Utah State Hey...

Aggies all the way! A couple weeks ago, Sean and I took the gals to the home opener football game and we had a blast! The Ags played Weber State and although the first half was close, the second half was a blow out for the Ags! It was the LOTOJA so my dad wasn't there (we missed him), but Nat and Greg brought their kiddos too. We are so excited for the upcoming season!

Preschool

I don't know why my computer is underlining and I can't get it to turn off.

Miss Gracie had a big week this week- she started her first year of preschool. She has been so excited all summer for preschool to start and asked weekly if it was time. She is going to Little Star Preschool in Hyrum. This is the preschool Brooklyn went to and we loved Teacher Paskett! We went packpack (backpack) shopping and Gracie was thrilled to get a Dora packpack. Gracie is a very tenderhearted little thing and I was a little nervous of how she would handle me dropping her off and leaving her. But she did just fine and loved it. I really can't believe that my little Gracie is going to preschool- I may have had a tear when I left her. And her day wouldn't have be complete without celebrating with a trip to McDon's- as she calls it. It was also Garrett's first day so we met Nat and her kiddos and Grandma and had a great celebration!

Oh Give Me A Home...

Where the buffalo roam. Me and the gals, my mom, and my sister and her kiddos made an impromptu trip to Yellowstone. My aunt Paula and her family were going and we were bummed that we weren't joining them. So the morning that my brother left, my mom was sad and Nat said to her, "should we go to Yellowstone?" My mom asked her if she thought we could find anywhere and Nat quickly got on the phone and my some miracle was able to get 2 nights in the Park- which is unheard of on that short of notice. Nat awakened me from my slumber to see if the gals and I would be in and of course we were. It was the day that we were meeting Sean's family at Downata- so in a couple of hours I had us packed for the day at Downata as well as for our Yellowstone trip. My mom and Nat pulled the rest of the packing off and picked me and the gals up at Downata and we drove to West Yellowstone and stayed the first night. A few of our family members already in Yellowstone knew we were coming, but Paula didn't and we had made plans to surprise her. We pulled into the Bridge Bay campground just as the crew was heading to their cars- Paula's back was to us and my mom pushed on the gas and honked the horn. My cousin Jan said, "crazy driver!" Paula whipped around ready to give the crazy drivers a piece of her mind- the look of death on her face was classic. It took her a good 10 seconds to realize it was us and then her jaw dropped and a scream came out of her mouth. I was so bummed I didn't have my camcorder going because it was priceless.

We loaded up and went on a drive and had a picnic. I have got to say that I LOVE Yellowstone- I have such priceless memories of the many trips we made to Yellowstone with my Grandma Ila and Grandpa Mar. I love to be able to start to have my kids get some of these same memories. We love to go on drives looking for animals- the gals never get tired of seeing buffaloes, we saw elk, deer, and we were even lucky enough to see several bears. On one drive, we saw a black bear, a grizzly bear, and another grizz with her 2 cubs. The next day as we were driving through one of our favorite places called Hayden Valley, there were about million cars pulled off. We got out to see what was going on and found out that there was a dead buffalo in the river and bears were feeding on it. At one time there were 7 different bears including the mama and her cubs. It was quite the sight- the kiddos were even able to see what was going on and could clearly see the bears- it was a highlight.

These 3 deer were hanging out at the campground during our hotdog roast

My gals love Old Faithful so we headed there one day. We pulled into the parking lot at 12:21 and noticed that there were tons of people gathered around. My mom jumped at of the car to see what time it was predicted to go off and it was to go at 12:26 so my mom, Nat, and I started scrambling getting strollers out and unloading the kiddos. I am sure we looked a sight. We were able to get them unloaded, my mom and Nat go and park the cars and get back just in time to see Old Faithful shoot off! Perfect timing! It is 90 minutes in between it going off so it would have been a brutal wait with the kids. And seeing Old Faithful isn't complete without enjoying some yummy ice cream. By the time we got the ice cream and had it eaten we were actually able to see it shoot off again!

This was the story of Ella's trip-blow out after blow out!!

The crew minus me at the cabin at Lake Lodge- what a great trip!! THANKS mom for drowning your sorrows of missing Brett by taking us to Yellowstone- we had a blast!