Yellowstone, Day 1, Tuesday

We had decided to go in to Yellowstone Park on Tuesday.  We planned to do a little hike (so we could be out of the car for a bit), a few stops, and then Old Faithful.

The hike.  It was pretty much "the worst hike" our family has done together.  I don't know what everyone's problems were, but it was pretty much a combination of a whole bunch of factors that equaled an ugly adventure.  Some factors included:  kids who didn't want to hike (ahem, okay, maybe that was a big red flag), a feverish Emmy, a totally hot and exposed trail, trail being at least 1-mile longer than expected, hike taking way longer than expected, etc.  But we all survived. . . barely.

 It started out promising:  we got a view of our first hot-spot in Yellowstone, smell and all.  It was pretty cool and fascinating for the kids.  We were all (almost all?) happy at this point.

 Lucy was a tropper and did good riding with her handsome dad.

 Yep, Emmy not looking too hot.  Poor gal.  I did feel bad for her.  But, yes, I did lose patience with her towards the very end because I had had enough frankly.  I do have a breaking point - sometimes it's long, other times, not so much so.

 Lucy fell asleep in a very unnatural position.  But she never complained.  :)

Jonas cooled his feet off on our way back.  He's almost cracking a smile now because he knows we are almost back to the car.

After the hike, and a super-late lunch eaten in our car, we drove to Old Faithful.

First things first. . .

 watching Old Faithful?  No way, getting ice cream!  We met up with my sister and her family (see Rhett in background) and grabbed some ice cream at the Old Faithful lodge.

 Yes, these faces are a little happier than those found on the hiking trail. . .

 Finally  we went to watch Old Faithful and finally it erupted.  I think it was almost 20 minutes later than "expected time."  But cool nonetheless.

 Here we are watching it - this was Rhett's second time that day, so perhaps he was less interested in Old Faithful and more interested in looking super cute in a picture?!

Miles.  That kid.  Yes, this is how he always looks after eating an ice cream cone.  Yes, messier than Lucy.  No, I don't know why.

It was already getting late (remember, longer than expected hike?) and so we decided to do just one stop on our way out.  We went to the fountain paint pots and Erin and fam joined us again - though, again, they had already done it.

 I love the cool mud pots - they are probably my most favorite feature of Yellowstone!  Here we are checking some out.  The kids really loved them, too.

 The boardwalk.

We really lucked out and a couple of geysers on the trail erupted while we were there - neither had erupted when Erin had been there earlier, so we were pretty lucky!  This geyser was cool as it shot out of a rock.  The kids were really excited about them!  We walked on further and got very sprayed from another geyser.  Some like it. . . others not so much.

Thank goodness for the fountain paint pots!  They helped end our Yellowstone adventure on a high note.

We then went to dinner at our family-traditional spot in West Yellowstone, The Gusher.  It was yummy and not too difficult considering we had 6 kids, 8 years of age and under.

Luckily, the horrible and very bad beginning of a day had a much better ending.

Macks Inn, Sunday and Monday

We went to sacrament meeting on Sunday in Midway and then drove to Macks Inn, Idaho - where my grandfather (who has passed on) has a cabin.  We haven't been in 6 years and so it was great to be back.  They (my grandfather's 4 sons, including my dad) had done a lot of "renovations" and such and so it was really nice to be there.  The drive went well - even with six kids (we took Rhett in our car).

 Lucy and Ben bonding on the swing outside.  Oh man I think they are so cute.

 Jonas and Emmy getting some swing-time in on the back porch.

 We took a short walk from the cabin down to the river.  They all had fun wading in the water and (ahem, Miles) playing with the mud/dirt/sand.

 No trip to Macks Inn would be complete without going to Big Springs.  It's a beautiful spot with enormous fish (though not as many as there once were).  There was an adorable muskrat there, too, that everyone loved.

 That Monday afternoon, after we put Lucy down for a nap, we took the older kids and went on a float down the river.  It's amazingly beautiful and we did have a really good time.  Well, Emmy enjoyed it at first, but then it was her turn to get sick (Miles had had some bad congestion; Jonas had about 2 days of feeling sick, including a fever; Rhett had woken up that morning not feeling good and running a fever; luckily the illness wasn't too bad and wasn't too long).  Luckily, we were able to dock our boat at that spot on the river by the cabin and Ben was able to run Emmy up to the cabin so she could nap/rest, and the rest of us continued on our journey.

Jonas loved, loved, loved rowing.  He probably rowed for at least 3/4 of the time.  We did have 3 oars and that was a good thing.  :)  Cute boy.

A good day and good start to our vacation.

Japan Day

 My parents sent these great outfits.  I adore them - I adore my kids in them!  I think we'll use them more for PJs, but they wore them the entire day.  In fact, Miles wants to wear his clothes for the 1st day of school.  Ben thinks they look too much like PJs, but we might let him wear his shirt with some "normal" shorts.  Funny kid.

 My beauties.

 We told them they had to make the peace sign in as many pictures as possible.  :)

 The whole gang of super cute Japanese-dressed kiddos.

 Ollie getting some lovin' by Lucy - not sure if he liked it or not.

We talked about the geography of Japan and showed them pictures.  We talked about the houses/apartments in Japan and how they are the same/different.  We learned the traditional Japanese odori dance (see above picture).

 We also made origami frogs.  The kids did so well with this!  It was fun.  We also practiced counting in Japanese and saying some familiar words in Japanese as well.  The kids totally responded great and were interested in all that we did.  It was really awesome.

 We ended the activities with a Japanese folk tale.  The kids were totally in to it.  Love these kids!

 Then it was time to open the goodie bags - one full of toys and one full of treats.  It was super exciting for them.  The moment they had been waiting for!

 A cool action figure.

 Lucy waiting no time in trying the weird treats.  She loved these marshmallow things - Rhett, on the other hand, hated it and made the greatest "this is the worst-tasting thing EVER face" and then spit it all in to his mother's hand.  Lovely.

 She's a beauty.

My parents had also given all the kids rice bowls and everyone (parents included) chopsticks.  These were all a hit, too.  Too bad the fried rice wasn't a hit with any of the kids (dang those peas!).  I, though, loved it and so did Erin and Chuck.  So there.

It was really a super fun day.

THANKS Mom and Dad!!!!  Errrr, Sister and Elder Galbraith.

Vacation in Pictures

I didn't do a Benless day #5 update yesterday because I got to actually talk to Ben - wahoo!  He survived his adventure backpacking trip (including 2 very dramatic hail-storms and a few lightning storms that came too close for comfort).  I survived 5 days (now 6) of not having Ben around.  We are excited to be together again tonite.  Yippeee.

I wrote a little bit about what happened each day.  But my pictures will be falsely positive - I didn't take any pictures of the multitudes of attitudes and tantrums I had to deal with each and every day. . . :)  I'm just doing all my pics here b/c I said so.

 Here I am with one of my best college-roommies, Megan.

 Our kids - Jonas, Jack, Ellie, Miles, Christian, and Lucy.  Where's Emmy?  Throwing a fit in the car.

 Uncle Chuck pulling out Jonas' tooth.  Oh the terror on Jonas' face!

 And it's out!

 Happy now!

 The tooth - his first lost tooth.

 Pure joy and pure cuteness.

 A cool rainbow - there were actually 2 of them.  So beautiful.

 Rhett at the indoor play-place at the Provo Beach Resort.

 Wheeeee.

 Hanging Jo.

 For Ollie's (my nephew) first birthday my sis made the coolest looking cupcakes.  These are the cupcake wrappers - so neat, huh!?  They were awesome.

 Of course Miles wanted to keep his wrapper.  But no.

 Lucy made sure that no crumb was left uneaten from her cupcake.

 The adorably cute birthday boy.  He did well, too, though maybe not as great as Lucy. . . We'll give him another year of practice.  :)

 The cute kids checking out the carnival rides.

 Sweet Lucy.  Too bad she didn't go on any rides.

The first ride that Rhett, Emmy and Jonas went on.

 Miles entering the Graviton.  Oh he still talks about it and just loved it!

 The 3 kids also went on this - the Tornado.  Emmy was quite scared for the first 2/3 of it, as demonstrated by her facial expressions and luckily not by screaming.  She relaxed for the last part of it.  The boys thought it was really fun and cool.  Jonas said you had to "hold on for dear life."  Awesome.  Good thing I told the ride-guy right after he started the ride that they weren't buckled in yet!

 Emmy and Rhett have been having fun playing together, for the most part.  :)  Really, though, there have been very little squabbles between these two.  They even enjoy playing air-hockey together!  Cuties.

 On Friday, my sis's b-day, we did a hike to Lake Mary.  It was a pretty great hike to a lake and a lot of fun was spent up there eating lunch, throwing rocks and sticks, etc.  Oh, and being King of the Rock.

 Aren't they just too cute?

 They were told by someone (Uncle Chuck?  Our friend Andy?) to put their fingers up their noses.  Oh why don't they listen this well when asked to clean their rooms?

Cute Lucy, as always.

Then my camera's batteries died.

Today is Japan Day at our house.  100% sponsored by my parents.  Filled with adorable kids in the cutest of cute Japanese outfits.  Lots of toys and candy (some yucky, some yummy, all weird).  It's been fun.  Pictures later.

My Benless Day #4

Well if I thought Emmy's tantrum yesterday was incredible (in a bad way), it paled in comparison to what she did today.  Oh that girl.  We decided to go swimming this morning - Chuck was going with just Rhett and I had the 4 kids.  We got there and the kids were super excited.  We had 2 life jackets and that made me think, "Totally, I can take 4 kids swimming - none of who can really swim."  It was quite pleasant for the first part of it.  The water, oh the water.  So warm.  I mean, not like a hot tub, but compared to our community pool it seemed so.  So that was a lovely surprise.

But after Emmy had to give up her life jacket for the 2nd time (ever heard of something called sharing or taking turns???), she pretty much went ballistic.  I think that might be an understatement.  Her screams were ear-piercing literally.  She just wailed and wailed and wailed and screamed and screamed and screamed.  In fact she made herself physically sick and was hunched over, stomach clinched in pain she said.  I told her it was due to her screams and all that air she was sucking in.  I really wasn't sure and thought she might actually be sick.  But, no, at the end of the day I'm pretty convinced it was just due to her tantrum.

You want to know how bad it was?  Erin heard her while she was home working - she was inside, but windows open.  Crazy, eh?  Crazy bad!  Do you feel bad for me?  I kind of did.

What else?  The kids watched some shows in the afternoon and then we went to the fair to go to the carnival rides (oh we did celebrate Ollie's b-day with the cutest cupcakes and the cutest kids).  The kids got to choose 2 rides each.  Miles has talked about the "graviton" ever since he saw it yesterday.  I think we've talked about it to him before?  He so wanted to do it and so he did.  When he was in and the ride started, I started feeling really bad/sad - what if he's scared, hating it, etc.?!  I was a bit nervous.  But he came out ALL smiles.  It was awesome.  He totally loved it.  The other kids had fun too - well, except Lucy who didn't get to do anything but walk around and throw a fit at the end.  My life.

Anyways, can't wait to actually talk to you in ONE day and SEE you in two!

My Benless Day #3

Overall, a good day.  But, like most of my days, filled with some unpleasant moments as well.  We spent the morning hanging around here mostly.  We did get out and go to the little park here.  Emmy was quite horrendous on the way home - she had insisted on riding a bike that's too big for her.  Well the way back was uphill at first and she just couldn't do it.  But instead of asking me to help she just throws an incredible fit.  It was ugly.  So I kept walking with Lucy - quite ahead of her.  She was screaming SO LOUD is was incredible - in a very bad way.  That girl.

After lunch I took the 4 older kids (Miles, Jonas, Emmy, and Rhett) down to Provo's "Beach Resort" thing.  The indoor play-area was waaaay smaller than I was expecting - and Miles, too, really.  I think he was kind of bummed, but he still had a great time.  I can't tell you how many bathroom and water-fountain trips I had to take - I lost count after 10.  And I won't go in to much detail, but I will say that more than one of our kids had some bathroom issues going on.  Seriously!?

But you'll be so proud of me - I got a "Kids Classical Music" CD at the library.  It has 4 CDs:  we listened to Beethoven today.  It's really cool - there are stories with music in the background at times and then music in the forefront at times as well.  The kids really liked it, I think.  When we got back in to the car later that evening, Jonas requested that we listen to it again.  Super awesome - I can't wait to listen to them with you and the kids!

We went to the fair's BBQ dinner tonite.  It was good, but none of the kids really enjoyed it - except for their lemonade and Sprites.  And roll.  We'll go back tomorrow and do some carnival rides - to celebrate Ollie's first birthday!  :)

Jonas got the coveted sleeping spot tonite - with Rhett.  Rhett really wanted Emmy, but was kind enough to let Jonas.  Jonas read a few books to Rhett and so hopefully they had a good time.

Lucy did well with me leaving her at home (when I took the other kids to Provo) - pretty well.  A few tears, but not many.

Goodnight.