Relaxing Summer

August has come and I feel already gone (even though we have the other half to go).  

We have been doing many things but mostly hanging out at home.

Lizzy and I are starting to count down to the first day of school.  Another two weeks to go until the boys go to school and about 2 1/2 weeks til Lizzy has her first day.

 Lizzy has been asking to take dance for about a year now.  We finally were able to sign her up for a summer program.  Now she dances with specific dance moves and to classical music.  She even lets me to her hair like a dancer.

She even dances in the trees.  

Thomas has been rowing all summer long. He has wanted to row for awhile but he now is old enough to row with the youth rowing club.  He has been practicing with the Ergs at school for a couple of years.  He has really like rowing in a real row boat (which has given him a 6 pack).  When the weather is not windy they are out on the strait rowing (He is in the gray shirt).  Last Wednesday he was excited because they went in a 8-man row boat.  He said that the boat was really heavy.  He has a great coach that is teaching him the basics of rowing. 

 Henry has been taking tennis lessons for the last couple of weeks and has improved his serve (no pictures yet).  He really like to stay close to the net and volley the ball.  It has been fun to take Henry to play tennis this year.  We can actually hit the ball back and forth.  

Henry has also gone fishing with his friend Dale.  He has caught a couple of sockeye Salmon.  Dale took videos of Henry (which are awesome, will have to post later)!!!!!  Today, he was up at 5:30 am to go fishing again.  Didn't even have to wake him up.  Let us say, we all were up the earliest we have all summer. But we cannot wait til Henry comes home with smoke Salmon!!!!!   

 This summer Lizzy and Elena have hung out a lot (we sure miss her when she is gone). 

Can you believe they play in the pool when it is in the 60's.  Cold!!!!! 

 This year Lizzy is having a hard time playing by herself.  She feels someone needs to be entertaining her at all times.  Well, I do not have the energy to do this or feel like I should have to.  So finally she figured out she could still play war with Lynx.  We are so glad we have Lynx to entertain Lizzy.

This summer we got a slip and slide to play on.  But why would we use the slip and slide the right way.  We have used it in many different ways.  Mostly to see if we could get inside by jumping up and over.They also go around banging into things when they are on the inside.  

 What is summer without Lake Crescent.  We have gone a few times this year.  This year the boys are into diving for things they found at the bottom.  Lizzy is into the social scene and plays with whoever is at the beach that day.

 The boys have been watching a lot of Mythbusters this summer.  Henry also has a book of experiments from the Mythbusters.  Henry decided to make jawbreakers and see if they explode in his mouth.  Well, we made the jawbreakers but no exploding in the mouth.  

 So my favorite thing this summer is the boys are doing the dishes all by themselves.  I think I was feed-up one day with who knows what and told them the new rule was one will to the washing and the other the rinsing when one of them had dish duty.  Wow, love it!!!!!!

Yellowstone

We have had a wonderful family reunion going to Yellowstone.  It was wonderful to see everyone together.  I really miss everyone.  I wish we lived closer together. 

When I travel long distances in the car, I always love to see some of the sights along the way.  We decided to go to the Grand Coolee Dam.  It took an extra 3 hours in the car but Thomas said it was worth every minute.  Some facts about the dam is . . . . it is about 1 mile long. You could construct a highway from Los Angeles to New York that is a 4 lane highway with all the concrete.  The dam was made for irrigation water not for electricity (even though it supplies 21 billion kilo-watts of energy a year. 

It was really hot there.  Going from high 50's to 90's was a shock for the children.  I loved the heat. 

Here we are at the top of the dam.  It was really high up.

I think the best part of the dam was driving to and from the dam. The rock formations were beautiful on the way there (just like out of the movie Cars) and on the way out it was beautiful farmland.  Acre after acre of wheat, canola and other grains. 

Well, we got to Yellowstone and spent our first day in West Yellowstone visiting the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.  It was really cool to see the bears and wolves up close.  Those Alaskan Bears were huge (probably as big as those huge buffalo we saw).  They were probably double what those Montana Bears were.   The wolves were big too and very fluffy.  I really love animals.   

Later that day we check out the lake by the cabin. 

The second day we traveled around the lower loop.  We made quite a few stops, loving each one.  The first stop was the Midway Geyser Basin.  These was Chris's favorite stop.  It was really cool to see the steam different colors--Blue, Red, White.

The second stop of the day was Old Faithful.  We got there just in time to watch it (should have been about a 20 minute wait but it ended up being a lot longer.)  Old Faithful was a little late but totally worth seeing. 

This is such a great picture from Yellowstone. 

How many pictures do you see of wildlife outside a car in Yellowstone.

We were able to see many wildlife up close and far away.  I do wish to have seen a bear in the wild but Lizzy was able to.  

This was my favorite part of the trip.  This canyon just blow me away.  It was so beautiful.  The cliffs were yellow and very deep, the waterfalls seems to come out of nowhere and were huge.  It was amazing.  I think the coolest part about Yellowstone is you travel a couple of miles and the landscape was totally different.  Think of the canyon and then go to the Mammoth Springs.  Totally different but both really interesting.  Could have stayed there for hours and hours looking around.

The cousins (minus James)

The next day we hung out at the lake fishing, swimming and hanging out on the canoe. 

Eli is a great fishermen.  Checking out the water to see if there is any fish.

I love pictures of fishing.  It looks so calm and peaceful.

Well, if we didn't get enough fishing during the day, we decided to go fishing at night or dusk.  We headed up to Madison River and fish for a couple of hours.  Wow, I have never seen so many fish jump, and jump and jump.  It was really fun to be out in the middle of the river and cast back and forth. 

The next day (maybe Thursday) we went back into Yellowstone and did the upper loop.  We were able to see dirt bloop out of the earth at Artists Paintpots.  Just all of a sudden material was coming out of the earth.  It was crazy.  (only picture of all three kids together in Yellowstone.  Probably since there were with their cousins)

We stopped at Obsidian Cliffs. These rocks seemed like someone was playing with Lego's and forgot to pick them up.  It was in the middle of nowhere.  Who would have thought they would have had them in Yellowstone but wow they were really cool.  Columns upon columns of rocks. 

We also went and saw the Mammoth Hot Springs area.  Wow, it looked like a bomb went off.  It was really beautiful but eerie.  I would have loved to walk through it but you cannot so walking around and driving around was the best thing you could do.  Next time, I will have to hike more.

After the Mammoth Hot Springs, Henry, Dad, Brad, Andy and Me went fishing again (no camera).  We started at Gibbons River and then headed back down to Madison River.  It was really fun. I caught my first fish fly fishing.  It was really fun.  Luckily, Henry was there to unhook the fish.  Henry hasn't caught a fish with his pool yet but there is still hope and he is still willing to fish.  We fished until there was no sunlight to see the line with.   

Friday we went river rafting and boy was that fun.  My kids had a blast.  (Brad, Henry found a pair of sunglasses while diving in Lake Crescent yesterday!!!!!  We thought of you and maybe could replace your glasses with the ones we found!!!!!!

Let the diving being.  That is Henry!!!!~

There is Bruce

Oh-Thomas just get wet.

And of-course ME.  Many more dived but some I didn't get pictures of. 

Kids Olympics.  Oh-yes, the stress!!!!

Coming home from the family Reunion we went to the Lewis and Clark Caverns (which I thought was awesome).  It was a 2 hour tour of the underground world of different limestone formations. 

I couldn't believe how it went on forever.  There were places that we had to duck our heads, slide down, and tightly walk through so we wouldn't touch the formations.  If you are ever in the area it is worth the side trip!!!!

This is how we were for the week after our vacation.  Tired!!!!!

Thanks again Sarah and Ben for a wonderful Family Reunion.