Yellowstone Family Vacation

We left on June 13 for our family trip to Yellowstone National Park.  On the morning of that first day, both Jason and Kora had screws fall out of their glasses, which we couldn't find since they were outside in the grass.  Neither one has ever lost screws before, but of course since we were on vacation they both lost one within an hour of each other. Jesse did a wonderful job wiring them back together with some wire we had in the car and with the wire from a bread tie.  They lasted the whole rest of the trip. 

We got to Livingston, MT, where we stayed on Sunday night, June 14.  Here is a picture after 8 hours in the car.  You can see how happy Kora is about being in the car all day.
 

 

We arrived in Yellowstone on Monday morning, June 15 and got a campsite at Indian Creek campground.  After we set up our tent and had lunch, we went for a short hike down to the Obsidian Creek.

On our hike near our campground.

 

 

 

Here is a view of the road we drove on from

Mammoth Hot Springs to our camp site.

 

One of the many elk that was in Mammoth when we drove through.

 

 

That afternoon, Megan, Jason and I went horseback riding.  Megan was so excited.  She had been waiting a long time to ride a horse by herself.  Jason wasn't as excited initially, but he loved it afterwards.  Jason's horse was named Little Chief, which was appropriate for him.  That horse didn't want to stay back by Megan and I at the end of the line.  He had to move himself up to be closer to the front on the line. 

 

 

 

Jesse and Kora went fishing near our campsite.  This was the first time Kora had ever gone fishing with a real pole and jig.  She also loved it.  She caught 3 brook trout.

 

When we got back from horseback riding, we went fishing with Jesse and Kora. 

Jason also caught a couple of brook trout.

 

 

When we got back to the campground from riding horse, we had just enough time to finish supper before the thunderstorms moved in.  We almost got everything put away when it started to hail.  So we hopped into the car and waited it out.  This was the first time I've ever seen a hail storm with no rain, only hail.  It didn't start to rain until the hail was done.  Kora is now afraid of thunderstorms after watching the nickel-sized hail hit the car.

First Day of Spring

We celebrated the first day of Spring by having the kids get pulled in the sleds behind the 4-wheeler.  I guess we had our few days of spring and now it's back to winter for a while until we have spring for good.  The kids did enjoy sledding on the fresh snow.

Especially when they could have snow ball fights at the same time.

Jason wanted to use his snow board a little more

before winter's over, so he tried snow surfing.

  He did pretty well with it.  Don't worry,

Jesse drove pretty slow, even though Jason

was telling him to go faster.

What a difference a week makes

Jason got a snow board and wanted to try it out, so on March 6, we took the kids sledding and snow boarding down a snow hill.  Jason got pretty good at making it to the bottom without falling. 

 

The snowmobile rides back up the hill by

Grandpa Jim were also a favorite.

 

 

Kora loved riding in the big sled with Dad or Mom.

 

What a difference a week makes.  It went from the dead of winter to spring in a few days.  The snow is just about gone.  This is what we were doing this past weekend.

 

Tank loves popping the bubbles. Kora was happy to blow

them for him.

 

We all enjoyed the warm weather.  Jason did say he wished he had more time

 to practice on the snow board, but I will not miss the snow. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Megan and Jason were very proud of the valentine boxes they made this year so they wanted me to put a picture of them on the blog.  This the first year in a long time that they made boxes for school at home.  They usually decorate a bag in school with their class. 

Megan's is a cat and Jason's is a tank.  The tank is hard to see,

but it has tracks and the top part with the cannon swivels.  Megan

wanted the valentines to go into the box through the cat's mouth.

Here is a random fun picture of Jason all cozy, reading in a box. 

Boxes just never get old when you're a kid.

 

 

Bowling

We went to my nephew Jakob's 6th Birthday Party, which was held at a bowling aisle.  This was Kora's first time bowling.  Jason helped her carry the ball to the ramp and line the ramp up, then she would push the ball down.  Can you believe that Kora got the highest score with 10 other kids all 5 years old and up?  Must have been beginner's luck.

 

Gotta love the bowling shoes.  Size 10 was the smallest

they had, which were huge on her size 6 feet.  But it was

better than having her go in just her socks which

were very slippery on the wood floor.

Jason got a strike rolling the bowling ball this way.

 



 

We stayed overnight at a hotel after lots of swimming. 

 This is what Kora's hair looked like when she woke up in the morning.

Camping Out

Every year during Christmas Vacation, Megan and Jason camp out in the living room in their tents they received for Christmas when they were little.  This year, we made Kora a little tent so she could camp out with them.  She was very excited to have her own tent and be just like the "big kids" sleeping in the living room.

Merry Christmas!

This is the first year since Megan and Jason have been born that either Jesse or I have had to work Christmas, which isn't too bad since they are 9 years old.  So we were at home to celebrate Christmas and Christmas Eve with just our family.  We will be heading out to the Grandparents' homes over the weekend.  On Christmas Eve, we went to a Christmas Eve Service, and then we delivered "Secret Santa" packages to several people we knew in town.  This is the first year that we did this, and Megan and Jason had fun with it.  If we do it again next year, they will have to work on their get-away back to the car.  They were a little slow the first couple of times.  After looking at Christmas lights, we came home to open presents.   

 

 

Christmas morning having their "Happy Birthday Jesus" muffins. 

They had fun blowing out the candles.