Yellowstone

In Utah they have this thing called "Fall Break."  Rumor has it that it has it's origins in a hunting holiday.    So the kids had a long weekend (Thursday, Friday and Monday) off school.  Scott was able to come into town and we all headed up to Yellowstone.  I thought going to Yellowstone during fall  break was a genius idea since it wouldn't be as crowded as it is in summer.  But lots of other Utahans who were out of school had the same genius idea.  So it wasn't as empty as I hoped.  And we saw LOTS of minivans with Utah plates and BYU or U of U shirts.  It was a Utah invasion - which we were a part of.  But it still wasn't that crowded and we were able to see lots of good stuff.  Here we are at Old Faithful.  We waited half an hour or so to see Old Faithful erupt.  It was cool.  Scott and I both reminisced about sitting and waiting for Old Faithful to go off when we were kids.  And watching the marmots run under the boards at the viewing area.  And now we're making new memories with our kids.  Yellowstone is just awesome.
And please enjoy Grant's many poses in these pictures.  :)

Here we are waiting for Old Faithful

There goes Old Faithful!

We took a little walk around the the geysers by Old Faithful

We saw lots of buffalo.  Here was one of the first ones we saw (Matthew's pointing to it).

And here we are looking down on a waterfall (Gibbon Falls I think)

At Artist Paint Pots

A mud pot there

Mammoth Hot Springs terraces (in the background)

Hiking near the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs.  

John and Grant both had to be carried for parts of our hikes.

Look at that super dad!  Scott carried or pushed Emma most of the time and also other children who may have needed carrying.

Here's Emma at lunch one day.  She has started screaming now if we don't feed her fast enough.  Not my favorite thing.

At Yellowstone Falls
Just before going to Yellowstone Matthew lost one of his front teeth.

The Grand Canyon (of Yellowstone)

Dragon's Mouth Spring

This one was really cool.  

The water moved in and out of the cave along with smoke and a nice dragon roar.

THE MUD VOLCANO!!!

This one was very cool too

Anna was getting cold near the mud volcano

John deciding he needs to be carried

Churning Cauldron

And did I mention we saw A LOT of buffalo.  I don't remember seeing so many when I came as a kid.  Maybe there are more around in the fall.  We also saw elk, deer, pronghorn antelope and a BEAR!!

Yellowstone Lake

The weather was great (60s and 70s during the day) but the last day we were there it rained and dropped down to 50ish.  

At the Fountain Paint Pots area

On the way back to Utah we went through Grant Teton National Park

It was overcast so we couldn't see the tops of the mountains, but it was still beautiful.

Here's Matthew at Jenny's Lake in Grand Teton.

And here's our cute Emma (see her two teeth).  She was a good traveler.

We had a fun quick trip to Yellowstone.  On the way back John kept pointing out all the buffalo (cows) on the side of the road.  It was great family time!!

Grotto Falls

Last weekend we hiked to Grotto Falls in Payson canyon.  

It's a very short hike - 1/2 mile total.  Here is Grant by the trail head.

Here are just a few pictures along our hike.  

Anna was worried the whole time that we would meet a bear.

And here we are at the grotto.  Anna was even more worried about meeting a bear in there since it was a little cave.  We didn't see any bears.

 There were lots of log bridges to cross and no one fell in the stream.  Hooray!

The grotto is in the background 

 John refuels with some fruit snacks

Here is John crossing a bridge 

 It was all fun and games till Grant announced that he really had to use the bathroom.

  We finished up our hike and had to drive down out of the canyon to a bathroom. 

We also saw a bunch of cows being driven out of the canyon after finishing our little hike. 

It was fun - maybe we can take a longer hike another day.

The Park

plus a quick family update

I thought it would be cold already but we are still enjoying warm weather here in Utah.  We have to take advantage of it while we can!!  Scott was here a weekend or so ago (see him in the background there) and we took the kids to the park.  John loves the swing.  He had a great time until he tried climbing up a slide, slipped and cut his lip.  But mostly he had a good time.

He's getting plenty of gross motor skill practice.  John was evaluated recently by the school district for his gross and fine motor skills.  He has another appointment to check on his speech in a few weeks.  All this testing is to see if he qualifies for special help/classes from the school district to help him catch up in some of those areas.  So we'll find out later if he qualifies and what the process is.

Anna was doing her best at the park with her cast.  She was still able to climb and do a lot of things with it.  She's itching to get it off - pun intended - and worried that it won't go with her Halloween costume.  Cast troubles.  She recently got a new cast and was very worried about getting the old one cut off.  But she survived with no cuts and only a little screaming.  She got a new multicolored cast!  And she plans to get a black one before Halloween to go with her costume.

Emma loved the swing!  It's hard to tell if she is enjoying herself here, but she had fun.  She was trying to pump her legs.  She seems to be more agile at this age than some of our other kids.  Maybe she'll be an athlete.  :)  She is eager to walk but not quite there yet.  She also says a few almost words like "hi," "mama," "dada" and "down."  And she likes to scream.

Matthew and Grant were at the park too but must have been too quick to end up in a picture.  So here's a bonus picture with both of them in it (and Anna).

Matthew is enjoying school and has made lots of friends there (so have Grant and Anna).  He likes talking with his school friends about Pokemon and Minecraft.  And he's excited he is allowed to bring his Pokemon cards to school here.  Other schools we've been at didn't allow it.  Matthew is also doing cub scouts and has lots of fun there and is taking a golf class after school.  He and Anna are also starting an after school science class next week.

And Grant...Grant keeps us endlessly entertained these days with his Grantisms, funny posing and songs.    He recorded a little song on a toy keyboard recently and named it "Diary of a Monster."  I just love that name.

After he had a bloody nose at school one day Grant said this, "The blood came out of my nose sneakily, like a bad guy."  Good simile, Grant.  And he loves school and comes home everyday with goodies.  Preschool is a pretty awesome place, apparently.  He has Anna wishing she could go back to Pre-K.

If you ask him, Grant will sing you a song.  He also enjoys tagging along with/annoying Matthew.  Matthew is usually a pretty good sport about it, but even he has his limits.

And since we are just talking about everyone...here is what Scott and I did last weekend.  We had our "design center appointment" and looked at samples of flooring, cabinets, countertops etc. for the new house.  It's so hard for me to imagine what will look good together.  I don't have the interior decorating gene.  It's a shame really.  The builder provided us a designer to help and we ended up with a lot of beige-y-ness.  It's a thing.  But I think it will be good (as long as its not pink-beige...which is also a thing).  Too bad we still have to wait so long for the house to be finished.

And I just can't help myself.  Here's Emma having her first bite of frozen yogurt.  Not sure if she didn't like the cold or the tartness.  But she went back for more.  So that's a quick update of what we've been doing.  More to come!!