Yellowstone Sunday - June 27th

Dallan & Jamie

L-R: Shayne & Pepper, Jamie & Dallan, Dustin & Erica, KayCee & Kendal at Old Faithful

Da Boys! Dustin, Kendal, Dana, Shayne, and Dallan

Beaver just chillin' in the river.

I took this pic of this guy just b/c I couldn't believe someone was really stupid enough to get this close to a buffalo. He had his wife and kid standing just out of the picture and was encouraging them to get closer. Seriously, this guy thought he was the COOLEST b/c he got so close to the buffalo. IDIOT!!

Erica & Dustin

Elk Valley...can you see the two bull elk laying in the grass?

On Sunday Dana, Jonette, Shayne, The Bug, and I went to church in West Yellowstone. It was a great little church that was packed to the hilt with lots of visitors...reminded me of our own ward here in the summer time. After Sacrament meeting my dad's cousin Dennis and his wife Kathy came up to me. They recently bought a cabin in the area and were working on it. They saw us during the meeting and couldn't believe I was there. I talked to them for quite a bit...it was so fun to see them.

After church, Grammy Jo watched the kids while the rest of us went for a drive into West Yellowstone. It was so fun to just hang out with everyone and enjoy the great stuff that is in West Yellowstone.

Of course, we had to do the token stop at Old Faithful. It's not as cool as I remember it, but hey...it was all good. KayCee, Kendal, Dallan, and Jamie had to head back to their homes after Old Faithful, but Dana, Dustin, Erica, Shayne, and I continued to drive the loop through West Yellowstone. It was so beautiful.

Very glad we did it.

And Grammy Jo had a great time with The Bug and PresLee. It was nice to be able to leave him with his grandma and enjoy some time with Shayne.

Chillin' at the Cabin - June 26th

Tayler cheesin' it up while KayCee does her hair for pics.

Grammy playing with The Bug and Pres.

The Bug would fall asleep while riding with Papa on the 4-wheeler. It was a great way to get him to go down for a nap! :)

I love this pic. Grammy with PresLee, and Papa with The Bug. Two very happy grandparents. :)

KayCee's mother-in-law is a professional photographer and was kind enough to travel to the cabin with her husband to take family pics for us.

So, while we waited for the perfect lighting, and after the frog catching escapade, we drove into West Yellowstone, and then just hung out at the cabin.

It was so nice to just hang out with Shayne's family. We had lots of fun just being together and not having to be anywhere or do anything really...except the girls getting ready for pics...of course. :)

The boys spent most of their time with a couple of .22's shooting ground squirrels (or pot-guts as they call them). They did do some fishing after pics, just to a little creek within walking distance.

Family pics were entertaining as you can imagine with any large family. Karen did a great job...or should I say her husband Kenny did a great job of entertaining the rest of us and humoring Karen. :) When I get a copy of the pics, I'll have to post them.

That night we just chilled some more. PresLee was a crazy woman climbing up the couch and into the window to play hide n' seek with The Bug. She was hilarious!

Shayne and Dustin grabbed a little night stand to set up their vises to tie some flies. I think this was one of the biggest highlights of Shayne's trip. He only has a couple of friends that tie flies, and none of them live up here. So, for him to hang out with his brother and tie flies was awesome. They seriously stayed up later than everyone else, just tying flies.

Anyway...that was our first day at the cabin. We had some really good food...really good company...and a really good time.

Catching Frogs - June 26th

Here comes the Idaho vacation pics...a whole pile of them. However, as there are so many, I will be interspersing the Idaho posts with current posts of what we are up to. So...hopefully it isn't too confusing when you read a post of us being in Idaho, then a post of us in Alaska. :) I'll put the dates on the Idaho posts to keep them straight.

And now...onto the Idaho vacation!!

After flying into Idaho Falls early on Friday, we headed up to the Pond Family cabin that night with Jonette, Tayler, Dallan, Dustin, and Erica. Dana showed up later that night as well. KayCee, Kendal, and PresLee and Jamie (Dallan's girlfriend) showed up the next day (Saturday).

There was an INCREDIBLE lightning/thunder storm the night we showed up. We don't have thunder/lightning where we are at in Alaska. I forgot how much I missed those amazing storms. We just sat outside on the covered deck and watched the spectacular storm. The Bug was pretty amazed. It scared him at first, but then he was just as in awe as the rest of us. It was pretty cool.

The family cabin is about 5 miles from West Yellowstone. It's property Shayne's Grandma Pond inherited from her family. They then built a cabin on the property which each of Shayne's dad and siblings have use of. We were lucky enough to be able to reserve it for the weekend we were there for a little family reunion. It's actually the place Shayne & I went to for our honeymoon...after our horse-trailer experience. :)

Anyway...there is a cute little spring creek that runs through the property which Shayne and his siblings grew up catching frogs in. Luckily enough for us...there are still frogs in it. So on Saturday, Shayne took The Bug out to catch frogs with his brothers, Dustin & Dallan, and Tayler. KayCee and PresLee and Jonette joined us down at the creek a little later.

It was so fun watching The Bug with the frogs. His favorite thing was to poke their eyes to watch them blink.

I lied...his MOST favorite thing was the 4-wheeler we brought to the cabin. That's how Uncle Dal was able to get him to hang out with him. That's how Papa also got him to warm up to him. He took him on lots of rides on the "bike", as The Bug would call it.

As you can see from the pics, Shayne thoroughly enjoyed the water-proof camera. He took a plethera of pics of a fatty frog under water, and of the small creek. They did turn out pretty cool though.

It was so fun to watch The Bug play in the water and mud and with the frogs. It was also fun to see Shayne hanging out with his family...in particular his brothers.

I must admit...the sun was nice as well. :)