Yellowstone

This should have been a one post-per-day trip, but I don't remember exactly all the sites we visited each day, so it will just have to be long with a lot of pictures!  We left for Yellowstone the week after school let out for the summer, so it was early in the season for Yellowstone, but we got to see more animals than the last time we were there.  When we came upon the first herd of bison, my girls were so excited.  They did not realize how common it was to see bison everywhere you go in Yellowstone!  We drove straight to the Canyons area for the first night and got there just in time for bed.  The next day we explored the waterfalls, lakes and hot pots around the east side of the park before we made our way up to Mammoth for the second night.  Right before we stopped for the night, we had the opportunity to watch a black bear prowl around for food.  This was the first time I had seen a bear in the wild.  I zoomed my camera in as much as I could, but there were some nice people watching as well who let us look through their spotting scope to see it.  That was so cool!  The girls were very excited and they talked about it for the rest of the trip.  In Mammoth the elk just settle themselves on the grass of restaurants and hotel and watch the tourists!  It is so funny!  The second day we drove up to the North gate where they have the famous brick archway as you enter.  We backtracked and explored the west side of Yellowstone for the rest of the day and my family soon got so sick of looking at hot pots by the end of this day!  We managed to get to Old Faithful around dinner time and that is always fun to observe.  We went back to the Canyons area for the last night and the girls got their souvenirs (wolf stuffed animals) which they had been eyeing the whole trip.  We left Yellowstone after seeing a few more hot pots and bison and drove to West Yellowstone for our last night where our hotel had a indoor water slide.  The girls spend hours wearing themselves out riding that!  For the last day, we went to the Wolf and Bear discovery center in West Yellowstone.  The wolves were really active when we first arrived and that was exciting for the girls to see.  They liked watching the bears too and they also saw some endangered birds.  It was such a great trip.  The girls were really good travelers and they want to go back next summer!

Easter

Bike crash!

The evening started off like a typical Friday night.  Emma and I were making one last loop around the neighborhood when we rounded the corner to our street and Emma swerved a little in front of me.  Since I was following too close to her, my front tire hit her back tire which twisted my bike and I went down!  Nick happened to be on our porch and saw the whole thing.  He starts racing toward me and I'm a little dazed because it happened so fast.  My shoulder hurt immediately because I tried to brace my fall, but as Nick reached me he gasped at my bleeding chin and said, "Oh, you're going to need stitches!"  I was sure he was exaggerating, so I went into the house and looked for myself.  Oh, shoot....I'm going to need stitches! Luckily, I work for a plastic surgeon and I really wanted a scar on my face to look good, so I called my boss.  He was in Provo at a dinner, but he was willing to meet me at our office in a couple of hours.  We took our girls to my mom's for a sleepover and went to our office to get stitched up.  It took about an hour and he said the laceration went down to my bone and he had to pull some muscles back together!  I hadn't been wearing a helmet (not that it would have protected my chin), but it was a good lesson for my children to always wear a helmet.  I think my pride was wounded most of all because I had to keep it covered for about a week and everyone kept asking me what happened.  However, I was glad it was me instead of one of my kids!

Emma's Ninth Birthday

This year for Emma's birthday, she chose to invite her friends to Get Air.  I loved this idea since it meant her friends could run around and get crazy without being at our house!  We did go back to our house for presents and cake and ice cream though.  It's funny how most of her friends gave her craft supplies.  I think this is a hard age for birthdays because they are not really into toys, but are not quite into clothes or makeup or jewelry (or at least Emma is not interested in that stuff)!  Later that night, we had a family party and she received a giant stuffed gorilla, some games, books and gift cards.  I can't believe Emma is nine!  She is a great big sister and helps out a lot around the house.  She loves soccer, swimming, basketball and playing the piano.  She loves to do art projects or play with her stuffed animals.  She is very smart and loves her teacher this year.  We are so grateful to have her in our family!