down the trail and he didn't, but we convinced him it was ok. He has NEVER been on a horse before.

Having a great time. Now he says he is totally ready to go on an ride on his own next year and not have somebody holding onto the lead rope!

Thanks for the ride!

Vacation

Whew! This has been a busy summer. I think we have camped out this summer more than any other summer. And we have loved every minute of it! Now as I sit here and think about going back to work tomorrow (UGH) and digging into my pile of laundry (8 days x 5 people - you get the idea), I think I will post some pictures for you. I'll probably do this in a couple posts so I can do more pictures. Lindsie was able to do a lot of the driving around for us, which Dean was happy about because he got to sit back and enjoy the scenery for once. Well, sometimes he sat back and enjoyed. Sometimes he sat and yelled and made poor Lindsie nervous! : ) That's a Dad's job, right?

Ok, so we drag our kids 5 hours all the way up to Colter Bay and what do they want to do? Let's see, DJ and Jarod are playing Nintendo DS and Lindsie is over here texting. UGH!! These kids!

Well, we finally did get them out of the trailer and down to the lake. Doesn't take long for them to be completely soaked! I don't know how they could stand it - it was decently cold. But they spend quite a bit of time submerged in Jackson Lake.

They took their "boogey boards" from last years vacation. Who cares if it's not the ocean? Surely we can catch some waves as the speedboats pass us by!

And then of course there is the boat. That's where I spent my time - nice and dry and trolling around the lake. So relaxing! This is actually Jarod and Dean in the boat.

Can't beat that view! I never get tired of looking at it!

To be continued . . .

Chicken Pox?

Chicken Pox is exactly what I thought when I saw my son this morning! Look at these pictures!

Couldn't even get good pictures. His face and arms are COVERED with red spots.

The boys decided it would be fun to sleep out on the trampoline last night.

Apparently the mosquitoes had the most fun! And they only attacked Jarod.

Poor Jarod!

Tony Grove

This has got to be one of my favorite camping places. Some of my favorite memories from when I was a kid are from this place. Either we spent a lot of time here or I just had some really good times. Or maybe a little of both.

Has this log always been here? I can remember sitting on this log like a horse and bouncing up and down. My kids spent a lot of time on this log (and jumping off of it). Here is Lindsie trying to catch minnows. I can remember spending a lot of time trying to catch tadpoles with my cousin Jody.

Jarod spent most of his time in the water. It was just not warm enough if you ask me, but just TRY to keep Jarod out of the water. Look at those muscles lifting that log! He's pretty sure he has massive muscles. Just ask him - he'll show them to you.

Here we are chilling by the lake. I have a lot of memories sitting at this little beach. I don't think it has changed in 25 years. Except it seems like there is a lot more people! This was our last day, Saturday, and I don't remember ever seeing so many people here. I always thought it was Grandpa's secret place that nobody else knew about.


Tony Grove is where Grandpa taught me to fish. I can remember sitting on the far side of the lake fishing with him. Lots of good talks. I can still see him baiting his hook with Salmon eggs, those little red eggs. That was the bait he liked to use. He knew all the good fishing spots.

On this trip we caught about 10 or so fish before we finally decided we were done. Each kid caught at least two. Good fishing at Tony Grove!


We took a hike around the lake trail. It was nice and cool so we really enjoyed the walk.
I remember the first time I went "all the way around" with Marcia. I thought I was cool stuff. One of these days I am determined to hike up to White Pine Lake.

If you look close at the lake you can see a little dot on the lake. That is my children on the boat. They spent about three hours just out there going in circles and having fun.
I can remember spending hours out on the lake in Grandpa's canoe. I remember a time when Jody and I hijacked the canoe and went out on the lake for a very long time. Pretty sure we missed dinner that night. We thought for sure we were going to be in big trouble when we got back, but no one said anything. That night as I lay in my bed, I could still feel the waves rocking the boat. It rocked me right to sleep.


My cute boys. Jarod LOVES camping. Where else is there so many things to climb on! His poor legs get so scraped up, but he just keeps on going. Band-aids are magical!
I remember spending time with my dad camping at Tony Grove. I liked to watch him build a fire and cut fire wood. I also remember the time it was just me and him, don't know where everyone else had gone, but he was cutting wood and cut his thumb pretty good. My little mind was just sure he cut it off! There was blood everywhere!

We sure had a lot of fun. Forgot my camera (that seems to happen too much) so all these pics are phone pics. Didn't get as many as I would have liked. Like pictures of roasting marshmallows. Or playing hide and seek in the trees. Or the bowling game Dean built out of logs and a rock! I hope my children are building the same kinds of memories that I did!