Summer Trip 2009 Phase 1...Yellowstone

PHASE 1: YELLOWSTONE

Yellowstone! In July we took a family trip. Papa and Grandma Halladay were camping and fishing at Henry's Fork up near West Yellowstone. We camped with them for about 3 days and saw all the sites at Yellowstone National Park. The kids had never been there before and had a great time seeing all the Geyser's and wildlife!

We walked around and saw all the "hot-pots"....they were a little stinky!

As we were taking this picture we were getting sprayed by all the stinky sulfur water!

Papa Steve had warned the kids to "stay on the paths". That if you got off the walkways, you could sink into the hot pots, because the ground is soft and unstable. Probably true, but the kids were freaked that they would fall off and sink...this was most likely a good strategy for keeping Cooper from wandering off and exploring on his own!

All my cute boys!

Bailey and Tren looking out over the scenery...

Papa and Tren

It was lightly raining most of the day! The kids still had fun. Tren loved looking at "STUFF" with the binoculars.

Tren and Mom

We saw SO many buffalo.. I mean Bison. I couldn't stop calling them buffalo. I'm not sure what the difference is...

Here we are waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. Along with hundreds of other people. The kids loved this! It was worth the wait and sure enough, very faithful!

Yea!!! It finally erupted!

After watching O.F. we went to check out the "Old Lodge" It was really cool! Grandma and Papa treated us to ice cream, it was a fun day!



We climbed as high as we could! Here the kids are overlooking the lobby area.

The tree the kids are sitting in, is just built into the lodge. They thought it was cool!

On our way out of the Lodge, Old Faithful erupted again!

Everyone posing by the famous sign!

Next we were off to see the big waterfall. We saw it from three different views and it was SPECTACULAR!

Here we are right at the top of the falls. Looking down was so scary!

The next day we went to West Yellowstone to the Bear and Wolf exhibit. The bears came out in shifts and it was fun to see them hunt for the food in their habitat. All of the bears here were rescued and couldn't live in the wild anymore.

The wolf's didn't do too much...mostly just layed around..

There were a lot of fun things for the kids to do. This was a "bear cave" for the them to play in. They were a little "wild" so it was very appropriate!

Here is one of the bears we saw. The trainer came out before the bears and hid food. This is so the bears don't lose their natural ability to forage and hunt.

We caught some kids in the bear trap!

We found an authentic "Native American" tee-pee

THE SIGN......

These painted Bison were all over West Yellowstone. They were so cool. Each one was so unique and fun to look at.

Tren getting attacked by a big Grizz!

We had a GREAT time in Yellowstone and camping with Grandma and Papa!!!!

SMORES with Grandma and Papa

We spent lots of time this summer at Grandma's and Grandpa's. The kids loved to climb the trees and make Smores!

Tren goes to Scout day camp July 1st, 2009

Tren's scout troop went to Day Camp, themed "Mission to Mars." It was held at Lake Lowell in Nampa. I, being the Wolf Den leader had the privilege of supervising the boys in our ward! It was a long, hot, but fun day!! Our pack is #114. All the pack's had to make up a CHEER to perform in front of everybody. Ours went a little something like this...

SPACE, SPACE, IN YOUR FACE! PACK 114 LOVES THIS PLACE!
(They all then hit themselves in the forehead and fall to the ground). Loving it!





The boys got to do an obstacle course. Here are Tren and Braydon getting ready to run the course.



Here Tren is finishing up the course with "a run up a ramp, jump off and run across wobbly discs in the grass" obstacle.

It wouldn't be scout camp without loud annoying "Musical Instruments!!" Which, by the way I had to confiscate for the van ride home.

The best part of the day for the boy's was shooting guns and bow and arrows!Here Tren is getting ready for his turn! He had to sit on the far left end of the table because he is left handed.
All the boys after shooting guns. (Back) Tren, Ray Riley (Middle) Shandon Holm, Braydon Pugmire (Front) Jayson Wiggins

Shooting the bow and Arrows was a lot of fun!

The boys made stomp rockets. The rocket was made out of newspaper rolled up with poster board fins on the bottom. They had 2 liter pop bottles attached to PVC pipe. The boys put their rocket at the end of the pipe and then "stomped" on the pop bottle. The rockets flew up it the air.....pretty fun!

Here we are down by the lake on our lunch break. The boys were skipping rocks and finding dead fish along the shore. It was a fun day, and I was glad I got to go with Tren.