Yellowstone Day 1

So I might have skipped a segment of our trip – but I thought I would post some pics.

I woke up to a text telling me to avoid Bear Tooth Gap – due to snow.  Well, we went through Bear Tooth Gap and loved the snow and the view!

Yes, we were cold – about 35 degrees – down as low as 28!

We even saw some Bison – we love seeing them!

Then we visited Mammoth Hot Spring – so cool!

Here is where there was a hot spring that dried up – the pillar was formed from minerals that come to the surface

 

We saw some glorious streams – finally caught a pic at one!

A fantastic day!!

More to come….

Travelling

Day 1 is over, well sort of.

We headed off to Maine today (a couple weeks ago).  We made an orthodontist stop on our way, and when we realized we were early, we changed our hotel plans.  At the time I thought it was a great idea, get 2 hours further today, 2 hours less to drive the next day.

So after rerouting ourselves and driving through Memphis instead of stopping outside Little Rock, we spend 2 hours with the car off on I-40 because of an accident.  But you know what?  It gave us a chance to stretch our legs, read a book, and pray for the first responders and people in the accident.  Being stopped made me thankful that we were fine.

So after checking in about 8pm (instead of 6pm) we were bummed there was no pool, but really there was not much swimming time.  Instead we cooked out dinner (in the instant pot) and enjoyed some tv.

 

Whew.  Day 1 over.  1 Geocache logged.  And we will be ready for day #2 tomorrow and our first official College visit the next day!  yay!!

Bucket Lists

I have seen the bucket lists on Pinterest for years and they scared me.  Maybe it was having little(r) ones and being intimidated – like if I make a list I have to be able to check everything off.  It is a type-A thing, I think.

However, a friend told me that she lets her kids make a small list (5 things) they want to go this summer.  And most have to be free.  SO I handed out 3×5 cards to my kids, asked for 5 things and 3 have to be free.  In no way was I committing to doing them all, but just wanted their input.

I was pretty surprised at their responses.  Geocaching (a favorite we kind of forgot about), state park visit (another goal I was failing with), and hiking (free) – anyway it was the start of a fun bucket list.  Then I saw a few other lists on Pinterests and came up with our own.  I am pretty tickled to have a sort of To Do list to steer our summer, but not bind us to it.

We’ve already done a bunch : fireworks, roller skating, geocache through 8 counties, and a few others.  So far this has been a fun list and not a “must do” list.  There are a few things I should have added (but it is done) – tye dye (happening tomorrow), Steel City Pops (we really need to try these), but oh well – it is done, saved and printed.  So off to do more fun things this summer……

Geocaching Fun

Today we dropped one son off at a Texas Brigade Camp (Bass), and on the way home, we made the most of our time and miles!!  We geocached in 7 different counties, with a total of 10 geocache finds and a few DNFs (did not find) as well.

It was a fun day!!

Non-Traditional Thanksgiving {AKA Redneck Thanksgiving}

Yes, you read that right.  We enjoyed a Non-Traditional Thanksgiving this year – Redneck Style.

Since we did the turkey and sides on Tuesday with the whole family, we were thrilled to accept the invitation for Taco Salad and Guns for today!!  Robert was working, so he did not join us.  Jacob was dropped at the airport earlier this morning on his way to DC.

So the rest of us headed to the Cook Corral for some fun!

I admit, dropping my boy off at the airport, to go with 28 strangers to DC was kind of hard.  He was extremely anxious about going with people he has never met, flying without any family, and the whole idea of this trip.  His anxiety caused me to almost lose it as I was already anxious about his going too!  But I kept things under wraps, dropped him off, and headed to Larue for some food, friends and guns.

You know you are at the Redneck Thanksgiving when you spy this:

You had your pick of rifle or pistol depending on which range was open

 

There was lots of fun had!!  The guys shot skeet, pistols and a few other rifles.  Daddies helped the younger ones.

This was Peter’s pistol shooting – 100%

Can you see all the shells on the ground?  This is when the younger men arrived (aka teenagers) they sure had some fun!  The clays had no chance against these guys!

So much to be thankful for, friends, their family, and then a gorgeous sunset.

It was a good day!

{I cannot believe I did not take a single picture of food! We loved our easy Build Your Own Taco Salad bar}