From September 18-27th, we managed to put 3,600 miles on our van! It served us very well and helped us to have a wonderful vacation seeing lots of family and beautiful country, and enjoy some U.S. and Church history. In order to maximize the pictures I can upload, I am going back to collage format: I love Picasa's collage tool! Here are some from our first few days. (This will serve as our family's journal entry, too, so please forgive some of the details.) I also have to profusely thank my dad for letting us borrow his little point and shoot camera: considering our brand new camera broke the week before we were supposed to leave, it was a huge lifesaver!
Day 1: Drive Salem to Smithfield, Utah. The kids did very well in the car. We stopped to see the huge Sturgeon at Cascade Locks and at a great park in LaGrande for a picnic lunch. I had surprises/treats for the kids to open every 100-150 miles which really helped the time pass. (Gotta love the Dollar Tree!) That, and Maile & Parvin's DVD player, and the "new to us" toys Alee let me borrow, were invaluable for the many miles! We finally reached Christine's house at 11:30 p.m.
Day 2: Christine and Grandma Ruby's houses in Smithfield; church. It still is remarkable to me that Kyle's sister lives less than a mile away from my Grandma! It is so fun to have time with both of them, and with Christine's kiddos: Alyssa, Tristan, and Zach. The kids had a ball playing with Zach especially and we had a great time visiting. It was wonderful to have time to relax and talk with my grandma.
Pictures from our time in Utah: The 2nd Sunday we were in Smithfield (Day 9), my mom was also visiting. We were able to take a four generation picture and have a wonderful dinner all together at Grandma Ruby's home. It has been awhile since she has had a big meal there and she loved the company and all the raucus. My sweet Grandma is very lonely living alone at 92. But, despite that, and the physical challenges she endures, she is doing remarkably well. The kids loved her marble track, of course, and riding on her cool (powered) La-Z-Boy!
Day 3. Drive Smithfield to Yellowstone. We had a picnic next to this cute little river along the way. I love this shot we took there; the kids were so glad to be out of the car.
Monday night we stayed at a totally budget hotel right across the street from the Park in West Yellowstone, Montana. It only cost us $80 but had two separate rooms! We were surprised to see that, and surprised by how clean it was. You never know what you're going to get going "budget" with hotels, but this time it worked out very well.
We spent Day 3 (afternoon) and Day 4 (morning) touring Yellowstone National Park. Such amazing country to see. We saw lots of buffalo, elk and one female moose, a pelican, and other wildlife. Kylene was not a fan of the strong sulphur smell at the paint pots and other geysers, but she endured :).
The second morning we drove about an hour out of our way to see the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone." I don't remember having seen it on previous trips to Yellowstone, but it was breathtaking. They have two large waterfalls in the canyon.
At the overlook for one of the waterfalls, we just happened to take pictures of everyone. Kylene snapped the picture of Kyle & me. I love the way Spencer sidled up and hugged Skyler when I went to take their picture together. It was a cool, crisp morning.
Day 4. Drive through Yellowstone and on to Rapid City, South Dakota via Cody, Wyoming. This was probably one of my favorite "seeing beautiful country" days. We saw the Grand Canyon, plus drove through the Rocky Mountains between Yellowstone and Cody. The scenery and rocks were incredible. We were driving through canyons at 9,000 feet above sea level with signs saying the rock was up to 500 million years old! Hard to imagine. This was another very long day for the kids but we tried to have several breaks where they could get out and run around. We got to our "home away from home" cabin around 8:00 p.m.
You are basically seeing the entire cabin in the picture. Nothing fancy, nothing spacious, but we loved that little room. We had two beds, a table and a little stand with a lamp. Oh, and who can forget the all important space heater?:) Skyler's crib barely squeezed into the corner. But the kids loved it and the parents loved the price:). It was at a cute little RV park/campground; our bathrooms were in the building you see in the background, so it was practically closer than our bathrooms at home (LOL)! And besides the one night/morning we had rain, it was sunny and beautiful, so we spent most of the time while we were there playing outside. We were a little worried about not being in a hotel, but in the end feel like it worked out much better than a hotel.
