Ok, I hope your ready for picture overload!! I had my camera out 24/7 on this vacation....
This trip started with Preston Rodeo, I was able to get some pretty cool action shots....but my favorite...
This handsome guy!!
Poor Cory was such a trooper, He just got his first shots and tried so hard to smile all night long! Nathans hat looks so cute on him. I just might have to buy him his own for next year!
After the rodeo we headed up to the Harker reunion.....Now bare with me, I did not get ANY pics of the reunion its self ='( It was a slightly CRAZY trip.
On our way there, 12 people packed into a motorhome, we started smelling Gas. No, not Nathan....Gasoline! My dad wasnt too worried about it until we stopped to stretch our legs and noticed that in a matter of 3 minutes we had literally dumped $50 of gas on the side of the road!!
we all quickly jumped back into the "bus" and started heading towards the closest town....oh yeah, did I mention we were in the middle of NO WHERE!!!
Nathan said an amazing prayer...which I am convinced, is the reason we didnt blow up!!
Drew and Nathan pulled out their phones to google service stations and use their GPS.
Closest open service station that would look at a motorhome was at least 30 miles away! Meanwhile, we were dumping gas everywhere on the road and had to have all the windows down. By the time we got there, we all had huge headaches, Kylie was seconds away from passing out...and we had lost over $100. in gas!! Not a good day!
Luckily, the service station had AC, bathrooms, and a very friendly/fun staff willing to stay late to help us out!
On top of that...we lucked out and it was an easy fix and they didn't charge us a whole lot!
YAY....So, the second we left the service station ....we had to gas up. Boy did we pick a good station to do it at.......
This beautiful river was flowing right next to it.
the whole family got out and walked around for awhile and just enjoyed the view!
We also found some fun tanks to play on..
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| Nathan trying to hold on tight! |
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| Kylie wanting to be just like Nathan.....but needed some help! |
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It didnt go so well....  |
Kylie and dad "chest bump n' " for finding a good spot!
Cody giving himself a wedgiee for the camera......
HAHA oh boy do I love this kid!
This beautiful spot changed all of our moods and lightened the stress a little!
At the reunion, first day ...Microwave in motorhome goes out...then the water heater! Dad asked the boys to go with him to find someone to look at things and buy a new microwave. Most the girls went swimming, but Nathan asked me to go with him.
we finally found someone to look at the problem....he said we needed a whole new switch board....over$100. after much debate we bought it. ....then went to walmart and bought a new fuse and microwave. Nathan missed out on paintball,which he was REALLY looking forward too... Got back to camp and guess what......still no water heater!!!
Not a good day...again!
The last night, we decided to put all that behind us for awhile and have some fun! We had a really fun group play and sing songs while we danced around. I got to dance with dad to a really funny song, and get this....NATHAN even danced with me....and......HAD FUN!! REALLY wish I got this on camera! After it got dark the cousins stayed up and played spooky story add on were one person starts a story, then passes it to the next and so on and so on...some of the things my cousins come up with HAHA...It was a good Night!
We then headed to Yellowstone.....
Now here is were the picture over load comes in....
We got there close to dinner, and decided to spend the night at camp. but we had tons to do there.
Cory LOVED the swings!!!
He was not a happy boy when mom said he needed to get out!!
Kelsie was playing and wanted Kylene to play with her....this sequence makes me laugh SO hard to watch! I am glad I was able to catch it on photo!!
Kylene drying the seat from the rain
When she sat down she heard a really loud POP......
Kylene TOTALLY broke it!! HAHA Their faces are priceless!
So, after Kylie saw Cory in the swings and all the attention he was getting...she decided it looked like fun....
and just like she mimicked Nathan earlier, she wanted to be like Cory......
But quickly realized how bad it hurt!!
Nathan...being the sweet guy that he is, offered to help her out......
But proceeded to giver her a massive wedgie first!!!
He's SO nice!!
In my efforts to get pictures of everyone during the trip, these were the best shots of my parents the first night....
Aren't they adorable!
Nathan and I took the kidos for awhile and rented these super cool bikes! they had a 6 man, 4 man and single rider bikes. we got the 6 man and nathan of coarse had to have his own. Unfortunately 7 seats still didnt seat all of us, so we took turns but still LOTS of fun! Everyone in the camp ground was laughing at the sight of us!
The next morning we woke up bright and early! to head into Yellowstone, in hopes to see a bear or two!
What we didnt realize was that it was going to rain 80% of the day!
we still saw a ton of wildlife and even got some pictures! grated most of them are from inside a moving vehicle and dirty/rained on windows.....Im going to post some anyway!!
however, before I do I should confess.....I got 1000 more pics of a cute little animal called Cory than I did anything else.....So, to make this blog "shorter" I have cut and shmoooshed a collage together of some of my favorites throughout the trip!
I JUST LOVE LOVE LOVE this little guy!!!
Ok, now that I have that out of my system...
This is what we did on day one Yellowstone...
Dad drove most the way.....with his Hat and cute little bobble head animals (he gets a new one everytime he goes, this year he had a very hard time sticking to just one!) haha it's not in this picture though..
I just had to add these next 2.... they make me giggle because they are SO my DAD!!
I will ALWAYS remember these moments...
Shaving......while driving!! I dont think I have ever seen my dad shave at home!! it's always while driving! To church, to work....and even on vacation....LOVE HIM!
Nathan even drove a little ....
During the trip...mom or Grandma gave cory everything he asked for...."cuz thats what grandmas do best!"
well, Cory decided he wanted cookies......
I think it's probably a good thing mom stepped in and said NO this time!! haha
First stop......
For some reason we decided to climb this....it doesnt look very bad from the picture....but you can only see about 1/100th of the trail! and most of it is up hill!
Nathan wasnt too sure about it at first...
Unfortunately, I didnt get a picture of the sign, but posted all along the begining of the trail were signs that said and/or pictures illustrating ..."DO NOT STEP OFF TRAIL!" or some picture saying "could loose foot due to extreamly hot temps"
So NATURALLY ..... everyone started trying to push each other off the trail.....
a totally normal reaction.....right?!?!
Luckily, no one was too serious about it!
and we made it to the top of the trail..
Along the way...Nathan found a river of mud, and decided it looked like...well Poop! He thought it would be funny to act like he was pooping off the trail.
UM....GROSS!
moving on..
I ended up falling WAY behind the group several times in order to get pictures...
And Nathan found EVERY resting spot possible...
I did get some cute pictures from it though..
Kylie thought this one looked like a good engagment picture...
Nathan wasnt too sure....
By the time I cought up to everyone...they were running as fast as they could back down the trail...
aside from kylie, who managed to hitch hike a ride....
just after the trail, we saw the road ahead.....Mom wasnt a fan AT ALL!!
Infact, she was pretty upset about it...and vows to never return!
She hates hates hates heights!! especially if they involve a narrow bridge!
I did however get a pretty picture of the river while crossing the bridge..
or it would have been, had it not been for the bars holding the bridge together! ha
we also saw some gorgeous water falls..
As for animals...we saw a couple that braved the rain..
if you look closly...you can see the little baby behind mom..
there were buffalo in the field laying down, but you cant see them in this zoomed out...
These next shots, i'm pretty upset about....
yes, you may be wondering why...well, we saw a BEAR...a GRIZZLY BEAR!! SOOO excited! it was pouring rain, and there were tons of people parked on the road...and by the time we got pulled over and got my camera ready and ran back down the street...he was up over the hill a little....when zoomed in you can see his back, but still cant really tell what it is :( this was the only bear we saw on this trip, and I didnt catch it on film! sad day!
These guys however were SO "friendly" ...can you say that about a wild animal?!?!
either way I started across the street taking photos and gradually got more and more brave.....or stupid, as eventually I got within arms length of them...
Glad I wasnt the only stupid one out there!!
The next photos, were probably more intense than the bear even. we were driving along when we noticed a group of cars pulled to the side, and people taking pictures....there were a bunch of cars and dad had to park a ways away, so just mom nathan and I got out and walked down to see what it was....
I started to take pictures of these guys ....about 20 feet away from us, when we realized....about 10 feet away, just behind a small bush infront of us....closer than the deer in this photo, was a bison laying down!! I started to back away quietly right away!! Nathan on the other hand wanted to get a photo...he took the camera from me ...and despite my begging...he got within 5 feet of that HUGE thing just to get a picture!!!!
funny thing is.....This is the best shots we got....
HAHA too bad the trees were in the way! it would have been an AMAZING shot!....and at the same time, I am SO glad the trees were there!! The ranger showed up shortly after and asked everyone to be smarter about how close they got to WILD LIFE!! Thank you Ranger!!
We then made it to my dads favorite spot!
The cold lasting longer this year made for less lily pads..but it was still very pretty!!
on our way back down the loop we noticed a single tree out in the middle of the water...my dad pulled over and asked me to try to get a shot of it....it was slightly difficult due to the amount of trees surrounding the edge of the road....I had to walk a ways to find an opening in the trees...
Aside from Cory, this was Nathans and Kelsies first trip to yellowstone...so even in the rain, they got out and walked through some of the cool gysers....
their favorites were these...
This one above won the popularity contest that day I think...Its called Dragons mouth or something like that.... it would "GRRRRR" and then a huge stinky cloud of smoke would come out of a cave....as if a dragon was in there...Kelsie LOVED IT!
We decided to wait until the next day to do the lower loop and old faithful. so we headed back to camp.
the sunset was to die for that night...
The next day, the sun was out! YAY
we started at old faithful....Nathan was pretty excited. while we were waiting this cute little guy entertained us!
He walked right up to me and just looked around!
When old faithful was starting nathan was like "really...thats it??"
HAHA
the second he turned back around he realized, why everyone was waiting to see it!
We ended up getting to see the biggest of the 4 sets!
I was glad nathan loved it.
being the one taking the photos, I didnt get many shots of nathan and I together, so I asked kelsie to take one for us....the sun in our eyes made it difficult! HA
We also got this one the day before..
we saw a bunch more animals....
this one was one of the favorites...
We made one last stop at my moms favorite place....
This one above smelled so incredably bad!! but you had to walk through it to get to anything else!
Nathan Loved the colors in this
and this one here is my moms all time favorite!!
there were millions of people here...we were lucky to grab a quick shot!
oh, and I had to wear a brace on my thumb this whole trip too....drove me CRAZY! and made for a funny looking photo!
The mud bubbles were a big hit aswell
This one also smelled Fantastic!
and the gyser below was almost as cool as old faithful! I think it's because you get to stand SO much closer!
HAHA dont mind the wind blown hair...I wanted to post photos of us...but didnt have many to choose from!
Here is another shot of one of Nathans favorites
I think this one won by far though....Nathan Loved watching the boiling water flow down into the river!
And a few other random shots taken along the way....
Still miles and miles of dead trees from the fire....but SO good to see some green now too!!
We had SO much fun overall! Nathan said he cant wait to go back!
WOW!! YAY Finally this post is complete! =0)
