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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Yellowstone Revisited

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.  ~Henry David Thoreau
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We took another trip to Yellowstone last week.  This time it was with Emma and Willis, and it was a great time.


This time we took a different route.  We stopped on the way to enjoy a field of wild flowers.


We also stopped a little bit in town and looked at some of the gift shops.


We saw a lot more wildlife this time as well.  It was pretty exciting.
This one wasn't very lucky


I love Yellowstone.  There is no place quite like it.
My Favorite Place- Dragon's Mouth Cave


I don't think I'll ever get tired of going back.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Gardening

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns
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So, Stephen and I have been busy gardening and I thought I would share.


We've been growing a few flowers.  They're blooming a little. They're cute.


We're growing some Green Beans as well.  I killed a few of them by over-watering, but after some research and learning that beans like drier soil, they are very happy!  Live and learn. :)


We have one tomato plant that is a hybrid tomato specially bred for container gardens.  It is doing so well!  It is a couple feet tall and already has many little green tomatoes.  It's exciting.

This guy is much smaller because we grew him from seed, but he is taking off.  This is a beefsteak tomato plant.

We also bought one of those hanging tomato planters and planted a cherry tomato plant in it.  It is doing so well, and since I took these pictures many of those flowers have turned into little tomatoes.

We also have several varieties of pepper.  We have one banana pepper plant, two habenero pepper plants, one jalepeno pepper plant, one red bell pepper plant, and one really hot pepper plant that I don't remember the name of.  They are all flowering and starting to produce little peppers except for the last one, because that is one we started from seed.

Last but not least, we are growing sugar snap peas.  Yum!

This is what the set-up looks like on our deck.  The plastic bins have the peppers in them, and the clear container has the peas.    The really tall one is one of the tomato plants, and if you look up in the left you can see our hanging tomato (it blends in with the trees).  Over in the left corner you can see our beans and flowers.

We are really enjoying our gardening adventure.  It's cool to go out every day and see how the plants have grown.  I'll post some pictures again when we have our fruit.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Yellowstone

It was fascinating to see people who had never been to Yellowstone, see the landscape that lived in their oral traditions. It was very much a reunion with their past. -Rosemary Sucec
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This past weekend Julie and her family came to Idaho to visit.  It was so much fun!

Friday we went out to dinner and played at the park.  

Then, Saturday we headed off to Yellowstone.  Julie, her family, Micheal, his family, Stephen, and I all went.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  The children were very patient with the car ride.

We stopped and had a picnic once we got to the park, and then we went off to see the sights.  The first place we stopped was to see some paint pots and geysers.  It was probably my favorite stop in the whole park!


We saw the boiling mud in the "paint pots."

We also saw some amazingly colorful (and stinky) pools.

We also happened to arrive at just the right time to see the Fountain Geyser go off.

Then we went off to see the Great Prismatic Spring.  It was a place full of warm steam.  It was interesting to feel the contrast between the cool Yellowstone air, and the warm steam that would occasionally envelop us.  

Ocean and I really enjoyed it.  We counted hats that had blown off people's heads into the pools.  I think we found about 6.


Then we headed off to the ever famous Old Faithful.  Again, we made it just in time.  It was pretty cool to watch.

However the children found some logs to turn into a see-saw.  That was probably their favorite part of the trip. :)

While in the park we saw a few glimpses of wildlife.

After this we found a quiet place to have a picnic, and then headed home.

We all spent the night and the next day at Michael's house.  It was so kind of them to put us all up.  We had a lot of fun.  The children enjoyed playing with their cousins.

"Uncle Stephen" was well liked because he would wrestle with and play with the kids.

He also was very busy taking pictures.

His new hat I made was also a fun prop. (Pattern here)

All in all it was a wonderful weekend.  I loved spending time with some of my new family!