First Day of School......Round One

Erin and Ethan started school on Monday.......yes, Ethan is in High School this year! ( I keep getting that question!).......and, yes, Ethan is now taller than Erin.......
Erin was really ready and so excited for school to start. Ethan was excited......not so ready for school to start again. But, they've had a good week so far (knock on wood) and I really hope they enjoy the year! GOOD LUCK, guys!!!!!!!

Cute smile!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE when kids lose their teeth!!! She was so excited to lose this top tooth. We were having ice cream bars for FHE, and when she bit in she started to SCREAM! So, I offered and she finally let me pull her tooth out - hardly a pull, fell into my hand. She looks SO CUTE!!! The other one is pretty ready, too - hanging lopsided, gray, etc. But, even the corn on the cob tonight didn't pull that one.

Our big trip!

Sooooooo........... for our summer vacation this year, we decided to head north.......WAY north! My parents are on a mission for our church at Martin's Cove, Wyoming, so we decided it was the perfect time to go visit and see the sites in the area. We hit 9 states in 11 days. This is how we did it......that trailer hitch thing was GREAT!

First stop: My brother Rick's house in Centerville, UT

We stopped at Walmart in Idaho Falls to get groceries for the next few days, and since we couldn't get into the "cabin" we were staying at until 4:00, we decided to go see the temple. It was under construction, but we thought it was neat because the exhibit in the Visitor's Center was on the Martin/Willy Handcart Pioneers, which was the very reason for the trip.

We had never seen this Temple - it was so beautiful with the Falls

And, who knew that Idaho Falls actually had major falls right in the middle of town? They're so pretty!

Yellowstone!!!

Yellowstone is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!! It was just so cool! We loved it!

Old Faithful!

Lower Falls

Buffalo Stampede - COOL!

Leaving the Park because we kept forgetting every time we went in! I have SO MANY pictures of Yellowstone, so I tried to only grab the most interesting.....

Grand Tetons

After Yellowstone, we drove through the Grand Tetons on the way to Martin's Cove. They were SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! We stopped for lunch on the side of the lake, and then visited a Gift Shop before we had to move on. I was NOT ready to leave these mountains - I could have looked at them all day - just so majestic!

Skipping rocks after lunch....

This is a side view, so it looks different from the traditional view.

4th of July at Martin's Cove

My parents took their P-day (preparation day) on Monday so they could show us around Martin's Cove.

Here we are at the front entrance gate.

....by the pioneer museum....

We wanted to let the kids pull the handcart, but we didn't do the whole thing - too far this time. So, they pulled it across Veil Bridge, and then we walked into Devil's Gate - it's a landmark the pioneers would look for where the river goes between the rock.

After the bridge

.....walking with Oscar! He's kind of a celebrity there. He was the previous owners (of the land) dog, and every summer he walks back to the ranch and goes on the treks with the kids. He usually picks out someone who needs a little extra help and sticks with them. He picked Kelcie when he went with us. I think this dog it really connected somehow to the Spirit because there are so many stories of him protecting the kids on the trek. If you want to read about him, here is a link to a story they did in the Friend magazine: http://lds.org/friend/2009/07/oscar-trail-leader?lang=eng&query=oscar

Devil's Gate

Talin and Kelcie's turn on the way back.

On Veil Bridge, we saw some friends from Medical School that we haven't seen in 9 years!!! I've often wondered about them, and it was so fun to see them!!!!

Oscar with Kelcie and Grandpa

Then, my parents took us up into Martin's Cove - you can really see how it would be a protection in the weather. It's really beautiful up in there and such a special spirit just knowing all that happened there and throughout their whole journey to Salt Lake.

Missionaries at the Cove.

They have a spot where you can cross the Sweetwater River (another pioneer story where 4 men helped the whole party across the icy cold water, and then ended up dying because of their sacrifice), so my dad took those who wanted to in just a little. Talin thought this was great!

Baby robin's in the axel of the Mission Truck - they haven't moved it in weeks so they won't hurt them. Lafe got an awesome picture!

At Fort Seminoe hiding in the TP from the rain - ha, ha!

To complete the experience, we had to visit the Blacksmith shop! He tried to "shoe" Jamie - he, he!

4th of July!

We were pretty excited that we got to spend Independence Day at Independence Rock!!! That's the landmark where all the Pioneers knew if they made it here by July 4th, then they would be fine to make it to Salt Lake before the snows. The Martin Handcart Company didn't even leave Iowa until the end of July.

On the rock - I was sliding.........

Lafe and the kids went around the other side and climbed up to the top!

They had posted a flag for the 4th, which was really neat because it was gone when we drove by the next day. The kids are jumping?

Instead of fireworks, they had a fireside on the correct way to retire a flag - really neat. They had cut it up and did the ceremony for it, and then we burned the pieces. It was a really neat experience.

Mount Rushmore

We headed to South Dakota - when else are you going to be that close to South Dakota??!!? By the way, the Black Hills of South Dakota are just BEAUTIFUL!!! We got there in time to go to Mt. Rushmore to see the night lighting, and it was so worth it! When we first arrived, you couldn't even see the mountain! We just assumed where it was because of the entrance to the park. Then, the cloud moved and we got this beautiful picture.

I love the row of flags with the mountain behind it! The kids loved reading the different states and when they joined the union.

That night, they had a special guest at the lighting - the last known living worker on Mt. Rushmore! It was his 90th birthday!!! Really cool - and fun guy!

Night lighting of the monument. While we were waiting for the lighting, we saw some good friends of ours from Mesa (Adams and Syreks) walk down to find a seat - we had a blast talking to them afterwards! They were doing to same trip, just behind us!

Once again, through the flags.

Here we are the next morning at the park - Literally seconds after this picture was taken, it started to rain.......and rain, and rain, and rain!!!!! So, we went souvenier shopping at the museum and ran with ponchos on our heads to the other store.

It finally stopped raining just long enough for us to do the hike under the monument - it was beautiful! We LOVED Mt. Rushmore!!!!!!!!!!

Chief Crazy Horse

Just south of Mount Rushmore, there is a monument in the making - Chief Crazy Horse. It's going to be HUGE!!! All of Mt. Rushmore can fit inside just the head of this one. So far only the head is done - if you look really hard on the mountain you can see it. The foreground statue is what it is going to look like.

My monkeys on the "Nature Gate" - Every animal you can think of on this gate!