Rehearsal Dinner

    Tonight was the rehearsal dinner for our friend, Danielle Toone. Danielle used to work in the Bonneville County Jail at the same time Scott worked on patrol. I met Danielle a few times in passing but it was not until after she was no longer employed by the jail that she and I became good friends. Her daughter, Bailie, and Ashlynn are only a few months a part. Bailie and Ashlynn used to go to Diane's Earlycare together, but unfortunately Bailie did not make the cut off to be in the same grade as Ashlynn. They do go to the same school and get to play together before school and see each other in passing throughout the day. Danielle understands well the crazy schedule we keep and has been a life saver many times with tending Daniel so I could sleep or attend class. Danielle and I have hung out many times during the kids' play dates. All three kiddos get along very well. All of this to say, Danielle has become a great friend of our family over the past few years and asked me to be a bride's maid in her wedding. Of course I readily agreed.
    Tonight was the rehearsal dinner. The wedding is to take place in Danielle's mother's beautiful backyard. The backyard is just perfect for a wedding having a huge arboretum in the back third of the yard, gorgeous rock beds with flowers and trees, and a paved rock pathway winding from the house up to the arboretum. 
    They bride and groom decided to have a potluck and requested everyone bring a side dish - they provided hot dogs and bratwursts. I made my yummy, delicious, gooey macaroni and cheese. I filled a 2 1/2 quart container and only brought 1/3 of that home - I think it was a hit! Before we could eat, the bride put all of the men to work  taking the last load of large river rock to the flower beds. During that task, it began to rain. And then poured. And then the lightning came. And more rain. The party was quickly moved inside. Chief Rachel came out in me and I had the kids in the living room playing "Bull Frog," freeze dance (a new one for me), and 4 corners (also a new one). The kids were thrilled to have someone pay attention to them.
    Once the meat was cooked, we quickly took care of our starving kids, then set to work helping to set up the chairs for the wedding. Once that was done, it was had gotten dark, but there was still a rehearsal to take place! After everyone was paired up and we began discussing the order in which it should go (Does the matron of honor go first or last? Does the first person down the aisle stand on the outside or inside? When does the flower girl go down the aisle?). Thankfully the bride's mother came to the rescue and made some much needed executive decisions and we were able to begin the rehearsal. The tricky part was doing the split. Headed down the walkway to the arboretum, the pathway divides to go around a tree. Who knew that could be so difficult.

    Luckily I was voted the first down the aisle and was able to start the rehearsal off to a good start. After I had gone down the aisle, Daniel took off running towards me and from that point on, I had to carry him. I'm hoping that tomorrow Daniel will be content to sit and watch. We are all hoping that the rain will hold off for the ceremony because there is no plan B. As it stands the yard is rather drenched and the chairs are all sunken into the mud. Daniel and some other boys found a low point in the yard that had turned into a small lake. I'm hoping their play tonight will not leave a mud hole once the water evaporates.
    I am rather thankful that when Scott and I got married we chose an indoor venue. Were I getting married outside tomorrow, I would not get a wink of sleep because I would be begging and pleading God to stave off the rain. As it is, I am going to head to bed enjoying the rumbling thunder, the gentle pitter patter of the rain on my metal roof, and my yard turning greener and greener.

Flipping Toddler!

Tonight, while the kids were supposed to be getting ready for bed, I walked past Ashlynn's room and Daniel was in there playing around. I watching him put his hands down on the ground and stick his butt into the air, but instead of just standing up he did a somersault! I could not believe it. No one has ever taught him how to do one, and the last time he may have seen one would have been Ashlynn playing around on the trampoline. Daniel isn't ever on the trampoline when she does that sort of thing, so I am at a loss as to how he figured it out. I took a couple of videos of his new trick. I hope you enjoy!

Catching Up

I have been told by multiple people that they enjoy this blog and miss having new posts. As I look back over the blog, I see the latest blog entry was back in February - 6 months ago! Well, instead of going back through and updated the past six months of our lives, I am going to do my best to pick up the pieces now and continue on. I will try to have a new post at least once per week, if not more.

In the meantime I am trying to back date a few things from the month of August. Also, if you want to be kept apprised of my posts, sign up for the email notifications and whenever I make a post, you will get it in email form so you will never miss a post!

In the meantime, please bare with me as I try to figure out how to schedule this into my life.

First Day of School!

        Ashlynn became a second grader this year at Iona Elementary! So hard to believe. The first day of school was Monday 27 August. Ashlynn was so ready, too. She had picked out her new lunch box, new backpack which she had loaded all of her school new supplied into, she'd met her new teacher, and had picked out her first day of school outfit.

       The morning finally arrived and she jumped out of bed and started getting ready. I had worked the night before so I arrive home in time to do her hair and help make her lunch. Before she headed out the door I snapped a few pictures of her.

I never seem to allow enough time for pictures. I certainly did not allow enough this year. This year we had to deal with an ornery 2 year old who wanted to do everything his big sister did. When she got dressed, he had to get dressed. Same with doing hair and eating breakfast. When it came time to taking pictures, by golly he wanted to be in it.  When she got her backpack out, he did, too. 

I had to get a picture of their backpacks! 

 Ashlynn wanted a picture of her going out the door. I figured going out the front door would look much better then going out the garage like we really did.

 And here is the traditional picture by the sign out front of the school. 

     With all of these pictures and a few other things, Ashlynn was a little late to her first day of school. She was not the last to arrive, but she certainly got to her seat after the bell rang. Thankfully they do not county the kids tardy on the first day! 

     When Ashlynn got home she seemed really excited about her first day. She said the only thing she learned was not to microwave an egg salad sandwich. I'm hoping that she will begin having more academic learning experiences and a few less "cooking" disasters at school.

Salsa

Every year since Scott and I have been married I have made salsa. Last year was the first year we canned it and we have thoroughly enjoyed my "fresh" salsa throughout the off season. This year we decided to purchase our tomatoes for the salsa through Bountiful Basket. They provide fresh produce at an excellent rate. About the time we decided to make salsa they offered a 20lbs pack of tomatoes and a separate Mexican pack. The Mexican pack was full of onions, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, cilantro, green onions, etc. All I had to go to the store and purchase were green peppers. Scott like that added in. Scott was out of town getting Ashlynn from SLC when it came time to go pick up this massive amount of produce. In addition to the tomatoes and the Mexican pack was the normal "basket." Needless to say I had to make 2 trips.
We left the tomatoes downstairs in our guest bedroom because it usually stays nice and cool in there, plus it is rather dark with the door closed. We hoped the tomatoes would stay nice until it was time to make the salsa.
We didn't get around to making the Salsa until Saturday 25 August. We chopped and chopped and chopped some more. For about an hour we chopped. 50 tomatoes make 20lbs. That is a lot of tomatoes. I was able to use the food processor for the different types of onions, the bell peppers, the garlic, and the peppers thankfully. To help get rid of some of the excessive juice of the tomato, we put the chopped tomatoes in a strainer, sprinkled some salt over them, and then let the salt dry out the juice, sort of like putting salt on a slug. With 20 pounds of tomatoes though we had to get creative in where to do this. We finally ended up using our big canning pot that holds between 6-8 gallons.

We stirred everything together, mixing almost up to my elbows. then tasted and something just was not right. We realized it did not have enough cilantro and we had used all that we had! Scott was getting ready to head out to the store when I texted a neighbor and low and behold, they had not one, but three bunches! She sent her daughter down with it and I gave her $2 in return and our salsa was almost complete. Even after the cilantro addition, it was still lacking something. It dawned on me that I usually use some form of citrus and the three little limes Scott had juiced into it just had not done enough. Out came the huge bottle of lemon juice from Sam's and I gave it a couple of good squirts into the pot. A little more mixing and it tasted just right. Unfortunately it was getting late and it was time for me to go lay down before going to work. Scott used about 5 sheets of Saran wrap before taking it downstairs to the garage refrigerator to set for the night. The next day Scott cooked it up until is simmered for just a bit then canned it. We ended up with 19 quart jars full of delicious, homemade salsa.

Second Trip to Yellowstone National Park

We wanted to see a little bit more of the park while we had the chance. We decided that Thursday 24 August was a great day to do it, but we had quite a few things to do that day and were not able to depart until almost noon; however it was well worth the trip.Before going to Yellowstone, we decided to stop at Mesa Falls. Scott and I had not been there since our honeymoon over 3 years ago. We started out at the lower falls. The lower falls are only visible from a distance and the park is not as kept up as the upper falls.The kids were still thoroughly thrilled by the waterfall, the scenery, and the people who were visiting the water fall as well. 

 We only stayed here a brief time before continuing on up to the upper falls. Before we left, we had to take the same picture we took on our honeymoon. We've changed a little, but the love is ever as strong. It was really fun retracing our footsteps from our honeymoon with our kids.
We went on to the upper falls and proceeded to have a picnic lunch before taking the hike down to the falls. There was no way I was going to be going any further without some sort of sustenance. We found a picnic table in the shade and enjoyed our Subway sandwiches and chips.
Once finished we proceeded down the steps. And man there were a lot of steps. It was worth it though. The waterfall was even more beautiful than I had remembered it. The river was really cool, too.  There were quite a lot of people visiting the area and Mr. Independent Daniel insisted on going up the steps on his own. It finally got to the point that Scott scooped him up and carried him. It only took a few moments before Daniel realized he got a better end of the deal.
Once we finished taking all of our pictures and hiking back up the steps, we all used the outhouses and continued on our way to Yellowstone.When we got there, we went in through the west entrance. Ironically, Yellowstone is only 1 1/2 hours from our house but we rarely ever go. Continuing on, once we made it into the park, we soon saw this lone bison. We then proceeded on and made it to Gibbon Falls. While we were touring around the area, we read about it and the wall that kept all of us tourist from falling off into the falls was the wall that had been originally used for the roadway back in the 1800's.
Also at that site was a board that had been updated with the latest wildfire information. On that day, there were about 5 fires being monitored. Throughout the park were road signs, similar to construction signs, that said "Monitored Fire in the Area." I'm assuming they were to cut down on the 911 calls reporting fires.
Continuing on, we hurried over to Norris Basin, right near the Yellowstone Volcano. Norris Basin had many different trails to take, but due to our lack of time, we took the ones that went right down onto the basin. Most of the trail we took was a boardwalk. The picture on the right is overlooking most of the basin.
All over the place were signs warning against going off the boardwalk. The ground may look solid, but it could just be a thin crust that could give way to a hot pool or worse, fall into a deep, empty vault.
I was really nervous keeping a 2 year old on the boardwalk. Whenever I tried to hold his hand, he would pull away even more and get even closer, even one teetering, on the edge. We couldn't get out of there soon enough. We saw absolutely gorgeous pools though. The colloidal pool was favorite.

 Not only did we hurry through Norris Basin because it was getting dark and we were trying to make sure our two year old didn't disappear off the face of the earth, we hurried because a huge tour bus full of an Oriental tour group was quickly gaining on us. They were being lead by a guy holding a flag pole with a neon flag. I hope they were unable to understand what we were saying because Scott and I kept telling the kids, "We've got to hurry! They are coming after us!" They did look a little bit like a disorganized army...

Once we left Norris Basin, the firefighter/curiosity in Scott got the best of all of us and we ended up hunting down one of the fires in the Park. This was as close as we were able to get. As best as we could tell, the fire was about 2 miles away from this location. As we were headed out of the area where the fire was, we could see the line of smoke. I thought this picture was cool with the moon in the background. The smoke showed up much better in person.
 That pretty much concluded our second adventure into the park. We still have not taken the kids to see all of the park yet. The park is so massive. I want to go back just after the park opens in the spring. Scott and I went in mid-May when we were on our honeymoon. I want the kids to experience the herds of buffalo right by the car or the grizzlies coming out looking for food or all of the baby bison. But that will have to be next year. Thankfully we have an annual pass at out disposal now...  :)

Tautphaus Park Zoo

We all had quite a busy day.  The day started off with Ashlynn having a dentist appointment at 9:00 am. That doesn't sound too early, but it seemed early enough. After getting some of her molars sealed, we had to go drop some stuff off for Scott at the AYSO director's house, the kids and I headed off to the zoo! Daniel had recently been with Scott and I, so as soon as I said we were going to go the zoo, Daniel just kept saying, "Go see
ANIMALS!!!!"
Once we got to the zoo, we started off seeing the birds. This one in particular was cooling itself off by sticking its head underneath the waterfall. Ashlynn thought it was pretty cool, too. Meanwhile, Daniel was off and running, literally. We got to see the ring-tailed lemurs from Madagascar.


This little guy thought we were pretty cool and put on quite a show. He is one of my favorite monkeys at the zoo. We continued on our tour, and once leaving the primate house, we went on to see the otters. We read about them but unfortunately, the little guys would not put on a show.

We did luck out with the donkeys. The zookeepers were letting them graze on the grassy lawn by the pavilion. I asked and they readily agreed to let the kids pet them.

Ashlynn found some really pretty flowers and she begged to have her picture taken with them. I obliged. I think her blue outfit contrasts beautifully.

We continued on our tour seeing all sorts of crazy birds. We were running short on time so I gave the kids the choice between seeing the lions and tigers and zebras, or seeing the pelicans and penguins. The penguins quickly won out. It was a good choice because the penguins were actually swimming. We watched them swim for a while. 

That pretty much concluded our visit to the zoo. All in all a good time.

First Trip to Yellowstone 2012

 

 

 

Part of Scott's travels for his job take him through Yellowstone National Park. To save money, Scott's employer purchased him an annual pass. On two of Scott's days off, we took trips to tour the park before Ashlynn started school.  On the first trip, we had to go through the Beartooth Highway- a beautiful, windy, 2-lane road getting up to almost 11,000 ft. I had no idea it was such a destination. The overlooks were breathtaking.

 

Once we reached the park entrance, we entered though the NE entrance and began eagerly looking for wildlife. Most of the area between the NE entrance and the Grand Loop is Lamar Valley. If Ivremember correctly, Lamar Valley is where the animals spend their summer? Either way, it is known for its high concentration of grizzlies, elk, bison, wolves, etc. Its reputation held true, at least partly, and we saw our first (and only) herd of bison! Ashlynn about came unglued when she saw them.

 

The next big adventure in Yellowstone was the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. The signs said this is a fairly new part of the park, appearing to only be 14,000 years old. No matter how old it is, the beauty is astounding. The Yellowstone River flows through the canyon, creating multiple waterfalls. Some of the different colors on the canyon walls are caused iron and other minerals. Ashlynn was way more excited by all of the different colors. Daniel really only seemed to care about seeing "WATERFALL!!" He would run around, either entertaining or irritating most of the people there. On our way to the next place, we came to a stretching halt. In Yellowstone, if there are a whole bunch of people pulled off to the side of the road, getting out, holding cameras and binoculars, it is safe to say there is something worthy of seeing. We got out, and carefully made our way to where the people were gather. We quickly saw they were looking at this.

To get to the see the elk safely, Daniel had to be carried. Unfortunately, he didn't want to be carried any way except on Momma's shoulders. Momma gained a new appreciation for when Daddy carries Daniel like that for what must feel like ages.  So on our way back to our car, Scott quickly and bravely took this picture to document how we had had to travel so that neither of the kids ended up mowed over.

The next stop were the mud caldrons. Both kids were fascinated by the bubbling, muddy waters. Daniel would run up to the next one and point! Ashlynn thought they smelled just awful. I can't saw as I blame her. The infamous sulphur smell permeated this stop.

Another stop featured the Dragon's Mouth.  The sign said the name came from the original explorers who thought the sound the escaping steam made was similar to that of a dragon. It did have a roaring sound to it, so I can understand why it got the name it did. It was rather fun to watch which we did for a bit.



We pushed on and our next major stop was Old Faithful! The last time Daniel had scene it he was only 6 weeks old. This time was much more memorable for him. We had tried to look up the schedule on line, but had had no luck.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed there were a lot of people milling about Old Faithful. We figured either it had just gone off or was about to go off. We were hoping it was the later, so we took off running!  We got there in plenty of time to find a spot and wait for the big show. As usual, Old Faithful did not disappoint.


Daniel kept pointing to it and saying "Whoa!" He was rather impressed. Whenever Ashlynn would look away, he would point and say, "Look, Ashlynn! It goes up!" Once it had finally slowed, we started heading back to the car. It had been a long day and the kids started to let us know it about this point. There were a couple of more very pretty places to see before getting to the park exit, so we pushed on.

From Old Faithful we continued on to other sites such as the Grand Prismatic Spring, Fountain Paint Pot, and Firehole Bridge. Here are a few cool pictures from those:

  

We finally left the park around 9:00pm and then did some shopping around West Yellowstone. Since it was so late, we got the kids ready for bed, at some food that had been chilling in the cooler all day, then hit the road to come back home. We got home a little after midnight, put the sleeping into thei beds, then fells asleep ourselves. We all slept very well from our big day.