Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Jackson 2010

This is going to be picture overload and you’ll feel like you’re on the trip but maybe you’ll see how much fun we had and next year someone will go with us on this trip.

I absolutely love Jackson and Yellowstone and try to make it an annual trip. It didn’t happen last year for me so I was determined to get up there this year. We left early so we could stop at Maddox and also stop at lunch counter to watch the rafters. Did you know there are 6 ways to get to Jackson from Bountiful and only 15 minutes between them all? I found that rather odd that they all are the same time frame. I just wish there was interstate the whole way to Jackson. We went through Soda Springs and saw the sweetest mullet ever and it was on a woman.
We got to our campsite set up in record time and then ran off to the Bar J Wranglers for dinner. I'd heard about this and wanted to see it at least once. It was good but unlike a lot of people there it won't be an annual thing but once was great. My parents would absolutely love it though. We ended up getting great seats at the very front row. Oh and in case you are staying north of Jackson the 'shortcut' through Moose to Wilson is not in fact a shortcut, no matter how cute the old camp hostess looks, she's full of crap.



The next day we ate at the Bunnery. It's my one requirement when going to Jackson. It was good as usual and Logan got a balloon dog from some clown there. That made him happy. We headed into Yellowstone for the day. Logan was asleep and it was still cloudy so we took the long loop towards our destination. Wouldn't you know as soon as we went that way, Logan woke up.


The photos below are at Upper Falls in the Canyon area. This was the last picture I took because I walked down to where Tad and Logan are, looked over the edge and then said it was time to go. I'm not so much scared of heights it's more a fear of the structural integrity of the device I'm standing on and fear that it will crumble and I'll fly down the waterfall and die.


Don't worry this is no where near the waterfall. I wouldn't sacrifice my son for a photo op.
Here we are at our destination for Yellowstone. The goal of the trip was to hike to Fairy Falls. It's a very easy hike.

I have a goal to master the self family portrait. This would be one of them and I think the boys find entertainment just watching me run into position.


The beginning of the hike you walk around the backside of Midway Geyser Basin so here is a photo of it's backside. I know this is riveting stuff.

Here is a photo to kind of show the size of Fairy Falls. It's not the best photo but it had some sun flare and I adore flare. Logan's favorite part was throwing rocks into the pool.


Another self portrait shot. We'd asked this kid to take our picture and he pretty much got all the gravel in front of us so I had to do a self portrait once he left.

Just beyond Fairy Falls is Imperial Geyser. We had a very whiney, tired kid so we decided to skip that and head back. In the left of the photo you can see the steam in the background so it's only .6 miles beyond Fairy Falls to get there.

Logan walked probably 1/3 of the 5.2 mile hike so he totally needed his rest on the last little bit.

After the hike we went to the Old Faithful Cafeteria and I had the best chicken parmigiana. It probably wasn’t really that good but I couldn’t tell because I was so tired and hungry. Then it was a ½ hour till Old Faithful was to erupt so we got ice cream and waited.


And waited. There was a ranger giving a presentation on bears. I was very glad I heard this after our hike. She was saying how rare grizzly bears are. So I'm thinking there is maybe about a 100 or so. Nope, there are about 600 in the Yellowstone/Teton area. Those are the rare ones so just imagine how many black bears there are. I was leaning strongly about going back to Jackson and staying in a hotel after that. It was a really good presentation though.

I love the view of all the people gathering just to watch a steaming hole in a field. Well Logan erupted in his shorts and temper long before Old Faithful. About 20 minutes later Old Faithful went off. We left half way through because Old Faithful had nothing on Logan.



Then the long drive back to Gros Ventre campground.

We were going to head back into Teton the next day to do another hike but I hate the drive so bad to/from Jackson that we decided to break up the drive by a stop at Bear Lake.

We got lunch and shakes and went to the Garden City park. It was there we found the best beach at Bear Lake. The water is so high right now that this might be the only place with nice sand beaches. The only bad part was some idiot blasting Eminem. Why is it that people blasting music always have the worst taste? The water was still freezing cold but Logan didn't know that and had a blast.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

S&S Shortline Railroad

Just got back from a perfect weekend in Jackson. Love that place! I’ll have pictures tomorrow of our trip. Let’s just say I was up till 2 AM reading a romance novel rather than doing anything on my to do list.

I’m a little hesitant to post this. The pictures are from last year when we went to this railroad. I would have posted last year but they are only open the first Saturday of the month from May – September so that’s only 5 days a year. So I got this post all ready to go in May but then when searching for their website noticed it had been deleted. I hope they are still running their trains because I’d love to take Logan up there again. If anyone goes or has been this year let me know.

Here is the address
575 North 1525 West
Farmington Utah

Logan was and still is totally in love with trains so we thought we'd go up to Farmington to this family's house that has these trains to ride. Yes this is someone's house. Crazy.Our kids were too small to do the above train but they still had fun.

We took along the Aerins and L&L.

Erin don't hate but doesn't she look great being only like a week or two post partum.
We had to get a shot of all the kids. This was the best we could get with 2-2 year olds and 2-18 month olds.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Snowball Fight

We had the Aerins over for a BBQ a couple weeks ago. I gave Logan and Acelin one snowball each to throw at each other. Well then I went back to the table and they were out of view from the table. When I came back they'd demolished our snowball bushes and were in a full on battle.


In these photos it looks like Logan is doing all the throwing but don't worry Acelin was holding her own and there were actually no tears the whole time. They were so funny, every time they threw one they'd yell, "Snowballll!"

Monday, June 21, 2010

Ensign Peak

It seems like lately a lot of friends are moving out of state. I keep saying that if I lived out of state I'd totally take advantage of all the cool things to see and pretty much be a tourist in my own back yard. Well I'm still in Utah so I guess I should practice what I whine about.

Also I was reading on Ali Edward's blog about making sure you remember to live. I love the quote she used in the post.
ANNA QUINDLEN : Life is made of moments, small pieces of silver amidst long stretches of tedium. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won't happen. We have to teach ourselves now to live, really live...to love the journey, not the destination.
I don't know anyone who isn't busy but I strongly believe that you totally have time for the things that are important to you. I think people some times forget what is important. I want to fill Logan's childhood (heck, who am I kidding I want to fill up my memories) with memories of doing fun things and not always filling it with projects around the house.

I came up with a list of items I want to complete this summer. They are all fun things. I'm hoping to make it into a small scrapbook but that might be awhile since I've been so busy living and gardening (which I'm so in love with more so than usual).

One of our first stops was Ensign Peak. I've been there with YW but Tad and Logan had never been there. It's so short anyone can do this one. Logan did the whole thing himself except for a short section at the top. He absolutely loved it. You don't really do this hike to see the scenery on the way up because it's not all that pretty but once at the top the view is amazing.

At the time of this hike Logan was in love with Jungle Book so he said he was man cub and we were in the jungle. We kept looking for Bagera on the way up.
Self timer shot that isn't the best but I was loving all the wisteria vines. If you haven't smelled wisteria before you need to, it smells heavenly and it blooms in the spring.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Dinosaur Park

Awhile ago we went to Dinosaur Park up in Ogden with the Aerins. I thought it was all right. Maybe when Logan is a little older it would be better. Inside they have some moving dinosaurs and that kind of freaked Logan and Acelin out. Outside they have speakers making it sound like dinosaurs are growling or walking around so yeah that also wasn't the best. Also part of it might have been my fault because I told Logan we were going with Acelin because that way if the dinosaurs were hungry they'd eat her first. Oops.
Logan loved digging for the bones and probably would have stayed there for quite awhile but his counterpart wasn't too interested.
Had to get a picture at the extremely cheesy cut outs.
Even though we went there at the end of April Logan will still say, "Oops, sorry guys, dinosaurs ate Acelin." It makes me laugh every time.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Before and Afters

I love when people post before and after shot on their blogs. These might not be as exciting but I'm happy with the results.

We've had this old bench that was my parents. In the before shot I'd all ready spray painted most of the cream/rust covered bars. Now all our outdoor furniture is the same colors so I'm happy about that.
Above I bought three ugly frames that had some great designs to them. I hated the colors so I took my spray paint to them. These would also be cute in bright colors but I wanted them for a photo wall I'm doing downstairs in black frames.
Below is my April POTM.
Tad and most of my family think the doors are dumb but I like them and so does Nikki. If I explain they're for Tad's brother's wedding reception people accept them though (No, Tad's brother is not getting married, I wish just so I could help with decorations). I'm not sure if the after photo looks better because I weeded everything, added weed barrier and bark and all our plants are green and growing but the after looks good. I like the doors because then I'm not looking at all the mismatched fences.

Also right after I finished this project I got a new book in the mail. I felt good about my decorating and came up with some more ideas (insert Tad's eye roll here).





Tuesday, June 8, 2010

60th Party

I actually completed a POTM in time. I guess I really didn't have a choice in this one since it had to be done on May 29th. Well it turned out so much better than I could have ever expected. I was so worried about the food assignments and how people would react to all the decorations and help I needed that day but everyone was so nice and didn't complain once. I even had my 2 uncles (one is mayor of the town and the other is a total cowboy) making the coffee filter garland.


For each of the 8 tables I had 6 various jars that I filled with flowers. I was devastated when the flower guy went to the wrong Costco location but no worry he'll be there at 7 AM on Saturday. Saturday at 9 he wasn't there but he'd be there right at 11 AM. Go back to Costco at 11:20 AM (absolute latest time I could stop by before going to Idaho) still no flower guy and it's Memorial Day weekend. I wanted all white flowers and I still think it would have look best with all white but plans had to change. It was also fun to have about 1/2 of the flowers coming from my yard.

















Here is the corsage I made for my Grandma, it really looks so much cuter in person. I loved how it turned out. I found the tutorial on Project Wedding and then modified it a little bit from a bouquet I saw that had strips of burlap in it.



My mom had the whole family put together letters to my grandparents and then she had it made into a digital scrapbook and then bound into a book. This is my aunt, Nalene and she looks so much like my mom.






Menu
BBQ Beef or Pork Sandwiches
White Chocolate Strawberry Trifle (I need to get a picture of it because it's really is to die for)
Nutella Cupcakes (my latest addiction)
Artichoke Dip and Baguettes
Fruit Kabobs
Costco chocolate and carrot cake
and many other desserts and salads








Another thing at the party that was the big hit of the night was the photo booth. I got pictures of every single family member. Tad made the quote chalkboard and we had fun putting silly sayings on it. I might have to drag it up to the reunion.














It was a lot of fun to get ready for but was also a big relief to have it over and see that it turned out so well.
Not sure what my June POTM will be but it won't be anything compared to last month's project.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Today's Happy List


living - mint mud room 2
Originally uploaded by giac1061
Lunch with a friend and at one of my favorite downtown restaurants – Siegfried’s

Netflix customer service

My garden

Getting a month back from my summer because a trial got bumped

Mint green – thinking of painting our downstairs’ foyer this color but maybe more minty. We’ll see.

Summer BBQs

Knowing when I get home my whole house will be sparkling clean