Past 2 Weeks

The 15th was my dad's birthday and we had a great party! Sean had to work so the gals and I went out to my parents house to spend the evening with them. I know I have said in previous posts what a great dad I have- so I will say it again! I feel so blessed to have the dad that I have. He is such a great person and example to me. My gals are so lucky to have him as their pops. They adore him and love him so much- and so do I!

I love this picture of Pops and Brooklyn looking at each other

It has gotten to the point that Gracie prefers Pops and Grandma over me. My dad was holding her the other day and handed her to me and she had a complete and total meltdown. It made me feel great!

On 17th Sean, me, and the gals headed up to Island Park. Ric and Paula have a TimeShare up there that they weren't going to use and if anyone didn't use it- they would just lose the week. My dad headed up earlier that day and we went when Sean got home from work. We had a few setbacks and didn't leave until later than we had wanted. It takes about 4 hours to get up there if you go the right way. When you get to Idaho Falls you are to take an exit that will take you through Rexburg and to Island Park. About the time we were supposed to exit- Brooklyn had a MAJOR meltdown and I wasn't paying attention. About a half-hour later Sean asked where we were supposed to go. I told him we would go through Rexburg and it would take us right there. To make a long story short- we missed the exit and ended up adding an hour onto our late trip. We did make it there- and the gals were thrilled to be out of the car- as was I. On Saturday we had a delicious breakfast and then we all went swimming. Brooklyn had the time of her life- Gracie not so much. I finally got out and got her and I dressed and she was content to watch Brooklyn swim. After swimming we decided to drive into West Yellowstone- Brooklyn was really wanting to see a buffalo (not likely so see one between Island Park and W. Yellowstone). As we drove through town a noticed a sign that said Yellowstone Park now open. So we went to check things out and sure enough it was. Brooklyn LOVES Yellowstone so you can imagine how happy she was when we drove in. It was a successful drive in. We saw lots of elk, lots of buffalo- taking their sweet time walking down the road, a beautiful waterfall, and to top things of when we were heading out we saw a huge grizzly bear. Brooklyn remembered seeing bears this summer when we were there and was saying she wanted to see one. We kept telling her that we probably wouldn't because they might still be hibernating.

We decided that on Sunday we would go to church and then go have a picnic at Old Faithful. I have never seen Yellowstone with snow or Old Faithful. (Gracie woke up that morning with a nasty cough.) The highlight of the drive there is when we passed a coyote running down the road. Brooklyn of course loved this. When we got to Old Faithful it was really windy and quite chilly and we had over an hour to spare before Old Faithful went off again. We went to the Durango and had a picnic in it. By the time Old Faithful went off, both girls had had it. And didn't quite enjoy it as much as I thought they would. But it is still an amazing sight.

That night, Gracie became one sick girl. She was running a high fever, coughing, and had a runny nose. We were going to stay until Tuesday, but decided to come home Monday. I got her into the doctor and found out that she has double ear infections. So it has been a couple of longs nights. But I think that she is finally feeling a little better.

It was fun to go up there as our little family and spend time together and get to have some time with Pops. Thanks dad for everything- we had a blast!