Summer vacation comes to an end...

I'm a little sad to see it end, all the while being thrilled too, yes I'm nutty. Even with all the financial stress, it has still been a good summer. I didnt' get everything done on my to do list, but we did a lot and manged to have fun too. My new background is just one of our pictures from Yellowstone Park. I have always loved looking at/taking pictures of clouds and my hubby thought I might like this one, he was right.

As for the last month or so, things have been busy around here. We have been cleaning out drawers and rooms and packing for our trip, then on the trip, then unpacking and recouperating.

Packing our camper trailer and ourselves for our trip took a week. We headed to Idaho Falls for a 50th Wedding anniversary party, then my hubby's family reunion in Swan Valley for a couple of days and then from there we were off to Yellowstone Park with my sis-in-law and one of our neices for another couple of days. We camped at Madison Campground, near the west entrance to Yellowstone. It was nicer than I expected and only lacked showers. We got in kind of late, so we set up camp, had sandwhiches for dinner and headed to bed. The next morning we hurried through breakfast, secured out campsite and then started exploring the park. Our first picture spot was just along the road on the Firehole River, between Madison and the Fountain Paint Pots. I LOVE this funky tree!

Our next stop was the Fountain Paint Pots. These are my favorite picts I took there.

After that little hike we climbed back in our truck and headed to Old Faithful. The only other two times I have seen Old Faithful were in August 1992 (when my oldest son was only 2 weeks old) and August 1995 (while on an insane motorcycle day trip). It was nice to bring all of my kids to see it. Here are some of our picts. We ate in the Yellowstone Lodge Cafeteria, pricey but not too pricey, 7 to 10 bucks per person. Then we let each of the kids spend $20 in the gift shop.

Our next stop was Yellowstone Lake along the West Thumb portion. We just had to stop, it was so beautiful there. I stayed in the truck while my hubby took these. He did a pretty good job.

Next we drove to Hayden Valley along the Yellowstone River. My hubby took control of the camera there too and got some nice shots. (I was in the truck with a sleeping baby.)

We saw a few Buffalo just before Hayden Valley, in Hayden Valley and on the way to Canyon Village. We thought for sure we would see more, but not many were out and about.

At Artist Point, one of the lookouts spots for Lower Falls, took some great shots. I LOVE waterfalls and I plan to blow some of these up for framing on my walls. The canyon it is in is pretty cool too, though I got a little woozy looking down into it.

Then we headed to Upper Falls View and got to see a couple more animals, up close and personal...they walked not 5 feet in front of us. The falls pictures are great too.

By this time, it had been sprinkling off and on for a while and right after we left the falls it started to pour off and on. It took us another hour or two to get back to camp and everything was too soaked (including our firewood) to deal with making dinner so we headed into West Yellowstone and found a little diner, it was good, but not cheap. I'm sure anywhere we went would have been the same, and at that point we were too tired and hungry to care. After we headed back to camp and went to bed...it poured most of the night, I should know...it leaked through the camper's roof onto me! The next morning we secured all the wettest stuff into the back of the truck and loaded all the drier stuff into my sis-in-law's car and the camper trailer.

Dead tired and dying to take a shower we headed back to my other sis-in-law's house. Luckily she has a good hot water heater, we used a lot of hot water that afternoon. Then we cooked dinner for everyone, we made what we were going to make while camping, chicken cordon bleu. It was yummy! We all got a good night's rest and headed home last Saturday. I didn't get any pictures, but we did stop in Twin Falls to go on the tour of the LDS Temple there. It is beautiful and I highly recommend it to anyone.

I was very grateful to get home and it has taken all this last week to get things unpacked and sort of back to normal. I still have a bit of laundry, but that never ends anyway. The kids are ready for school, atleast as far as I know of, and I'm just hoping to enjoy my kids this last week before school starts.

Now if I can just find a job... ;)