The Dingers in California!

Warning: HUGE BLOG!
Now for round 2!

We went back to California with the Olesens. We left on Saturday night and made our way to wondrous Winnemucca, Nevada where we spent the night. The next day we made our way to Walnut Creek, CA (where Jake is from). We of course had to drive through the Sierra Nevadas, and of course there was puke in the car! YIKES! Tori decided that the roads were a little too windy for her and gave her breakfast to her booster seat.
So of course there was tons of traffic getting back into California too! Minus the smell of puke, the girls were great for me on an 11 hour car ride! We were excited for the washing machine that awaited us at Jake's parent's house! We were all very glad to be out of the car too! We had a fabulous dinner at the Olesen home (as usual) and stuffed to the bone. We then loaded the car one last time and made our way to Alameda.
I love Alameda. It has a fabulous small city feel and it is so quiet. It is also so marvelously cool all of the time...or at least we thought.

Our first morning we decided to take the kids on the Bay walk. Yeah, my sister is that close to the bay that it is a 15 minute walk and you are there! It was unusually hot on the walk. Lora commented that it usually isn't that hot, and I didn't think anything of it until on our way back home. Amazing pics, huh?!We continued our walk along the ponds that run through Alameda neighborhoods. We stopped at some parks and Tori actually played in the sand...and as you can see LOVED it. The last time we were in California (just a year ago) she wouldn't set her foot in the stuff! She is still afraid of the jungle gyms, but I bet this time next year she will be all over that too! She loves to swing in the big girl swing too! Oscar showed me his amazing jumping and climbing skills. He is such a monkey and really has no fear! I LOVE that picture of Liv. I caught her off guard, because she usually gives me a silly face when I am trying to take a picture of her (she really is hilarious!).Oscar loves Brooke so much. I tried with all of my might to get a good picture of Brooke and him together, but no such luck. Brookie chilled with us in the shade while the kids played in the park. This is when we thought to ourselves...it is only 11 and it is this hot already?! What is up with that? On our way back I was dripping sweat down my back! (I know that is graphic, but this hardly happens in Alameda!)Well, my Dad just happens to call during his lunch break and comments on the fact that it is going to be 92*. I said, "Oh Dad, we are in Alameda now, not in Meridian." and he said, "I know, it is actually only 77* in Meridian today!" WHAT??? So apparently, I came to Alameda again during their 3 day heat wave. Day 1 was sweltering because we were not prepared. We didn't leave the windows open at the right time. It took us all of our energy to keep our eyes open. We let all of the kids run around in their undies and diapers in the house to stay cool! If only Lora and I could have done that! And to top it off we decided to make a delicious cake in the OVEN! We were nuts! Tori loved jumping on the trampoline though. This might be an investment that we make in the near future. She was on that thing anytime the patio doors were open!So basically for 3 days we melted in the Alameda heat and the only reprieve was an air conditioned car ride and trips to the grocery store! Ha ha ha! At night Lora and I watched girly movies and shows (sorry Jake! I didn't mean to steal away your wife every night...I just miss hanging out with her!) and we hung out with the kiddos during the day. Tori loved all of Livy's toys. She had a blast with the princess vanity and this remote control My Little Pony scooter. She loved Fredo (a nice kitty!) and there was always a constant "Uh-cle" whenever Uncle Jake was around. Isn't Oscar so handsome?! Oh that kid is going to be a heart breaker! Lora made her famous chocolate chip cookies (on a much cooler regular Alameda day) and captured the girls eating together on the patio bench with their princesses. Tori loves Aurora, although she has never seen Sleeping Beauty and Livers had Belle. (I am trying not to call Livy Livers anymore because I apparently got a lot of weird looks in parking lots calling the cutest girl Livers!) Tori and Liv's love and hate relationship continued in California. When it was good, they held hands, sang songs and shared tutus. When it was bad, well, we just won't go there!

Jason came to join us in beautiful Alameda after a week of slight disaster in Meridian. Apparently there was a huge wind storm that blew over our beautiful curly willow tree in our backyard (luckily onto the maple tree to the side of it and not onto the house!) and a whole bunch of shingles from our roof. Jason was a bit stressed with the removal of the tree and then finding someone to take care of the roof al while working full time! Yikes. But Jason was welcomed with open arms and excited screams from Oscar.

Our first morning we went to the park with the munchkins and Lora and I managed to get the one and only picture of us together! Oscar loved pushing Brooke on the swings, while Liv and Tori shoveled their way to China in the sand. It is so much fun to see our kids together! I wish that we could do this more than once or twice a year!

Oscar LOVES Brooke. I think that he would have kept her if he could. He was very proud to put her on his shoulder! Uncle Jason also read to the girls to get them ready for the night!

What says Princess more than a makeover?! Livy Lou made me over! My hair was fabulous! I love all of her little faces, so make sure that you click on the picture to make it bigger.

Brookie photo shoot in the blue egg chair! SO CUTE!

Mmmm! Nothing says California than In-N-Out! Mmmm...Oscar got to have some fries for the first time in a long time, so we documented. The bird...well, Tori wanted a picture of the birds that were attacking all of the left over fries that people discarded. It was quite the different little bird.

Saturday we took a field trip to Walnut Creek again! We always get good food there and we get to swim! Oscar can dive! Tori didn't like the water all that much this year, but she did look fashionable in the goggles and stayed comfy on a whole chair of warm towels. We of course all crowded into the hot tub because the other part of the pool is not heated and it was soooo cold!

It was baby Brookie's first pool experience and oh doesn't she look so cute in her little suit. Lora bought the Princess mobile at CVS pharmacy for $2! Lora caught all of these amazing pictures of Brookie enjoying the pool with all of us! Brooke's last move in the pool, dunking her face in the water. After a few tears and a warm towel, she was fine. Ha ha ha.

Here is my favorite. Do you see those eyes! All I did to the picture was add in shadow! She is gorgeous (and ghostly white!)

Well, we went home on Sunday after we went to church. Jake gave a talk on the Beatitudes and got called as the early morning seminary teacher! I would have loved him as a teacher! We almost left pink blanket in Alameda, but a quick trip back to the house and we retrieved it! That would have been a disaster! The ride home went well (no puke!), the girls really are quite amazing in the car and they even napped well. We pulled into the driveway before midnight too! What a trip. Can't wait until we get together again!

The Olesens visit Idaho!

Really? Has it taken me a whole month to post this?! YES! I know! But, I am finally documenting it, and there are tons of pictures! (Warning: it takes a lot of effort to get children to look at the camera, let alone get them to all look at the camera at the exact moment in time...so not all pictures are amazing, but it is documentation that they were together!)
Lora and her family came on Friday, the 13th of August. I could not wait until they got to the house and I cleaned the whole house while I waited to keep me from looking at the clock every minute. Immediately out of the car the Livy and Tori were instant besties and went inside to play. (Tori and Livy had a love/hate relationship while on this rendezvous. One moment they were besties, holding hands and sharing and the next it was pushing, hitting and coveting. What more do you say about a 2 and 3 year old...sounds typical to me!) I missed Lora a ton (although I talk to her almost every day), so she got an instant hug. It was great to see Oscar (who is getting so big and is so ridiculously clever) and Jake too.
During the duration of the Idaho shenanigans the "Big Ball" was the coveted spot in the house for jumping, acrobatic and viewing movie pleasures! Uncle Jason was at the lead teaching them how to land cartwheels and such onto the Luv Sac! These pictures of the girls were taken the first day.
We had amazing sleeping arrangements. All of the kids were in the girls' room. Livy and Oscar were on a queen sized air mattress! That week Brookie was a bit congested and we were in and out of that room a lot in those tight quarters. Lora has some great pictures of Livy and Tori up at night talking to each other. One night (I think it was Saturday because Jake was still here) we hear Livy yell for Daddy and he goes in there to find that Tori had yanked the nightlight out of the socket (Livy likes to have a nightlight) and her exclamation, "Daddy, she ruined my life. She ruined my freaking life!" Ha ha ha! It was hilarious. It definitely left us all in stitches.

It was definitely hotter in Idaho that week than in California (my sister and family live in Alameda, the land of forever 70*, or at least we thought...) and her kids were melting in the heat (although we were in air conditioning most of the time). Meridian, ID is not exactly the funnest place in the universe for little kids either, but we did our best. When it wasn't too sweltering we let the kids play outside. They climbed our willow tree (which now has become bark dust...more on that story later), ran around on the lawn, picked flowers, played in pool and played soccer with Uncle Jason (there is no contest on who the favorite in our family is!).
But we do have a few things here that the Olesens do not have in California: Flatbread Pizza and a free Community Water Park. Jake was here both weekends and we had to go to Flatbread Pizza both weekends! (There are always pounds to be added when you get together with family!) We didn't get a picture of us eating their scrumptious food, but if was fabulous! Their pizza is as close as you can get to Italian pizza in the states.
Oh the water park. I love this park that we have in Meridian...it's called Settler's Park and it has everything you can think of for little kids to do: climbing rocks, musical instruments, swings, a small jungle gym for the little kids and a humongous jungle gym for the big kids and a nice water park that is free to the public during the summer. Lora has the pictures of the kids playing at the park, so when those are blogged or sent to me I will make another blog of the missing pieces. The kids had a blast (especially Oscar) and Tori even got a little wet in one of the mini sprinklers.
A few more pictures of enjoying the outdoors.

This is the only picture that I got of my sister with Brooke, and the worst part...it is blurry. In black and white it is not as bad, but I was very sad. This was kind of an illegal shot too. Lora didn't want me to take a picture of her without her new haircut. Lora might have some more pictures though, so more to come. (And of course there is only 1 picture of the 2 of us! figures! we need to get out from behind the cameras!)
Pretend that this is our refrigerator. The kids were very artistic this week. Especially Oscar. He drew pictures of all of his super hero guys. I think that they are pretty impressive. (Except that Lora helped Oscar spell Modock when it was supposed to be Doom...so there is 1 mislabeled). The pictures with the 4 suns and flowers is Livy's. I asked her what her painting was and she said, "In my world there are 4 suns!" Well, there you have it. 4 suns and beautiful purple flowers. Tori made her first stick figure person (lower right picture). I drew Daddy, Mommy and Brooke (she added Brooke's shoes) and she drew a picture of herself. Although the figure does have 5 limbs, I think that it is very good for her first time. I think that there are people in Tori's picture in the top right to. What do you see?Sunday was crazy because we had to get two families ready in the allotted amount of time. But we were a success. We made it to church on time and the kids were good. We took a whole entire middle row too! Brooke looked so cute in her dress that we had a mini photo shoot.
So Brookie got a lot of lovin' out of this get together. Both Liv and Oscar loved and were a bit obsessed with Brookie. But I guess who isn't? Oscar was constantly looking for Brooke, giving her hugs and kisses, giving her toys and trying to hold her. Livy was just amazing with her and would give her toys and sing to her when she cried.
I don't have many pictures of Oscar, but it was fun to watch old school Transformer cartoons with him and to steal some kisses from him. Just because, he would say "I love you Auntie Kendra" and it would just make the day 100x better! He is so sweet.
We ventured out a few more times during the week (Lora has all of the pictures from the Birds of Prey museum), but my favorite time was just hanging out with the kids and with Lora and Jake. We sure miss you guys and it makes me really sad that we don't live closer and can't see each other more often. It was really fun to hang out with Lora at night and reminisce. I MISS MY SISTER SO MUCH!
Now I am remembering what it was like just the two of us hanging out on our trundle bed wondering what our futures would hold...dreaming of the time when we would marry identical twins and live right next door to each other. Well, at least our husbands like each other and we don't live on opposite sides of the country...but I still dream of the day when we live closer than this!
P.S. I totally cried while making this blog because I miss them so much already (I am such a cry baby!). Thank heavens for Skype, cell phones and Blogs! I think I would be a wreck without technology!

32 and getting bigger (not me...Brooke!)

My sister is coming, my sister is coming! I cannot wait...but I have too! It is agony knowing that my sister and her family are getting closer and closer by the minute and there is nothing for me to do but sit and wait. I mean, I have already cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, washed the dishes, cleaned the counters, put away all of the toys, edited all of the pictures I uploaded...and she is still not here! And to make it worse, both girls are napping, so there is nothing to do but wait!
So while I wait I will write about my 32nd Birthday! Yes it is true, I had a birthday and it was great. Nothing too big, but there was funfetti cake! Oh yeah! I love the candles...I found them at Wal-mart and had to have them! Hey, mom, that is the cake stand that you bought me! My mom gave me some money and I got some marvelous stuff for my kitchen! I also will get a negative scanner (we just haven't purchased it yet) from Jason for my birthday so I can digitally have copies of all of my wedding, mission and "back in the day" photos! It will be a feat, but I can't wait to get started!
I think Tori is starting to get that Birthdays are fun parties with cake! She practiced blowing out the candles after I did! Please note that she put on her "bir-day hat!" for one of the pictures! ha ha ha!
Well, Brooke has now graduated to a big girl bath. I got a lot of fun shots of her and Tori taking their first bath together and boy was it cute, but thought that I would just post this one... Mind you that I used the flash on this one and of course it totally whited Brooke out to look the color of the bathtub, so I played around and got this. Look at those eyes! We also took Brooke in for her 9 month check up and she is as healthy as ever! She is 50%tile for all of her stats. She weighs 18 pounds and I think she is 27 1/2 inches long. She has now perfected her crawl and is all over the place! She is such a fun little girl!

Final Day at Yellowstone! (August 3rd)

Ah man! It's the last day. I know you are probably thinking "Thank Goodness! Kendra took way too many pictures!" Well, I promise that the next event I will only take 200! :) Anyway, we loaded up our cars with all of your goods (basically most of our human possessions...who knew that it took so much stuff to go on vacation with the 2 little girls!) and went in the park for another half day. Our first stop was the Midway Geyser Basin, home of the Grand Prismatic Spring, which is truly breathtaking! First you walk across Firehole River and walk onto the basin. The springs just flow into the river and it looks like lava from all of the different kinds of bacteria that grow in the spring. Then you walk past a huge bright aqua spring that is really deep (and quite stinky!). It is bigger than an Olympic size pool (I think) and I cannot remember the name of it. Here is a fact while I am looking up the name of the Spring... Yellowstone holds close to 60% of the world's geysers! OK, so the think that I thought was a spring really is a geyser called Excelsior Geyser and apparently the big crater that I was talking about (the really deep part) is 200' (wide) x 300' (deep) and lets 4000 gallons of water into the river per minute!


This beauty is the Grand Prismatic Spring. It is absolutely amazing to behold! It is 370' (wide) x 121' (deep). The steam that comes off of it really looks like a rainbow (I think that it is the reflection of all of the bacteria growing in the springs).

Miss Independent: Tori, decided to dawn her fairy wings at this beautiful site. Here are a few of my favorites! There is one that looks like she is taking a nap on the boardwalk, but she is just looking through the slats for bugs. She loves bugs...I know, weird! Jason was scared that she was going to take a walk off on the thermal grounds surrounding the springs (which mind you she tried climbing off the trail...but not before we asked her to stay on) so we had to be close to her during this little jaunt. But isn't she so cute?!
Grandma ("Mama") and Grandpa ("Papa") sure love their little grandkids! Can you tell? And boy do the girls just love them right back! Although Grandma didn't get to visit most of the sites with us she was always willing to take care of the munchkins while we were off gallivanting! Gwen, you are amazing and you made our trip that much better! Thank you!



With Brookie playing with Grandma in the car (I didn't want her to get sun burned) we marched Miss Tori up to see the Fountain Paint Pots located in the Upper Geyser Basin. We were a little geysered out, so we just took the short trail around the paint pots.
Once again, the pictures of the paint pots aren't nearly as cool as watching them bubble pink and white ooze from the ground. Tori thought these paint pots were pretty cool and she especially liked the fact that she could climb the fence to get a better look! As you can see from the picture above, we tried to bring the stroller with us, but she would not have it and pushed the stroller instead of riding in it. On the way out we had to hug a tree for good measure!


Our last picnic! (Sadness!) We got an amazing spot on the Firehole River (up the hill from the river so that Tori wouldn't jump in!) and set up. While we were getting ready Tori went off with Grandpa to explore the surroundings (that is her favorite: to explore anything and everything with Papa). She found a lot of bugs and flowers and learned the art of throwing rocks into the river. I am sure that she wanted to jump in, and if she had her swimsuit on I am sure she would have!

There is not a picnic without a photo shoot of Brookie! We let her play on the tablecloth again and she was way excited to be out of her car seat again. After lunch we let her play in the grass by the river and she was elated with all of the space. What a cutie! I am so glad that she didn't perfect her crawling until we got home the next day or she would have been all over!


Ahhh! Cute family pics thanks to Dennis! We sure got some tender pictures of the girls! With Mama and Papa too! So cute! My favorite has to be the one with Tori and Brooke in front of the river. We finally have a picture of our whole family that isn't 9 months old! (Hence the new side bar!)
Some black and whites for your enjoyment. Well, it was sad to end our Yellowstone trip and we sure do miss Mama and Papa! We love spending time with all of our extended family and it is hard to see them leave and then get back to real life! Thanks Mama and Papa for everything!
If you missed: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3!

Yellowstone Day 3 (August 2nd)

Are you ready for Day 3?!
Before going to the park we went and had a big breakfast at a local place, the Running Bear, in West Yellowstone. I had blueberry french toast (I had no idea that this even existed and boy was it delicious with boysenberry syrup!). I could have eaten 5 slices! And their bacon was so crispy and thick! So SCRUMPTIOUS!
We spent the whole rest of the day in the park and it was marvelous. As you can see from the pictures it was another beautiful day. Our first stop was the Norris Geyser Basin. Tori was already asleep, so we took Brooke out for a stroll, and of course, she was all smiles, even though this stroller was on the bigger side and she slouched the whole time. Our first stop was Steamboat Geyser (lower left picture) and it was pretty neat, but it has a sporadic schedule, so we didn't see it go off. Huff and Puff is the other Geyser pictured (right next to Steamboat and with Brooke in front, the top middle picture). I wish that I would have paid the $.50 to keep the trail guides, but alas, I did not, so we just have to call the other beautiful pools, just pools, even though they had cool names like opal or iridescent. At the bookstore we bought Tori some little American Park Animals (12 animals including: a rabbit, a beaver and an eagle, which were her favorite) and a Yellowstone and Tetons Baby Animal Book. Both of which kept her busy all day in her car seat! Definitely worth my money!
Our next stop was the Yellowstone Falls. We went to the upper falls and to Artist Point. Artist Point is the right middle picture and it is truly magnificent! There were even artist doing watercolor and pastel drawing there. Tori thought it was pretty amazing too. There were quite a few "wow"s and "look"s. The upper left picture with Tori sitting on the rock is a great picture of the yellow stone that the park is named after. Tori liked all of the big rocks along the trail to Artist Point and finally got to crawl up on one. She thought that was pretty neat! I love her windblown hair in the pictures! She is so beautiful!
Our next stop was a late picnic lunch (nice picnic set up huh?). We got a spot near Yellowstone River. Brooke was really excited to get out of the car again and blew us a kiss while we were eating. That day she didn't need toys because she was thoroughly amazed by her hands. She stared at her hands for many hours trying to figure out how they work. She is trying to learn how to clap and wave. It was pretty funny. She would be babbling and then all of the sudden get a glimpse of her hand and then she would just stare at it!
Here is the quiz... can you spot Jason in the upper left picture? Jason ran down from the bridge that we were taking pictures at and I really had a hard time finding him in my viewfinder to take a picture!
I love the lower right picture of Tori. She was so excited to walk all by herself and to run up and down the trails. It was much more fun than eating her lunch! Today, mind you it was the 3rd day in the park, we saw the elusive Bison! They were all in the Hayden Valley! We even got to see 2 different Bison cross the Yellowstone River! Pretty amazing that these huge animals can swim! The rangers said that this was a rare sight in the park and we were really lucky to see them!
See the Bison in the upper left picture? He decided to take a stroll in the middle of the road blocking traffic for a while.and then finally crossed so that we could take the other 2 close up pictures. Amazing, huh? We even parked off the side of the road and got to look at some Buffalo herds! Tori really liked to see them all too!
Our next stop was we saw this cool geyser called Dragon's Breath. It sounded like a cave that you would see in the ocean with the tide coming in and out and every few minutes it would belch out sulfur air and and spit a river of grey water. It was pretty awesome! I could have watched it forever!
We continued our drive through the bottom loop and caught a glimpse of another Black Bear, an Eagle, more Bison, Antelope and some Elk. We finally stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin and took Tori for a stroll along the boardwalk. The view was incredible! There were actual geysers in the lake! As we strolled along we ran into a cow Elk and her fawn (seen below) right off the path in front of us. I did not have to use my telephoto lens for these pictures, but she did block our way from continuing our little walk. We stood on the path for about 10 minutes waiting for her to cross back to be with her fawn, but no she was on the left side of the path and her fawn was on the right. Jason tried to cross in between her and she reared her head and was very wary so we had to go all the way back around! Mind you, it would have been fine except that nature had called me about 20 minutes before this incident! Oh I wanted to move that mama elk back to the other side of that path! our way out someone offered to take Tori off our hands because she was being so darn cute!The lower left picture was taken from the car as we were leaving West Thumb. The top right picture is of the Water Lily Pond.Okay, I know you are thinking, why did you choose to keep the picture of Jason in the car with that goofy dazed look on his face. OK, so here is the story. Jason joined me in the back seat of the car and wanted to take a picture of us and he was concentrating so hard on holding the camera right to get us both in the picture that he forgot to smile. Ha ha ha...what a silly man! The other cute pictures are of the other cute wildlife that we saw along the way...of course, Tori and Brookie! Notice in the picture in the bottom middle Jason is bent over, well, Tori had just poked him in the eye with her eagle toy! Ouch!!On our ride home we took the Firehole Lake Drive. We saw some pretty amazing stuff! The top picture is of the Great Fountain Geyser. It looked so remarkable with the sun setting in the pool. The next geyser was awesome! I call it the Volcano Geyser, because the steam coming out of it and the water flowing from it looked like a volcano and it's lava! We didn't quite get a cool picture of the steam coming out of it, because the sun was right behind it. But it was spectacular to watch.
That's the end of day 3. We went home and had pork roast soup at 9:30 PM! What a day!
If you missed day 2 click here and here for day 1.

Yellowstone Day 2 (August 1st)

Well, we started off this Sabbath day by attending the ward in West Yellowstone. There were like 600 people at the meeting! It was crazy crowded and very hot! Needless to say, Tori was beyond restless and when the meeting went long she was so beyond done. Well, we went home and had lunch, then off we went, back into Yellowstone! I was really excited today because the last time that all of us Dingers went to Yellowstone we were not able to go to the upper loop because it was closed, but today we did and boy was it marvelous!
I mean just look at the pictures, they do not lie! Our first stop was Artist Paintpots. We were extremely lucky and the first time we went through the one way road in the construction area we went right through! Both kids fell asleep so when we got there we were able to roam around freely and get some couple pictures (thanks to Dennis!).
These paintpots are marvelous. It is amazing how the ground can boil like that. The pictures really don't do them justice and the next time I go I will get video of them. The pools and such are just beautiful. I really love that green color (which is caused by some kind of bacteria that lives in really hot places) and I really love the other colors too... it makes the pictures amazing. I could do without the nasty smell (sulfur aka. rotten egg smell) really isn't my favorite. But the vista and the colors...(I mean look at the photographs, my two favorites are the ones with all of the colors in the top left and bottom right) it is worth the occasional whiff of rotten egg. The two paint pots are the milky looking pits. The milky stuff boils and spits everywhere and makes more crust around the pit.
Ahhh...the view from the car!
SPECTACULAR! Wow! Mammoth Hot Springs. It is a beautiful place. We explored as much as we could with Tori in tow. She wanted to walk, so when that happens, we try not to stay out too long. We took a nice stroll through the upper terrace of the springs. Aren't Heavenly Father's creations marvelous?! Everywhere I looked there was a beautiful picture to be taken. I went crazy! But still, once again, the pictures do not do the real colors justice. Everything is so bold and you just can't get the shadows right of the folds and creases in the rocks. As you can tell, it was a beautiful day!
Tori loved strolling along the boardwalk and boy was she getting some stares. I heard, "Oh, isn't she a doll", or "She sure is a cutie", I don't know how many times! She is a looker and she hammed it up too! She was so curious about everything and loved looking through the fence.
Down in Mammoth we got Ice Cream and let Brookie stretch again. Upon pulling into the parking lot we got to see 2 "teen" elk eating grass off the lawn (see pictures below). You may notice that they put wire cages around the flower beds so that they don't get devoured. I guess elk graze on this grass all day. Dennis and Gwen told us that when they stayed here in Mammoth that they would wake up and there would be elk all over the lawn! Anyeay, the ice cream was great.
Sunday was our luck wildlife day. We saw a young grizzly bear just off the side of the road foraging for food. We weren't quite sure if he was old enough to be without his mama or if she was lurking somewhere nearby. But it was really cool to see a grizzly bear. Then just down the road we saw a black bear looking for food off in the distance. We didn't get pictures of him because he would have been just a spot, but no worries right down the road we got to see one of his relatives not 10 feet from the road foraging! It was amazing! It was cool to see the bears in their natural habitat. We also saw a mama dear and her fawn (that still has it's spots!) and a meadow jumping mouse on our way back from our walk at the falls (below). Tori was able to see all of the animals pictured and really liked the bears, but wondered why this zoo didn't have giraffe and elephants! (ha ha ha) Still not a Bison to be seen!
Tower Falls was amazing! Although we did not venture to the basse, the girls loved to be out in the air and see the beautiful sights. We got some cute shots of our family, thanks again to Dennis.
Just our luck on our way back to West Yellowstone for the night, we saw a lot of people with cameras out at a picnic site. So we made Dennis turn around (because I wasn't about to miss a Moose) and to our surprise there were two adult male Elk just across the Gibbon River. Wow, were they majestic. Tori was going wild and kept saying "Elk, elk, elk!" On our way back to the car we hugged a few trees! The key to get Tori to look at the camera, have her look at the stranger behind the camera! Ha ha ha! Can you spot the elk in the background?!
We caught this beauty on the way home!And this beautiful sunset summed up our second day in the park. Seriously awe inspiring! I LOVE Yellowstone! It is definitely the most beautiful place that I have ever been to in my life! Still 2 more days! I will post again tomorrow!
If you missed Day 1 click here!

Yellowstone Day 1 (July 31)

Oh my goodness. There are not enough words to explain how much I LOVE Yellowstone! We started our trip on Friday night (July 30th) after work. We drove to Idaho Falls and stayed in the same hotel room as the girls. Brooke was fine, but Tori was so over tired and would not sleep in her bed, so for the first time in her life, she slept with us. Needless to say, there was not much sleep in that bed. Luckily it was a king size bed. Tori was all over the place and is definitely a cuddler!
The next day we left for Yellowstone. We get into the park for free because Dennis and Gwen both get in free! They have a golden pass! It was marvelous. Our first stop in the park was lunch along the Madison River. We had a picnic and let the girls stretch their legs.

This is the Day 1 Tori collage! She loved Yellowstone too! She loved being an explorer and walking the trails. She was definitely fun! Here she is enjoying a chocolate chip cookie (of course)! She totally zonked by the time we got to Old Faithful. We got there just as it blew, so she had a good hour nap before it went off again.
We stayed in West Yellowstone, Montana in this marvelous rental that we got off of VRBO.com. It had 3 rooms, a bathroom, living room and kitchen. We saved a ton on not going out for all of our meals! In the bottom right, Tori is enjoying story time with Daddy on the big over-sized leather recliner. Boy was that a nice chair!

Oh Brookie. Little Miss Sunshine loved being able to stretch her legs at our picnic. She is not a fan of being in the car for more than an hour, but she was so good anyway, because she is just a great baby. I love the big picture of her. She look like she is blowing a kiss at the camera. When we had our picnic each day we let Brooke play on one of the tablecloths while we ate. She loved playing with the grass and being out of her seat.
We forgot a hat for Brooke, so we bought this super huge hat (no baby hats to be found in the Old Faithful gift shop), so that she wouldn't get sunburned. The sunglasses are Tori's.Oh, the wildlife. Well, there was not much wildlife to be seen on our first day. At our picnic (that was right next to the river) we saw 2 cow Elk and they both had a set of twins! So amazing! We also met a cheeky squirrel along the trail of Old Faithful and some beautiful blue birds. I have no idea what the name of these birds are, but Tori loved watching them. After our picnic (and on our way to Old Faithful...I know some of these pictures are a little out of order, but give me a break...there are 300!) we went on this scenic road (Firehole River Canyon Drive) to see a beautiful waterfall, Firehole River Falls (seen in the picture below) and there was a huge hail and rain storm. If you look closely at the windshield picture you will see the huge hail that was falling from the sky. The drops of rain were also humongous! If you can't tell, those pictures are of Tori cowering from the sound of the rain and hail pelting the car! I thought that the hail was going to dent the car! The storm lasted about 5 minutes. It was incredible! By the time we got to Old Faithful, it was like it never happened!
BEAUTIFUL! Need I say more? But I will! We walked a little on the Old Faithful trail. We saw the geyser go off right as we strolled to the lodge, so we had a little time to eat a huge ice-cream cone from the Lodge, stroll around, and take some breathtaking pictures. Oh this place if magnificent! All of the beautiful geysers and pools of boiling hot water in the basin were amazing. The one in the top left corner is Old Faithful. The other geyser you see going off (and was going off for like an hour!) is Castle Geyser. We didn't go on all of the trails, because we were limited on time, but I recommend it if you have time.
As we were walking along the Old Faithful trail (15 minutes before the predicted time) Old Faithful blew! So we just happened to be in a great spot for pictures! I love this sequence...sing the geyser blow harder in each picture!
Tori was amazed! It was cute to watch her excitement and awe as the geyser blew. We were just walking along when whoa! it blew! She pointed to it (I love that picture in the lower left...you can see her shadow pointing! So cute!) and she wanted so bad to go and explore, but she was very good and stayed on the trail! There was a lot of "Wow!"s and "Look!"s as she exclaimed her excitement. She was adorable.
On the way back to the Lodge, Tori got to swing. Boy was she excited! These pictures are cute, so blow them up and look at her face! Oh, and Tori only holds our hands if she gets to swing, Miss Independent!I love this picture of the Old Faithful Hotel and the restored Old Faithful Bus! We actually saw these buses taking people on tours and the top of the bus opens up so you can take pictures out of the bus!
Well, that was the end of Yellowstone fun in the park on Saturday. We had to get to our amazing rental and unpack everything, feed the girls and rest. Boy were we tired! I will post Day 2 tomorrow! If you thought this was a lot of pictures, just wait! :)