Thursday, August 23, 2012

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Of course we went to watch Old Faithful and then walked around the other bubbling and erupting features.

Yellowstone has, in the center of the park, its own grand canyon.  At the end there are beautiful upper and lower falls. They could be viewed from a number of different places so we drove around to both sides and then went on a great ranger hike where we learned some more interesting facts about the area.

I actually took this photo although it looks like a print.  These falls fall 300 feet.  Dont want to try a barrell ride do you?
We had a really great adventure one day when we stopped to see Corrines mud pots.  This photos is near Dragon's breath.  We were walking around when  everyone began pointing at the parking lot.  We looked and there was a huge buffalo walking toward Russ who was sitting in our truck!  I thought it was going to climb in with him for a while, but it then headed off for the trail that went up the hill.  Up the hill near us were two other buffalo; a male and female.  The new buffalo decided to battle for the female, so the two males began pawing dirt and bumping heads.  It was so fun to watch.  I dont know how to take videos with my new camera so I only could get still shots.  So here they are.  Eventually our buffalo gave up and wandered up the path towards about a dozen people who were trying to get down the hill.  They all huridly decided to go another direction!  Katie and Lexie thought it was the coolest thing ever!




And finally we went on a hike up high for a view of Yellowstone Lake.  We passed a tree and the Ranger pointed out the Grizzly Bear claw marks.  Fortunately we did not see the bear.  As we hiked the ranger told us a story about one of the early explorers of the area who got lost for 37 days.  It was so interesting I went online and downloaded his 13 page story.  We really enjoyed reading it as we traveled. 

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

Al Brown spends his summer at Flathead Lake not far from Glacier Park, so he came up one day and gave us a tour of the park.  He took us on a hike to Victoria Falls which I highly recommend.  It is about 1 mile and a 1/2 but on the way you pass four other falls so you are much rewarded by your effort.

Lexie found some rock to use for face paint on Katies available face.

Russ was happy to find some old cars to inspect. 



On Sunday we went to Church at Flathead Lake with Al and Louise.  Then we went to a boat show with old wood boats.  During the 10 days we were at Glacier we did quite a bit of school work.  When we had free time we rode around the campground and to the nearby Villiage.  Katie and Lexie ran across a couple of brown bears while riding around.  We also went swimming in the very cold lake.  They had free shuttle busses that you could ride all the way up to the pass, so one day with did that tour.  We had a wonderful time at Glacier National Park.  Wish you were here.

CRATER LAKE

CRATER LAKE
After the anniversary party we headed to Glacier where we hiked up to a beautiful falls.





Sunday, August 12, 2012

Moore Anniversary Photos

The last day we gathered on the porch for a family photo.  Look at all the great people Russ and I a responsible for.

In the evening we gathered to visit.  One night we played
Jeopardy, A game Melanie and Joel created using family facts.
Another night we watched a family slide show that Stephen
organized with photos he stole from my computer :)
Jessica cooked for a week preparing food so that
we could all come and enjoy the week.  It was like having a catered event.  Thanks Jessica!

We had a great water gun battle



The house had a bar that we turned
into a soda bar and the kids loved
serving each other soda all day
There was a juke box in the bar room so there was a lot of
dancing going on.  This was Katies favorite thing.

ANNIVERSARY PARTY


The swing was a great hit.  The kids lined up so they could go high in the air.


You can see how beautiful this place is.  This is Stephanie's
husband, Doug.

 For 4 days our family gathered at the Carriville Inn in N. California.  There were 38 of us all together and we had a fabulous time.  Here are some photos:

There is a big barn where the kids
could go collect the egg
There were chickens, cows and even an Emu
This is Doug's son Ethan with the Emu


Stephanie and Lily

I brought a bunch of large boxes for
the kids to build a city.

Britney brought crafts for the kids.  You can see they enjoyed being creative

Eli caught a bunch of frogs to show Lila