New physical abilities

" Not only for picking teeth, but my toes can also scratch my ear and comb my hair."
"Who needs toys when you have cubby holes."

Also: Liz is now crawling. She chased me around the living room, trying to get my laptop.

Ward Campout

We decided not to campout, but we went to the dinner anyway. Here's a picture of Liz being held by Brother Braithwaite (Fun fact about Joe and Liz Braithwaite, they are both twins too! Twin who married a twin talking to a twin who married a twin. What are the odds.) This is after Liz took a nose dive off her chair.

Liz. Also, some cuddling in the background by other ward members.
Two of Liz's friends.

"I'm ok!"

You are the banana king

I know what I'm doing here.

Mmmmm... banananananananananaaa.

Trip o'rama (Part 2)

As things progressed, I felt more and more tired. Liz was sleeping rather well, but I wasn't because she was. (Does that make any sense!?) Trips are alot of work to make them worry free, but you just end up worrying that you don't have to worry about anything. Makes you just want to stay home sometimes. Luckily we didn't forget anything important. Like each other.

DAY 4 (Friday)
We packed up our stuff in record speed. After a good breakfast, we stuffed it in the car and drove on up towards Yellowstone lake. After a quick view of the lake, we made our way to the falls of Yellowstone. (Josh's favorite part from his last trip to Yellowstone.) After lunch, we viewed the upper falls and then walked down a trail, wandering towards what was called Artist's Point. However, we saw another trail that we decided to go down called Uncle Tom's Point. Uncle Tom was a guide who used to take tourists down to a point to view the lower falls. Back in his day they had to use ropes and ladders to climb the cliffs, but they had a series of metal staircases that climbed hundreds of feet. The sign said "not recommended for people with heart problems". I got a little vertigo and had to grip the railing. However, it was worth the scare. (Pictures to follow) After the hike, we drove north and saw a herd of bison. One tried to ram into our car, but our car intimidated it and the bison backed off. Liz slept through it all. We made it to another falls, I forget the name. We went into the gift shop and bought some tee shirts and Liz choose a bear that she played with most of the drive to Idaho and much of the next week's trip as well. We drove the north part of Yellowstone, hoping to avoid the tourists shooting pictures of animals who were worse than the construction in Utah. We saw alot of good country. I love lodgepole pine. Then we drove to the Searle's house in Rigby. We had a really good dinner and slept very well. It was nice to have a shower.

Oh look, a picture from Yellowstone with a bison and a geyser. Original.

Uncle Tom's Point. Note the oxide stains from hot springs in the area.

Look over here Liz!

Artist point with wiggly child.

Josh likes to have a picture of the signs from the parks we visit. Unfortunately, the sign was a big tourist attraction.

DAY 5 (Saturday)

The next day we went to Rigby Lake where I promptly lost my water shoe and Josh spent the rest of the time trying to find it again. It was nice in the water though until the dog came and did his business. We didn't play in the lake after that. Liz enjoyed it though. After that, Mom and Katie took me to a Target in Idaho Falls. They bought me a nice outfit that I wore to church next Sunday. (Thanks!) Josh went to his grandmother's while we were shopping.

Day 6 (Sunday)

This really wasn't part of a trip, but we got back and our house was a mess for Sunday. During Sacrament Meeting, we discovered that our ward was being split. We were going to be put back in a ward we had been in previously.

Day 7 (Monday)

Prepare for Next trip.

Day 8 (Tuesday)

Drive down to Castle Valley. We were able to use a van from the motor pool, so it wasn't cramped at all. This trip has never seemed so long before. At least the bed and breakfast was nice. Josh did some work before dark.

Day 9 (Wednesday)

We had an egg and green chili casserole for breakfast. Yummy. I watched Liz and got a little bored, but after lunch, I was able to help Josh with his samples. We turned our room into a lab. I ran the pH and DO probes and helped record.

Day 10 (Thursday)

This morning we had some french toast for breakfast. We took the La Sal mountain loop. Here's a little tidbit of information for those who haven't been in the area. The La Sal mountains were named by the Spanish explorers who, when they saw snow on the tops of the peaks debated whether there could actually be snow up there because it was so hot and the mountains were close by. They finally decided that it couldn't be snow and concluded that it must be salt. Hence, the salt or La Sal. The view was spectacular. I have pictures, but they are still on the camera. We saw aspen trees as tall as lodgepole pines. After that little diversion, we made our way to Blanding to visit mom and dad. We had a barbecue and talked about vacations until late at night.

DAY 11 (Friday)

Liz didn't sleep so well, so I was a little grumpy in the morning. I kept complaining about Josh's driving and ended up driving most of the way home myself.

Trip o' rama (Part 1)

We just got back from two weeks of travelling. The first week was vacation, the second was work for Josh's graduate project. I'm tired from it. One of the repercussions was that Liz became used to being around us constantly. Now she's very clingy and has a hard time taking naps. However, we had a good time and will chalk it down as a time we grew together as a family.

DAY 1 (Tuesday)

We travelled all day and camped in the Tetons at a nice campground called Lizard Creek. While we saw no lizards or creeks, we did see the northern part of Jackson Lake and some nice mountains.

DAY 2 (Wednesday)

We went to Jenny Lake and hiked around to Hidden Falls. I took the ferry back across the lake with Liz while Josh hiked/ran back around. Just because he beat us by half an hour doesn't mean that we didn't have a good experience. After the hike, we drove up to Yellowstone and camped at Lewis Lake campground. We had yummy hobo dinners. (This one had chicken, bbq sauce, peppers, potatoes, carrots and lots of foil.) We also had banana boats. (banana with peel wrapped around it with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows stuffed inside all wrapped in foil and melted in the fire.) The lake was pretty cool, but the tent pads were too close to each other and our neighbors were young excited boys. Yup, they woke Liz up. I wasn't sorry when she was a little noisy in the morning.

DAY 3 (Thursday)

Typical tourist day. We drove up to the old faithful village area. We had showers and then walked around to see alot of the geysers. Old faithful was faithful. We even saw some of the less frequent ones. I made a game of renaming all of the hot springs and geysers. The grotto geyser was going off when we walked by it. Then some wind kicked up and blew all of the toxic mist all over us. It was awesome and yet not so much all at the same time. (I've only seen one part of one of the robo cop movies and it's where some guy melts in a pool of acid. This thought went through my head as we got out of the way.) We drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs and weren't all that impressed after hiking a bit, but the ride was nice. Then, we went back to the Lewis Lake campground where our tent was waiting for us. We had campers pizza which was really good. You take good thick wheat bread and spread some sauce on it, put some cheese and then pepperoni and top it with another slice of bread. Then you wrap it in foil and toast it in the fire. I loved the smoky flavor in the pizza.

Old faithful. Josh is right in front of me, moving fast.

Liz fell asleep and here I am sauntering with her down geyser lane.

Grotto geyser coming at me fast. We were on the part of the sidewalk where the mist is now.