Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to our family and friends. If you've been following our blog, then you know our news and family events. All that is left is to wish you a Merry Christmas and tell you how grateful we are for you. The following song, sung by Brian Stokes Mitchell, expresses how thankful and blessed we feel this Christmas season. Enjoy!

Technology Trials

I just got a new smart phone. That's the good news. That's also the bad news. It is apparently smarter than me. Ironically, downloading apps and using the internet came easily to me. After all it's just a mini computer. However, the basic uses of a phone--calling and texting were difficult if not downright impossible for the first few days. I was used to pushing one or two buttons to make a call. This phone requires more effort and is a lot less simple than my former phone. I've gone from driving a Model-T to trying to drive a Lear Jet. (Update: I have found the "Genius" button. One touch and I talk to my phone and tell it what to do--Genius! However, I refuse to be one of those people who talk to their phones in public.)

I was proud that I found the button to set the alarm on my phone. I found it once, set the alarm for every M-F (workdays), realized that I might want to turn it off sometimes, and can't find my way back to where ever I set it from. Oh well, I have until Thanksgiving to figure that one out.

I downloaded apps with the scriptures and conference talks from the last ten years. "This will be so useful in church," I thought. Then I went to Stake Conference where our Stake President asked us not to bring our phones to church. Sigh. He's right; technology often leads to bad language as you try to figure out what has gone wrong.

I have also learned the meaning of "sync." The meaning was brought forcefully home when I deleted contacts on my phone that were just e-mail contacts and not people that I call. Imagine my joy at discovering they were also deleted from my Gmail! All my Primary and Scouting contacts gone. Thank goodness for actual paper copies. Sync, people, is a powerful force. Use it wisely.

Yellowstone

This is how we roll. On the way to Yellowstone.

I love the Yellowstone Inn.
The wood and stone interior is unique and something that wouldn't be built today; it is one of the largest log structures in the world. Many of the rooms share a bathroom down the hall. They are small, dark and historic. After all the place was built in 1904. My goal is to stay there one day.

We were there on a rainy overcast day. Luckily it cleared up later. Fall in Yellowstone is colder, but much less crowded than in the summer. We could actually find parking and didn't get caught in traffic jams. The lodges and places to stay were closed or closing, but the scenery was still there and it was beautiful. Most of the fall color was visible on the bushes near the river as we zipped by on the road, but trust me (you'll have to-I have no pictures), it was the best time so see the park.

Hot pots near Old Faithful.

It took us 3 tries to see Old Faithful. The geyser was going off just as we arrived. We decided to wait around and eat lunch. Lunch at the Inn took just long enough that we had just missed it when we came out again. Oh well, we weren't trying to see everything; we were trying to have a relaxing weekend. I have been to Yellowstone so often (my grandpa and grandma worked there during the summers) that I don't feel the need to see it all every time we go.
But the third time is the charm and we finally saw the most famous geyser in the world. Old Faithful was faithful once again.

Mud pots and Grafs.

This buffalo was on the side of the road, beefing up for the winter.
This is known as the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The canyon walls were steep and colored from the minerals from the geysers.
Here we are on top of the 300 foot waterfall that you can see in the previous picture.
Yellowstone and the Tetons in the fall. Maybe next time we'll see the park in the winter. Riding snowmobiles through the park would be amazing.

Bear World and the Tetons

For Fall Break we were supposed to be here,

but a flood left the camp ground damaged and the canyon closed. Since we had it in our minds that we were going on a vacation, we had to choose a different place. We haven't been to Yellowstone for a while, so we decided to go north. First stop, Bear World! We drove through this park near Rigby, Idaho, and saw bears, wolves, elk, turkeys, deer, and mountain goats all living in their separate fields.A rare white elk.
Bears galore.
After driving our car through, we hopped on a big truck where we were given food to throw out to some of the animals.
Even the grizzlies came over for a donut. All the bears are putting on weight for their winter hibernation.
This is Big John, the biggest black bear of the group. All black and brown bears are called black bears no matter their color.
All of these bears were born in captivity. The cubs have their own pen to keep them safe from the male bears. The year old bears wrestled and played until it was time to be fed.
This cub is sucking on the trainers arm just like a baby would suck on a pacifier. He was making a happy "nuk, nuk" sound as he sucked.
The bears ate about 8 bottles each. But they are old enough that they were going to be weaned the next week.
Bear World had a great petting zoo. The deer were especially soft. Ironically, this is usually the time we are out in the hills shooting them.
Rachel loved this fawn and spent a lot of time with it.
It is so cute eating out of her hand. Oh my goodness, can we get a pet deer?
This little piggy, the one with the fur, followed us around wagging it's tail.
There were also mountain goats, regular goats, and chickens. One mountain goat named, Butthead, had been taken out of the petting zoo because he had a habit of butting his head on the small children. Hence the name.

One dear with a deer.
Another dear with a deer. Bear World was a lot of fun and highly recommended. We saw more wildlife here than our two days in the Tetons and Yellowstone, so it's a good thing we got this in. It was closing for the winter just two days later.
We ended our day with a view of the Tetons,
and a pose under the Antler Arch in Jackson, Wyoming.

Arches National Park

Over Labor Day weekend we took the family and met my mom and dad in Moab. Moab is a hopping place on long weekends and we had a hard time finding rooms at a semi-reasonable rate. We contemplated staying an hour away in Green River until I found that campgrounds also had fun little cabins. The campground we stayed at actually had a 2 bedroom apartment for rent above their office and the kids stayed in this little cabin that was named the Saloon. (I was just glad we weren't assigned to the cabin called the Brothel. I should have taken a picture just to show that it really was named that.) We had a lot more room for less than the cost of a motel.

Our first stop was Dead Horse Point. We are so lucky to live in Utah where we have such great scenery. I think I'm so used to it that I don't appreciate how magnificent it really is.
We hiked over to Delicate Arch. This was a long hike, but my mom and dad made it! It's so interesting to see how this arch sits on the edge of a big bowl of rock. It really is one of a kind.
The family under Delicate Arch.

I guess this is why it's called Delicate. Tons of rock (literally) balance on that relatively little joint on the side of the arch.

This area is called the Windows. We will definitely need to come back some day and explore more. We were running out of daylight when we saw it.

Beautiful Landscape Arch. See it before it's gone. A huge chunk fell off a few years ago and more could go any day. Tourist are no longer allowed underneath the arch.

Balancing Rock. The most prominent of the many balancing rocks in the park.

Southern Utah is one of the prettiest places on Earth!

A Hiking We Will Go...

Our last hurrah of the summer was to go backpacking in Naturalist Basin in the Uintahs. Krysta had to stay home and work, but the rest of us put on a pack and hiked 5 miles into our camp by a little lake called Gatman. We had a great secluded campsite off the trail and back in the trees by a meadow.

Of course, every time we saw a meadow, like the one in the background, someone had to recall the sad tale of Bambi. "There's hunters in the forest!...Run, Bambi! Run!" Way to ruin a bunch of beautiful meadows. We only saw Bambi once however.

The next day we hiked another 5 miles and visited a bunch of lakes. Here we are at Everman Lake.

Beautiful blue Jordan Lake.

Looking down at some unnamed pond. I don't think it's possible to visit all the many ponds and lakes in the Uintas.

This water flows out of Blue Lake,

which is at the top of this steep hill. I am looking down at one of the Mordt Lakes. This mountain is much steeper than it looks in the picture, and I am not a happy camper. Have I ever mentioned I hate heights and crumbly rocks that move? Here we have both.
But Curt held my hand (quite literally) and we all made it up to Blue Lake where we celebrated by throwing rocks into the water!

This is what you do after a long day of hiking.

Kevin packed this piece of equipment in. Yes, we were packbacking and not car camping. It doesn't make much difference to Kevin.

I have to admit, it was nice to sit in a real chair! Kevin wanted to balance it out by taking our blow up rowboat on the other side of his pack. He had some type of foot pump he was going to use to blow it up. However, it would have taken quite a while just to get the boat pumped up. Curt and I vetoed the idea. I wouldn't have cared it he brought it, but there was no way I was letting him row out on a lake without a lifejacket and bringing along 2-3 lifejackets for him and the girls along with the boat and a pump seemed a bit much. We would have looked all kinds of ridiculous going up the trail with lifejackets hanging off our packs. (Remember the deer cart on King's Peak? If you haven't heard that one kids, ask your parents.)

We did let Rachel bring her horse. Possibly the only stuffed horse to ever go backpacking. When we got to the trailhead, Rachel asked what she should do with her horse. I told her to leave it in the vehicle and it would be there when we got back. Her face crumpled and she started to cry. "I always sleep with a horse!" she wailed. It was then I realized she wanted to take it with her! If I had known that a few hours earlier, I would have helped her choose a smaller horse. Sherpa Kevin stuffed it in his pack and all was well.
Here we say good by to our temporary home. We did about 15 miles in all. Camille carried her own real pack and Rachel walked the whole distance.
Now you may think we backpack because we like the outdoors (we do) or we like to see things that not many people get to see (also true) or that it makes our kids appreciate their home much more (very true), but the real reason is...by the time we get around to planning a camping trip there are no reservations to be had anywhere! We don't need reservations to backpack. So there you have it, procrastination is our real motivation!