T-Ball

kenzie played T-Ball again this year. She had lots of fun. They didn't get to play a whole lot of games because of the rain, but she really enjoyed it.

4 Generations. Grandma and Grandpa Palmer were at my mom's house visiting so we went and spent the day with them. We don't get to see tnem very often so I was glad that we were able to make it!

P.S. Avery got tubes put in her ears yesterday. She did so well! Hopefully it will help.

The Treehouse museum

I took Avery swimming for her first time. She wasn't sure what to think. At first she HATED it. She cried and cried for about the first half of the time. Then she decided that she liked it and her cries turned to laughs and smiles.

Our trip to Yellowstone!!

WARNING!!! PICTURE OVERLOAD!!!!

I have never been to Yellowstone and I have been wanting to take the kids. Well, some friends asked us if we wanted to go with them, so of course, we said yes! (Thanks Scott and Tiffany!)

It was so much fun! We saw so many neat things and the kids had a blast! We were going to get hotel rooms, but decided to take the camping trailers instead. It was a lot of driving and the kids were great! Avery especially. I was so worried that she wouldn't handle being in her carseat all day for 4 days in a row very well, but she was perfect! The first night we stayed in Jackson Hole.

Avery with her new hat that she got in Jackson.

Posing with BIG FOOT!

Gavin and Dad

While we were in Jackson, we went to see the Bar J Wranglers. I had never heard them before. They were very funny. It's not my favorite type of music, but they were definately entertaining! They also fed us a HUGE meal. It was fun. I'm sure we will be going back.
The daddies with their babies.
There is a little trail going around the building with some fun things to look at.
Going for a walk.

We Spent the night in Jackson, and went to breakfast in the morning. I tried some sourdough pancakes. kinda wierd tasting, but good. Then we were off to

YELLOWSTONE!!

I love this picture!


This waterfall was HUGE! We went to a different spot where you are standing right on the edge of the waterfall, looking down on it. It was amazing. And nerve-wracking! The first thing Gavin did when we got there was try to climb up onto the ledge. I couldn't take my eyes off that kid for a second. He had no fear. Here's one looking down on the waterfall. It doen't look so impressive in the picture. It's so big, you can't fit the whole thing in one picture.

Some pictures that Dallas took.
OOPS! Dallas cut off Avery!

Some-how, I didn't think to take our stroller. So luckily, while we were in Jackon, we were able to find a little one to use for our trip. I don't know what I would have done without it.

This is what Gavin spent his entire vacation doing: Pushing Avery. He thought it was his job and no-one else's. He is so cute with her. However, there were some places where I wasn't comfortable with him pushing her; going down steep hills, inside the gift shops, ect...

And this is what he looked like whenever he wasn't able to push her.

Waiting for Old Faithful to erupt!

Wow! mackenzie is already asking when we are going to go back to see it again
More pictures of the scenery.

Avery Chillin' in her stroller

Mackenzie wearing her new hat!
Gavin wearing his new hat

Saturday was our last day there. We had seen lots of animals, but nothing spectacular. Just the usual. Buffalo, moose, deer, elk, antelope, and we had seen 5 wolves in the distance. Dallas wanted to drive through Lamar Valley and it was getting to be dusk by the time we got there. We parked to look around for a few minutes and Dallas spotted a black bear and her cub up on the hill. They were pretty far away. You could only see them with binoculars. Gavin was upset because he couldn't see them, but I thought that was the best we were going to get. We decided to head back to camp. Dallas said he thought he had heard a wolf howling but I didn't think anything of it. We started driving down the road and ran into this:

He walked right toward us. Dallas got out to take pictures, and the wolf just kept coming closer and closer. You can see in the picture that he is standing right by the road. Dallas was standing in the middle of the road. He just stood there and kept snapping pictures! I think I would have peed my pants! We watched him for a while then decided to continue heading toward our campsite. We get a little further up the road, and we see this:
He was standing on the side of the road eating some grass. Gavin was so excited that he finally got to see a bear. We watched him for a while, then went on our way. A little further up the road we see this:
A baby big-horned sheep.
And some "Big" Big-horned sheep! It was crazy! To see all of them, so close together, and all of them right next to the road. I bet that doesn't happen too often!

We keep driving toward our campsite. It's starting to snow. We get to a sign that says "Road Closed", but there are people coming in the opposite direction so we don't know if someone pulled the sign as a joke, or if it's closed because of the snow or what. We had been on it not too long before, and it was open then. Our alternative, was taking a 2-hour detour. We all had hungry, tired kids, so we decided to go around the sign and continue on our way. The further we got, the heavier the snow was. It was June 6th and It was snowing! It wasn't too bad. We got through the worst of it. We were just a matter of a few miles to the end of the closure when we see flashing lights ahead. The forest service. Great! They make us turn around and go back the way we came and take a detour that took us 2 and a half hours to get back to our campsite. It was snowy and foggy the whole way. We didn't get back to our trailers till after 11:00. We had some very hungry and very tired kids! I know we were wrong to go on the closed road, but we were not the only ones. There were many other vehicles doing the same thing. I just don't see what the point was of making us turn around and go back. We had already driven through the worst of the snow, which was the reason for the road being closed in the first place. We were literally about 5 miles to the end of the closure, and they made us turn around and go back. I think they thought it was really funny. On the way back, it was darker, and snowier, and the roads were getting worse and worse.
Here's a map showing our little adventure. In-between the little blue dots is how far we had left to drive to get past the road closure when they turned us around. The green line is the detour we ended up having to take to get back to the campground. I thought it was pretty funny. It's a good thing I threw in an extra bottle for Avery at the last minute of I would have been in big trouble!Wearing our new hats and getting ready to go home! It was snowing for about the first 2 hours of our drive home. I'm glad that Dallas was driving and not me. He doesn't mind the snow at all but I hate it! It was a very fun trip! I think we will make it a yearly tradition!