Author Archives: Jess

summer, crazy summer

So, I’ve been pretty neglectful of this space.  Barry had most of June off as he wound down from one assignment and prepared to start a command position this past week.  That was such a wonderful break– I never got a chance to make dinner (bummer), only had to deal with half of the poopy diapers, and had time to work on designing a new sewing pattern!  It also meant that I had a hard time figuring out my routine and how to have my own computer time.  Hopefully for the next week or so I’ll have a bit of a normal routine, but then on to swimming lessons and then a new baby…

But, do you want to see what we did today?

sand and water

floating

boys

fast fun

buddies

We went to the reservoir with friends with boats.  Why is it that every time we get to go boating I can’t water ski because I’m pregnant?  I guess since I’ve been pregnant for something like 12 years straight (or at least it feels that way).  It was still fun– my little Hunter just snuggled up as close as he could to me and fell asleep to the hum of the motor, the fresh air, and sunshine.

AND we went to Yellowstone

When we were planning our trip we thought we’d try to go camping, but eastern Idaho weather is a bit tricky.  We decided we’d just play it by ear and see what we thought as the dates got closer.  Rain.  Wind.  COLD nights.  We decided that camping wouldn’t be very fun.  We wanted to see Yellowstone anyway, so we made it a day trip.  It was a lot of driving in one day, but I think the memories were worth it.

bison

There were bison, bison, bison for my cute nephews to spy with their new binoculars.

nephews at Yellowstone

Seriously, could little boys be any cuter (other than mine, of course)?

bison view

crossing the road

My favorite area was the Lower Geyser Basin area with the mud pots, colorful pools, and lots of little active geysers.

celestine pool

mud pots

at the gysers

spasmatic geyser

watching it

blue bird

The only other time I’ve been to Yellowstone was on our first wedding anniversary.  We decided to ride the main loop on our bikes– which was about 100 miles– which didn’t really give us any time to actually see anything but the backs of RVs.  This time was good from the comfort of our van and since it was early in the season it wasn’t very crowded.

We made the obligatory stop to watch Old Faithful.  There was quite a crowd and I was prepared for it to be pretty anticlimactic, but it was actually really cool!

old faithful

old faithful

I can’t imagine what the Native Americans thought about this place– was it holy?  was it cursed?  That’s something we should research…

We drove all through the park and made our way toward Grand Teton National Park.

Look what we found once we got past Old Faithful:

lots of snow

About 5 feet of snow.  I’m glad we didn’t try to camp.

breathtaking Tetons

It was the perfect time of year for the drive though.  The Tetons were breathtaking.  Not a single picture we took can really do them justice.   It’s hard to get the metering right.  Just imagine the bluest sky you’ve ever seen and dark mountains highlighted with white snow.

so, so, so beautiful!

We listened to Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (and we really love this series) for the drive from Colorado to Idaho and part of this Yellowstone trip and also to Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke.  Road trips are made so much better with good books to listen to.  Much better than movies, I think, because one story can take 10 hours, fill everyone’s imaginations for the long haul, and even make it so the kids don’t want to get out of the car just quite yet when we get where we’re going.