grammy.

It has been quite a while since I've seen my Grandma.  We saw her at my sister's wedding a couple of years ago.  I love that we got to go through Indiana so that we could see her.  When we found out we were moving our number one stop we wanted to make was to see my Grandma.  We wanted our kids to have some time with her and talk with her.

I love seeing Grammy Louise (that's what my kids call her...).  she says what's on her mind and you never wonder if she's holding anything back.  I wish we could have had some more time with her.  Hopefully, now that we're out this direction we'll get to see her more often.

**with gas going nuts and how many times we stopped for it...I had to have a picture! **

sweet. LIFE.

By the seat of our pants.

 

**totally not sure why these pictures look pixelated...anyone know?  they look great on my computer but not when I upload them, I'm doing the exact same thing with them as usual...hmmm....**

We knew we were going to see Mount Rushmore. That was the plan. The Badlands…not in the plan. Staying at Mount Rushmore for most of the day…not in the plan. Getting out of Gillette around 11:30am…not in the plan.

So today pretty much 95% of our day did not go according to plan. We were mostly just spontaneous about the whole day. Once we realized the plan was pretty well shot we just kept doing whatever we wanted. We ate in Keystone at the DQ after being in awe over Mount Rushmore.

If you haven’t been to Mount Rushmore it will amaze you. When we saw it I was completely taken with the enormity of the project, how people carved those faces, and who it was that came up with and executed the idea. I couldn’t figure out how they knew where to start carving and creating in that mountainside. Curiosity got the better of us and we had to go to the artist’s studio that was almost 250 stairs away. We had heard that there was a presentation at 3:30 but knew that we wouldn’t be around by the time that happened; we just wanted to see the space. Well…we looked around and asked questions and looked at books about the artist and Mount Rushmore…until the presentation at 3:30. We still hadn’t eaten any lunch and we stayed.

Miriam got to be the helper when the park ranger talked about how they decided to start the carving. Ninety five percent of the work was done with dynamite. The other 5% was all carving and chiseling and jack hammering. The workers were suspended from the top over the face of the mountain. The amazing thing was that not one of the people that worked on the sculpture was killed. It was very inspiring to hear how the artist came up with the idea and the bravery and skill of the 400 people who worked on the project.

After getting on the road we were about to pass the Badlands…and at the last second we took the road out to the National Park. The Badlands are amazing…all of these places are! On one side the land is just rolling along and then out of nowhere and for seemingly no reason all of these hills and valleys and canyons are just there. There is grass just waving in the wind (that’s beautiful, too…the way the grass blows like it’s waves in the ocean…I love it.) and then there are these crazy Badlands. Mike and Emmett freaked all of us girls out by walking out on this precipice with a drop on three sides. I couldn’t watch. I had to walk away while Miriam yelled for them to come back. (I remember first realizing I was afraid of heights when I was pregnant with Emmett. Mike went out on this ledge at the Grand Canyon. I remember telling him, “Don’t you make me a widow with this baby on the way! Get away from that edge right now. You are totally freaking me out!”….is that a mom thing….to start worrying like that?)

The Badlands were freezing with that wind blowing. It’s the middle of July and Gracie was wrapped up in a blanket!

**The picture of Gracie laughing is because she couldn’t stop laughing after I totally biffed it on a stair and fell all over the place but kept my camera up in the air to make sure that it didn’t get hurt. I got hurt and I’ve got a couple of bruises on my bahookie (Emma’s word) to prove it. I couldn’t stop laughing either. I’m terrible about laughing when I fall or anyone else falls. It just keeps replaying in my head and it makes me laugh every time I think about it. Falling is so funny. Once I walked into a window at the college I was going to and shattered the whole thing (that’s a story for another time) …I still laugh every time I think about it.

Anyway. It was a great day of unplanned stuff.

spontaneous. LIFE.

 

 

 

yellowstone.

After leaving Hooper on Wednesday night we drove straight to west Yellowstone and arrived at 2:30am where we all fell into bed for five short hours of sleep after a very long and intense day.

Thursday morning we piled back into the car and headed out to see the paint pots and Old Faithful in Yellowstone. Shelby, our neighbor gave the kids travel journals When Gracie got out of the car at the paint pots she decided to write in her travel journal. She drew a picture of the fountain paint pot with it’s bubbles and wrote in her travel journal (and then asked me to translate) “Gracie loves this white place.”

The paint pots are just incredible. It’s hard to believe unless you see it. The earth just bubbles up. In some places it bubbles up mud and in some places it bubbles up and creates these gorgeous colors. The blues are my favorite. I don’t know if any one remembers Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip by Bill Watterson but I remember loving it and looking forward to reading it every day in the paper. Now, my son, Emmett reads all of the books tht we bought back in the 90s. He loves them and laughs at Calvin’s lunacy. When we stood looking at that bubbling Fountain Paint Pot Emmet said, “This looks like a planet Calvin would dream up.” And at that very moment both Mike and I were thinking the very same thing. Funny.

We arrived at Old Faithful to find out we had just missed the geyser irrupting by about 10 mintues. The next explosion wouldn’t be for another 90 minutes or so. We decided that we were all getting a little hungry so we trailed over to the café for a bite to eat. I would NOT recommend eating there if you want something that tastes good, has good service, and has what’s on the menu actually in stock (our first choice of everything we ordered they were out of). There is another place to eat there besides the café…not sure if it’s any better or not. I did see people walking around with ice cream that looked really good, though…I would recommend filling your cooler before going through the park or planning to eat when you are in west Yellowstone. Another thing we hadn’t realized is that west Yellowstone is where all of the hotels are located. If you’re planning to stay somewhere on the east side of Yellowstone the closest place is Cody, Wyoming (and although it IS the rodeo capital of the world it didn’t look like it had a wide variety of places to stay).

We sat waiting for Old Faithful while everyone around us wondering if it really would ever go off. About 10 minutes after it predicted geysering time it exploded into the air…it really is a complete wonder the way the earth is so different in so many places of the world. How one location can have these amazing paint pots and be so hot that no one could even live near them and have a geyser that erupts every 90 minutes or so and then be surrounded by this gorgeous lake and trees and mountains and be so peaceful. In one place it seems like the earth is just rumbling and gurgling and busy. In another it’s quiet and beautiful and relaxing.

This earth and this country are so beautiful and open and wild. There are so many places that no one lives that are untamed country.

I’m not sure if Emma saw the geyser or the paint pots; she did see every flower along the way and kept asking me to take a picture of all of them. Emma is really good at being in the moment of loving whatever she is doing. When she started spinning around and singing about ‘feeling the wonderful wind’ in the middle of the trail and a bunch of people around her it was a perfect moment of who Emma is…oblivious to anything but the wonder of the moment that is right now.

Since I am Gracie’s parent of choice these days (and pretty much since the day she was born) I’m the only one that can hold her hand J . That being the case, I get a lot of cute pictures of the back of everyone else that’s in front of the two of us…

adventure. LIFE.

 

 

 

it's really here.  we're really gone.

On Wednesday....this is what our house looked like.  The kids were helping clean off all of our furniture before it was loaded, eating strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast, Emmett was playing with friends for the last time, the movers were loading up the truck, friends were stopping by to see us and giving us sweet gifts for our road trip, and very kind neighbors came and helped us clean our house. Thank you. Thank you!
We said some difficult goodbyes and as we waved to our dear neighbors there were tears all around.  As much as we're looking forward to South Carolina and the adventure that it holds for us we are torn over the sadness we feel to leave our friends, happy memories, and a house that became a sweet home.   The place that we brought Gracie home from the hospital, where Miriam and Emma lost their first tooth, Emmett found out he was accepted into the PAL program, where I refinished the cupboards of our kitchen, the kids rode their bikes down our roads and to the Sinclair for treats with great freedom and safety, where our neighbors were watchful and protective,  the russian olive trees sweet smell blew through our windows it's wonderful fragrance, Gracie learned to ride her bike without training wheels, and so many more tender moments of love and graciousness, 4th of July parties, and dinners with friends....
We will forever love our little home in Hooper.  It holds so much love and cherished memories.  We will miss you little house and we will miss all of the dear friends who helped us to make beautiful memories there....

good. LIFE.

 

 

 

 

Fun tradition.

Every year at the beginning of December we put together a Christmas chain.  We make a list of all of the things we'd like to do together and for other people and each link gets an activity.  The links count down the days until Christmas and every morning the kids race to see what well be the activity of the day and to be the first to take a link off of the chain.  It's a big part of Christmas for us and the kids look forward to everyday.

So far we have:

Gone to the resuce mission twice.

Gone to a matinee movie.

Eat dinner by the tree while we watch a Christmas movie.

Make gingerbread houses

Go Christmas shopping for each other.

Play a Christmas game (we make a family Christmas game and book each year).

Go get our Christmas tree.

Decorate the Christmas tree.

Ride in the car and look at Christmas lights.

We still want to:

Take food to the Utah Food Bank.

Go ice skating.

Make toffee for school teachers.

Make a Christmas game.

Go to Salt Lake and meet up with Louis Palos and his sweet family for Temple Square lights, dinner, and hot chocolate.

Take soup to the homeless.

Make a Christmas book.

I'm going to be posting our fun gingerbread party very soon!

 

enjoy. LIFE.