All Good Things Must Come to an End...

After three days in Yellowstone, we headed back to Nana and Grandpa's house for days 6 and 7. We arrived back in the afternoon and we spent the afternoon doing various activities: playing cards, taking naps, and fixing water-lines, haha.  Kevin was so cute and asked my Grandpa what projects he needed him to work on. Grandpa mentioned a wheel on his water line that needed fixing, and Kevin was on it.  He just wanted to be outside and to do something, so I was his accomplice.  Dad later joined in on the fun, and the next day Jeffrey and Madi helped as well.

That night, we needed to get the night-crawlers for our fishing adventure the next day.  This is such a lovely part of the whole process, but i did participate in pulling those yucky worms out of the ground.

 Kevin was super excited to learn to fly fish, so Grandpa taught him the basics, and after practicing on the lawn, he was ready for the action.  Let me present fisherman Kevin...

Grandpa didn't do much fishing, but every time he helped me cast into a certain place in the river, I had a bite.  I guess that's what happens when you are good at fishing like my Grandpa.  I allowed the fish to swallow the hook a few times, but Grandpa was always there to cut that hook out.  Made me kinda feel bad for the fishies :(  And the worms for that matter.  Mom assured me that it was okay because that's why Heavenly Father gave us fish.  True, but it was a funny conversation.

Madi caught her first fish ever- we were all very proud!  Mom caught the most fish, but I caught a few trout, and 2 huge suckers that were disgusting.  A bit of a disappointment after you are reeling in the line for what feels like forever because you caught "a big one"!  I literally had bruises on my hip bones from where I was bracing the fishing pole as I cranked that line in.

It was so fun to go fishing with Grandpa, and we all caught at least one fish, so we were happy campers.  Since we weren't sure how the fishing would go, Nana had made a huge turkey dinner for us that night when we returned from fishing.  It felt like a pre-Thanksgiving meal, and was seriously delicious.  The bad news was that we were leaving early the next morning to drive back to SLC to catch our flight, so we didn't get to eat the trout.  The rest of the family enjoyed the spoils.  There is always next time!

Thanks family for a wonderful week.  We loved it and look forward to planning our next family vacation :)

Wyoming Family Trip Days 3-5

This was the first time I had ever been to Yellowstone, and it was beautiful!  The weather was perfect and it was nice to be surrounded by nature, and family of course :)  I will let the pictures do most of the talking, but highlights included Old Faithful, huge bison, beautiful waterfalls, horse-back riding, a stage-coach cook-out, rowboats/motor boats at Lake Yellowstone, a grizzly bear (seen from across the river-don't worry), views of the Grand Tetons, and quality time together.  

Wyoming Family Trip

We just returned from a wonderful week spent as a family in Wyoming.  The caravan picked us up from SLC airport Saturday afternoon, and we headed straight to my grandparents house in Star Valley, Wyoming.  After our 4 hour journey, we arrived.  It was so great driving down the lane and seeing their house.  I have so many wonderful memories of summers spent in Wyoming, and it was great to be back as a family.  I hadn't been there since 2008, and even then, Kevin had to stay in Texas and work.  The visit was long overdue, and the trip did not disappoint.  We spent the first two days at their house, then headed up to Yellowstone.  We took about 3 million pictures, so I will do my best at not bombarding you with every last picture :)   

Days 1 and 2:

I loved these first few days of vacation.  Although we stuck close to home, it was fun just to play games, go a walks, sit on the porch swing, pick raspberries, and pal around with my favorite people :)