First, a report from home, copied from an email from Aunt Sarah:
It occurred to me as I was cutting up the bad apples from your tree that I didn't have any good apples for when the bad ones were gone. And I ate them pretty quick because they were so good and to avoid fruit flies. Plus, I couldn't see going to Christ's yet (which by the way, I printed out their list of apples and harvest times) for apples when I knew you had those golden delicious that were, yes, delicious. So I didn't think you'd mind if I stopped and got some more apples. The first thing when I pulled in was quite obvious . . . Rascal's tetherball hanging from the wire! Then when I took the towels off of the apples, I was met by a swarm of fruit flies. I threw out the rotten one (it was right on top), though there could be another one I didn't see. Then, lo and behold, there was a butterfly in the kitchen down there!! I caught him and freed him outside, hearing you say, "There's a happy butterfly!".
Other than that, all is well at your place. The calves were bellering, but I'm sure their supper is coming soon.
Rascal said to tell you he desperately misses you and he can't understand why you didn't take him too. He would have loved hiking and romping in the water! He licked his chops and started talking about the fish too, but I told him to watch it! When I reminded him about being cooped up in a van for 20 hours, he decided it was OK to stay home.
Another quiet night, Thank You Lord. Another delicious breakfast here, Levi fished early, and everybody pitched in to clean up the cabin and pack up for the day. Our first stop was the local Food N Farm where we got a few groceries, AND GLOVES!!! When I saw them, I didn’t hesitate to buy them, because it had been so COLD the last few days, and I didn’t know what today would be like. As it turned out, we didn’t need them at all, but I’m still glad I got them…just in case.
Our next stop was the beautiful Undine Falls which we viewed from a pulloff as we were driving to our first trailhead.
Next stop: a wonderful hike which took us up up up the side of a mountain to the top of Specimen Ridge which we followed for a couple miles before having a snack and turning around and heading back. The trail continued on for a total of 18 miles, if I remember right, I assume all at the top of the ridge. It was a beautiful hike, but setting out we didn’t realize it was so dangerous – the trail was very very close at times to sheer dropoffs. It was not the best for this Mama’s heart, but God answered our prayers and kept us all safe. AND, we had a wonderful time. And THANKFULLY saw NO BEARS.
FUN on the trail…and notice the short sleeves. It was beautiful and WARM!
Arriving at the top.
Joshua seemed to really like his rides in the carrier.
This isn’t a straight drop-off like it appears; it was a pretty steep slope, though.
Wonderful weather, wonderful views.
Across the canyon is a boardwalk with people on it – we could see someone waving to us!
Why Kids Eat Bugs:
“Hey Mom, watch this! Take a picture, ok? Ready? Look here, Josh, wanna bite? Num num!!”
We were heading to the knoll in the distance for our snack.
Enjoying a snack…
..and the view from the top.
Heading down, very satisfied and thankful for our safe fun hike. Joshua was so good – he just jabbered away in his carrier, cute as a button!
Precious children!
Back down again, we loaded up to find a spot for lunch and another hike. On the way, we saw this wolf along a river. Kind of distant, sure, but hey, a distant wolf is still a wolf.
Heading to the next trailhead.
Lunch was at the Trout Lake Trailhead pulloff…
followed by a fantastic hike with a fantastic view.
We climbed pretty much the entire way.
WELL worth the trip.
Searching for trout.
Got one – kind of!
See the brown smudge a little above the center of the picture? That’s a buffalo…
…the first buffalo we saw without the safety of the van. I used my telephoto to take this, so it’s not nearly as close as it looks, but it’s still close enough for me!
I tried to take a few portrait pictures, and some turned out really good, I thought (for an amateur, anyway), and some not so good.
GREAT HIKE!!
On to a creek stop…a bit of wading, but the water was ICY cold.
Another portrait shot.
Time to head back to the cabin – tired little tot…he was so good all day, such a precious little man.
AND………..A BEAR!
Seeing a huge crowd of people, and cars pulled over, of course we had to pull over too to see what the attraction was. Across the Yellowstone River was a grizzly bear – with 3 park rangers patrolling the site, we couldn’t get very close, but it was still a bear in the wild. How exciting – now our trip is complete; we saw a bear. Again, I took this with my telephoto, so it’s not as close as it looks, but a bear is a bear, right?!
Finally back to the cabin, supper prep, and the kids went to the river in our backyard to fish and play in the sand.
In this picture you can see cabin #1 and #2 in the background – ours is #8 so it’s just out of the picture to the right.
Back to the cabin for supper, Bibletime, beds for littles, dvds for bigs, email for Dad and I, and blogging for me.
That’s it.
No comments:
Post a Comment