Birthday Week 2016- Part Deux

The second half of birthday week was spent at Disneyland. 

Our last Disney trip was 5 years ago.

 #5 and #6 were so little they did not remember much. Everything was new to them. 

The rest of us were so excited to see their excitement! It was better than Christmas morning.

This trip was awesome. Everyone was tall enough to ride everything, and everyone was old enough to walk (no strollers). We were able to just go go go .

 The rules for this trip were simple:

1. Be flexible and have fun.

2. You have to ride everything at least once.

By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted but still smiling.

Semi "Vacation"

 Last month, we went on a semi-family vacation.

I say semi because my two oldest boys stayed home to work. 

 And when I say vacation, I mean a USU college orientation for #2 that we turned into a vacation.

 We began our "vacation" by spending a few hours playing at Bear Lake.

 It was windy, but the water was surprisingly warm.

 Speaking of the water, it was really high. You can see we didn't have very much beach to play on.

 The wind and lack of beach didn't deter us from having a blast!

The next day, while Clint and #2 attended orientation at USU, I was in charge of entertaining the rest of the children. This was harder than I thought.

We started out swimming as long as we possibly could in the hotel pool. Then we did a little shopping. #5 bought herself a shirt.

 Next we drove to a park to play and eat lunch, but the children were quickly bored.

I tried to talk them into going to the zoo (-who knew Logan had a zoo?). No takers. 

We did however visit the library, and we drove by the student housing I grew up in as a youngster while my dad was completing his doctoral degree.

 Finally after hours of driving around, we headed to campus, where we just happened to arrive during free ice cream time. What Luck! Aggie's Mint was just what we needed.

 After our ice cream we met up with Clint who helped me entertain the kids for another hour while we waited for #2 to finish up. (Thank goodness)

This might have been a fast, non-exciting vacation, but I've learned that it doesn't really matter where you go, what you do, or for how long you go. What really matters is spending time with your family creating memories, and strengthening relationships.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Imagine lying in bed late one night.  You're nice, comfy, and snug as a bug.  You start to drift off into la-la land when you're awaken by the loudest band you've ever heard!  You rush out into the kitchen to investigate expecting to find a burglar, but instead you find that your kitchen sink is missing.  It's now sitting in the cabinet located where your sink use to sit.

I don't have to imagine it because that's exactly what happened to me a few months ago.

We were grabbed some boards and propped up the sink (when I say we, I mean Clint) until we figured out what to do.

We called a bunch of granite companies who wanted way too much moolah (that's Spanish for money) to fix it. So the sink sat, propped up for months until we could fix it ourselves.

Clint's been on vacation this week.  Guess what we did?

(You're so smart!)

We (and when I say we, I really mean it) spent hours chiseling, scraping, filing, and dissolving all the old glue and the caulking, both on the sink and underneath the counter tops.

Then we re-glued it and set it back up into place.

It's been curing most of yesterday and today. Hopefully by tomorrow we will have a working sink again - I really hope so because the dishes are really starting to pile up.

Bear World

Yellowstone 2015- Last day
(Hallelujah!)

One of the funnest things we did on our vacation was actually in Rexburg, Idaho on our way home. 

Seriously, have you ever been to Yellowstone Bear World?

We've had a few people tell us how much fun it is, but I was skeptical.

Never again.  It seriously was a cool, fun, hawt and hot, awesome place.

It's like a mountain safari you take in your own personal vehicle.

You drive along a path surrounded by elk, bison, deer, and BEARS!

Lots and lots of bears -grizzly and black.

 After the safari you park your car and then the real fun begins.

We decided to take what they call the "curator tour".  I call it the "feed the bears tour" cause that's exactly what we did.

They take your photo before, but we could never find anyone to ask if we get emailed a copy or if we purchase it or what- so when I saw it up on this computer, I snapped a photo myself.

 We piled into a tall truck and off we went to mingle with the bears.

 It was so much fun to hold your bread out the truck

 and watch the bears beg and do cute tricks for it.

 Some, like this one, decided we weren't fast enough. She decided to take matters into her own hands.

or mouth!

 

 We picked an extremely hot day for an outdoor expedition.  It was well over 100 degrees!

Here we are cooling off with snow-cones for the fam, ice water for me.

 Once we were cooled down, we ventured into the petting zoo.

 where #4 lulled this deer to sleep

 Clint has a fixation with deer.  We see them all the time around our house, but for some reason each time he spots one it's like he's seeing them for the first time ever!  

He won't admit it but I think he giddy with joy to be able to rub the velvety antlers of this little buck.

 These two had fun trying to catch the peacocks.  They may or may not have gotten scolded by the park staff for doing so.

 

 My favorite part of Bear World?

watching the teeny, tiny, cutesy, wootsie baby bears.

 Aren't they precious.  I was seriously contemplating how I could smuggle one out and take it home with me.

 Bear World also has a handful of small what I would call kiddie rides.  This is my girls on the roller coaster.  I think the total ride time was 45 seconds long.

 There was also a tilt-a-whirl

 a train, which the boys, as big as they are, both had to squish into the locomotive so they could ring the bell.

We were the only ones in this part of the park (probably because it was so hot, no one but us was crazy enough to be outside).  If we hadn't already been there for 2 plus hours and needed to get home sometime that night, we would have spend another hour or two there.

Yellowstone- Day 6

Friday
This was our last full day (Sniff Sniff)

Today was the day to hit all the sights we wanted to see but hadn't yet. 

First stop:  The Mud Volcano area to see our favorite hot spring:

The Dragon's Mouth

It seriously looks and sounds like a dragon could be in this cave. It's pretty awesome.

Our second stop for the day was the Fishing Bridge area. 

image source

Famous for it's long bridge that use to be the stomping ground of many a fisherman.

It's too bad the park no longer allows fishing off of this bridge.

(By the way, how could this many people fish so close together and not get their lines tangled?)

 In Fishing Bridge we visited the Visitor Center then walked down to the beach of Lake Yellowstone. 

Our Third stop was for lunch at Gull Point (again).

We found the best way to keep everyone happy is to have each family member pack his or her own lunch.  This goes on their lap in the car.  This way if they get hungry while we're driving to our next destination, they have something to eat.  This keeps everyone from getting HANGRY!  Which would be a very bad thing when you're spending hours together in the car.

Our Last and Final stop in YNP was to West Thumb.

 This area has a gorgeous view of Yellowstone Lake

 plus many craters.

I think my favorite are the craters in the actual lake!

 Today we spotted our best animal yet.  An Alpha Wolf eating a bison carcass. (Talk about National Geographic!)  When we stopped to view him, we happened to be standing next to a couple who helps track the wolves in the park.  They let us look through their gigantic spotting scope while giving us the history of this particular wolf.  This was the highlight of the trip for most of us. 

We also had a bison/buffalo charge in front of us.  Boy was he mad! I thought Bison were slow until we saw this guy's moves.  Glad we were in the car.

 

Later that night we ate dinner in West Yellowstone, MT and then walked through the 5, 467 gift shops they have looking for the perfect souvenir to take home.

This was also the perfect backdrop for the 1, 567, 988 selfies that this little diva took.  She'd make a good pick-pocket because most of the time, I have no idea how she manages to always have my phone.