Yellowstone, day 6

Thursday was pretty uneventful, as Yellowstone goes. We saw some wildlife, had a little rain storm, and hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to see the Lower Falls. This year the road to the parking lot of the Lower Falls was closed for repairs, so really the only good way to see the falls was to hike down. It was a beautiful hike, especially after the rain.


After the hike down, we hung out for a bit in the mist of the falls and from the sky. The hike up was much, much harder, as you can imagine. After we got to the top, the skies opened up and we were treated to a real downpour. I'm glad we didn't get stuck in it on the trail!

Now on to the elaboration of Sean's fire starting skills. Raise of hands: Who knows that fire will ignite gasoline fumes? Everyone? That's what I thought. After starting a small fire in our pit, Sean was dissatisfied with the size. So brilliantly, he decided to go get the gas can. 6 gallons, my friends. Just as he's about to pour the gas on the fire, I pipe up telling him that it will ignite the can. Ha! I was no boyscout, but I do know what's up with fire. Well, on goes the gasoline, and up go the flames. Up to the can. Fire spewing out the nozzle. He tips the gas can over, and now there's fire all over the ground. He grabs a bottle of water off the picnic table, and it only had but a teaspoon of water in it! Finally, after what seemed like hours, He was able to stomp the fire out. But only after a futile yet hilarious attempt of blowing out the flames. Remember the fires of '88? Me too. Now we know not to use a gas can to "motivate" a fire. We should be satisfied with the size of our fire.

Yellowstone, day 5

Water Wednesday!

Wednesday we rented a boat on Yellowstone Lake. Of all the years we've been there, we've never seen Yellowstone from the water. It's a beautiful, if cold, lake, with lots of birds and wildlife and fish. Maggie was the first one in the boat, she loved every minute of it. Emma, not so much. She though for sure the boat would tip over if she so much as moved the wrong way. Gretta fell sound asleep as soon as the life jacket was zipped up. It was a little chilly, but not bad, just right for zooming around.

We have no idea who these girls are. We do know that after hours of driving around on the lake on their day off, suddenly the boat wouldn't start. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they had several "mugs" full of who knows what, and it wasn't the waves making them walk all crazy. As you see, the driver could barely keep her cookies as we towed them to the marina. They all work at Old Faithful as servers and bus girls and the like. I guess they just needed to blow off some steam. Ha ha ha. I guess it gave us the opportunity to do service to others. Lucky us.

Yellowstone, day 4

Tuesday we had to change campgrounds, from Bridge Bay, to Fishing Bridge, just 4 miles up the road. After hooking all the trailer necessities up, Sean decided to ride his bike from Bridge Bay Marina to West Thumb Junction, about 19 miles away. This left us in a sort-of situation. I don't mind driving around with the trailer hooked up, but I'm not great at backing it in to tight camp spots. I can do it, I just don't love it. So, the girls and I decided we'd give Sean a few minutes head start, and catch up with him just before West Thumb. This way, I didn't have to park the trailer, and we could get some good Mom/Daughter time. Well, we ended up catching Sean about 10 miles in to his ride, so we had some time to kill. At this point, I saw a nice pull-out right on the beach, with a little sandbar to keep the water calm. A perfect way to kill some time. Or so I thought.
Welcome to Leach Beach. Emma found a "cute little inchworm" crawling across her hand. When we tried to pull it off, it was firmly stuck. We found one a while later on Maggie's hand that was significantly larger, and full of her blood! When it came off, it left a big glob of blood on her hand! Gross! Surprisingly, my kids didn't freak out too bad. And after a good outdoor shower to make sure all the little suckers were gone, we went on our merry way.

We went on to explore West Thumb that day, and then proceeded on to Fishing Bridge, where we took part in the Ranger Campfire Program about the fires of 1988. After nearly 20 years, and visiting the Park every year since, I can say that this year the growth is the most noticeable. The trees are beautiful, and are just high enough to hide the rest of the barren landscape, making it seem like "normal". I remember the fire of 1988 so clearly. We were water skiing on Jackson Lake that summer, and could see so much smoke even from 100 miles away. I can't believe it's been 19 years. My how time flies.

Yellowstone, day 3

What's this? A what? A buffalo? A bison? What's the difference?

Monday morning we awoke to this. A buffalo, (or buttalow, as Maggie says), in our campground. In our camp site. Well, nearly. It was right next door!

We spent most of Monday sleeping in, and later, driving to Old Faithful.

This is the only photo of actual "Old Faithful", and I'm not really sure who that hoochie mamma is in the background. But Sean was in charge of the camera at this point, so I'm sure we can all speculate what he was really taking pictures of.

We walked all through the Old Faithful Basin to see the various hot pots and geysers. We got a lot of strange looks due to Gretta's helmet situation, and we all got a little bit sunburned. It was over 90 degrees, a heat wave for that neck of the Caldera.

Yellowstone, day 2

Sunday we drove to the park from Jacob and Amy's house. It's only about an hour and a half, so not too far. But the part that takes forever is actually driving through the park. 12 miles can take an hour or more, thanks to Buffalo and Elk jams.


We found our campsite, and to my chagrin, (does that word make sense here?) our next-site-neighbors had 2 German Shepherds, and get this, a Pit Bull! At a CAMPGROUND! Duh. So we had to find a new site, not an easy task when it's full. But luckily the reservations lady understood my plight.

After we hooked up the generators and set out chairs, we took to making S'Mores. Yummy! We also saw a shooting star, and a satellite go by. The girls were having a great time by the fire, and that includes Gretta, who thinks fire is a good friend to chat with.

Sean is a great fire starter. More on that later.

Self Portrait Tuesday

Embrace your Geekness!

Oh, boy, was this easy for me! I'm a geek, through and through. As I wondered what exactly to take a picture of, I was flooded with ideas. Finally, Sean brought Google Earth to my attention. This is my latest geekness. I get sucked in. Bad. So, I thought it fitting to do a picture of me in front of the computer with Google Earth by my side. So geeky.



Other ways in which I am geeky:

1. I wear the same clothes day after day. Really.
2. I was surfing the net in bed on my BlackBerry last night.
3. I enjoy many late night shows on Geology, Space, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, etc.
   
4. For some reason, I remember useless factoids about things. Like the Hoover Dam was built in Black Canyon. And Yellowstone Lake is 600 feet deep, and hides an old steamer ship that is now used for scuba diving adventures. Random crap.
5. I use words like "factoids".
   

So there you have it. Don't judge me.

Missed me?

Sorry to leave you all hanging. A week is a long time to be gone. Yellowstone was a blast, as always, and never disappoints. After seeing that I had taken 143 pictures, I've decided to do an 8 days of Yellowstone tribute, with an overlap for tomorrows SPT, of course. So count today's post for day 1.

A special thanks to Jake and Amy for letting us crash at their pad for a night. They have quite the "little" farm going on up there in Idaho Falls. My kids pretty much walked in the front door, and ran downstairs to play. We didn't see them for the next 6 hours. Excellent. Amy and I had an adventure to Wal-Mart to buy baby Tylenol and trash mags. She's not such a good back seat driver. Left, no right. No, left! Good times. We'll definitely be heading their way again. Amy cooked dinner and breakfast for us, and as you can see on her blog, Sean and I got to scope out their property on the 4-wheeler. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of our nights stay. I just couldn't bear to put the one we took up on the blog. 3 chins isn't flattering for anyone, especially me, and it's my blog!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's day 2, and for SPT, embrace your geekness.

Self Portrait Tuesday

This weeks Self Portrait Tuesday/Thursday:

Yankee Doodle Dandy!

We spent the 4th of July in Sun Valley, Idaho with our friends Rob and Laura. I had never been there, but now, it ranks on top of my list of places to return. It is so beautiful up there. The mountains, the little "downtown" of Sun Valley, even Ketchum was a fun little place.





We rode the ski lift up to see the valley below, and it was worth the 25 minute trip. Despite this picture from the summit, I am not pregnant. I'm not really sure what happened there.


On our way back into the Salt Lake Valley last night, we were able to see fireworks from Brigham City, North Ogden, Weber, Roy, Bountiful, and one that we couldn't really agree on. I thought they were coming from Willard/Farr West area, but Sean was sure it wasn't. Either way, it was cool seeing all the shows. It was like our own little welcome home party.

Party time!

My lovely husband, embracing his "WT". Later that night he observed that he got some sun on his chest and back. He wondered how that happened. I told him it was because he hadn't had a shirt on since noon!

















Here you see him throwing more lighter fluid on an already lighted fire. Hmmm, pyro anyone?















This is my super cool bro. Sorry ladies, he's taken. He's the favorite child. We all know this, and we all understand why. He's our favorite too.












And this is the lady that took him. Kelli with my nephews Eli and Gabe. They had so much fun in the pool, we had to practically throw them out. I think we only had 2 close calls this time, and Eli didn't even seem to mind nearly slipping under water. He's mellow like that.

Zoo Pals!

I have no idea whose butt that is in this shot, and I didn't even notice her at the time. Oops.



Hogle Zoo has come a long way since I was a kid. The train is the same, as is the Giraffe "display", but the Rhinos and Elephants have a whole new habitat thanks to millions of taxpayer dollars.
Emma and Mags on the train. I couldn't believe Maggie went without me. I just didn't feel like unloading a sleeping kid, a diaper bag and a camera all for a 5 minute ride.

Thank you, delay wash.

Flylady, eat your heart out. With a tiny baby taking up most of my mornings, a load a day has turned into a load at 4:00 in the morning that was loaded the night before. Now I can keep up, and not have to worry about stinky, mildewy clothes that have been sitting in water all night long. Genius!

Self Portrait Tuesday

This weeks Self Portrait Tuesday:

Hello!



I am: Keli Clayton
I live: in Utah
I love: my family, friends, laughing, swimming, golf, summer, food, traveling, saying the first thing that pops in my head, anything fun!
I hate: having my picture taken, boring people, politics, watching what I say.
I need: a housekeeper, a cook, better self-esteem, to watch what I say.
I want: a new car, my kids to be happy, summer to last all year, to be more social, to be less judgmental, to always have fun!

That's pretty much me in a nutshell. Enjoy the heavily retouched photo.

Here it is!

Here is the famed helmet. This is going to be G's precious skull candy for the next 3-6 months.

An eye for an eye?

Last week we were excited to see my dad with a new truck. His turn has been passed over a couple of times by other, more pressing vehicle needs. It was about time he upgraded. After all, his old Dodge was over 4 years old and had nearly 30,000 miles on it! The travesty! Sean and I decided to take the new member of the family for a speedy test drive while Poppa stayed and watched the kiddies. We drove out of the neighborhood and started looking around at all the nifty gadgets and gizmos. An MP3 dock, a laptop capable center console, extra cupholders, rogue teeth. Teeth you ask? Yes, I reply. Here, in the cupholder, sits a perfectly good incisor. Well, maybe "perfectly" is a little bit of a stretch, but it's a tooth, nonetheless. What is this, gas costs an arm and a leg, crime is punished with an eye for an eye, and new trucks cost teeth? Remind me to enjoy my old car for a while longer. I'm not ready to give up my teeth. Besides, our tooth fairy pays $5 for teeth, and that's nearly a gallon of gas these days!

So there you have it. The story of the rogue tooth. Hopefully this is the last of the new trucks, I'm not sure the dealership can get much of a return on a rotted out molar.

I've been inspi(red)

After seeing so many cute new crafty ideas out there, and also seeing Grannybabs' new sewing room, I'm thinking of getting myself a sewing machine. I have all sorts of aspirations of quilts, clothes, aprons, and other crafts, and I'm pretty sure Mom-in-law won't appreciate me invading her home every day all summer long. Besides, I think I need to show my girls that an old dog can learn new tricks.

So I'm taking suggestions. Any help will be much appreciated, since I have basically no knowledge of sewing or machines.

Red Butte

Yesterday was spent doing two wonderful things. First, we were able to walk through Red Butte Gardens at the University of Utah, and enjoy all the beauty that is nature. For the record, this was Maggie's personal Hell. She hates nature. Bugs, flowers, plants, wildlife, bees, it all scares the crap out of her. Which is why she is nowhere to be seen in this cute picture of Nunn and her Grandkids in "Granny's Garden". She was hiding next to me to get away from the bees.





The other wonderful thing was very unexpected. As we approached the turn into Red Butte, there were several signs telling us the Indigo Girls concert was sold out. Wow, one of my all time fave bands, and they were here in Salt Lake! Too bad it was sold out. Oh well. Well, as we were walking through the gardens, turns out the Gals themselves were doing their warm-up and sound checks. We got to hear several great IG songs. It was a nice treat to be walking through the lavender fields, listening to great acoustic music, and enjoying it all with my family. Makes me very grateful for the blessings I have.

Okay, okay, no more mushy stuff. We then returned to Nunn and Poppa's house for Rock Creek Pizza and slip and slide action. Good times.

Self Portrait Tuesday

This weeks self portrait Tuesday included having a loved one take a picture of you (or me, in this case), and tell you (me) what they love about it. I've decided to pass on this SPT. Not a surprise for those of you that know me. I hate, hate, hate having my picture taken. I know the camera adds ten pounds, but why does it seem like I must have dozens of cameras on me? Maybe I can scrounge up something I'll actually not be disgusted by and put it up, but it's doubtful. So stay tuned for next weeks SPT. Sorry to disappoint.

Personal DNA

Take your own personal DNA test. Interesting.

Space oddysey

Last night we were privy to a special flyover. The International Space Station made a pass across our night sky at precisely 10:56 PM. The kids thought it was pretty cool to see the bright light zoom across the sky, knowing that there were people aboard. Tonight it will appear again, and if we had a decent telescope, we would be able to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis undock from the Space Station. Neat stuff.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

We love you, and we're so glad you're our dad!


You rock!